Hello from Hawaii

Hello from Hawaii. I just recently took up baking (not counting brownie mix in a box). So far I'm 3 loaves of bread and one pan of cinimon rolls in. I wish I had taken pictures.

I came across this website after my first attempt. I was looking for better info site. My first set of bread turned out well enough, but I was just following ingredients and some poorly written instructions.

My second attempt came from the lessons on this website. It turned out excellent. It was a simple loaf of bread with a twist. I didn't have any regular milk so I used soy milk. It was excellent. It didn't have any kind of strong soy taste and the bread stayed soft for as long as the loaf lasted. I also gave it an egg glaze which make the top a wonderful brown blistery texture which tasted fantastic. I also brushed the top with butter as soon as I pulled it out of the oven.

Lastly were the cinimon rolls (recipe from here) I made last night. They are all gone now, but it was a near disaster. The dough did not rise at all (at first). I think I let the milk cool too much so the yeast did not activate. I did a frantic web search and found some recommendations to put the dough in a warm oven. After that, it rose a little. I pulled out the dough, rolled it into a square, put the sugar and raisins in, rolled it, cut it and dropped them in the pan. I packed them a little too tight. The second round in a warm oven to raise and they poofed up like crazy. But, they were packed to tight so I think it made the dough a little dense? Could that be the cause? Anyway, they were very soft and tasty, but just not very light. But, there gone now, so you can tell how much people cared about that last part.

I look forward to hanging out here for a while and trying to get better. I'm moving soon to a place with a nice new kitchen thats bigger and looks more comfortable to work in. Hopefully that will pave the way to some fine bread. I'll try to blog and post pictures. I hope to get some excellent feedback so I can improve.

Thanks.