Monday was an Ice Day for us. On Sunday afternoon, as ice began to pour down from the sky, I had a thought.
The thought? “If tomorrow is an Ice Day, I shall bake bread.”
I’m not sure what ice and bread have to do with one another, but it’s what happened.
I have had visions of being the mom who bakes fresh, homemade bread on a semi-daily basis. I’m pretty sure that the vision also had inset images of me planting the wheat and harvesting it and grinding it and such.
And being completely unaffected weight-wise by all this delicious slathered-in-butter hot, fresh bread.
Alas, other than the occasional bout of breakfast pocket freezer cooking, and the yearly tradition of rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, it hasn’t happened.
I don’t know that I had ever (before Monday) baked a plain-old loaf of bread.
And I’ve definitely never harvested wheat. Not even a little bit.
But recently, I randomly noticed a jar of yeast in my baking cabinet.
So Monday, I decided to get “that” jar of yeast out and get to work.
And that was when I realized that I didn’t have a jar of yeast. I had three. And all three were expired.
The most-recently-expired one . . . expired almost a year ago.
Oops.
I guess I’ve had these bursts of bread-baking energy before. But the last one was a rather long time ago.
Obviously.
I was pleasantly surprised when the yeast got all bubbly like it is supposed to. I then proceeded to use the past-its-expiration-date-by-almost-a-year yeast to make some very lovely homemade bread which was a huge hit with the whole family.
I threw the other two jars of yeast away. I debated with myself over testing them, but decided against it. The jar I kept has enough in it for at least four more bread-baking sessions, which will likely last me until that jar is two-years-expired.
And that’s if I suddenly start baking bread (or breakfast pockets, or whatever) four times as often as I have in the past more-than-a-year.
I’m hopeful, but not convinced.
This post cracked me up. On another note: your bread look absolutely delish!!
Thank you! And it was!
That’s great! Can you share your recipe?
It’s the “bread recipe” from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.
Thanks!
This is what I did Monday! I also had to check my out of date yeast… it had expired in February 2011 so was even older than yours. LOL I checked and it was dead. However I did find more in the freezer and it was old, but worked. 🙂
I buy flour once every couple of years. I use it once or twice and then throw it out the next time I want to bake because I’m sure it’s bad by then so I buy fresh.
I resemble this post! 🙂
….and of course you churned your own butter right? RIGHT! Your bread does look good though.
Ha! You make me feel better about the cakes I just made for tomorrow’s bake sale at school with year-long expired baking powder … still sealed in the box. First time I’ve baked for the bake sale in three years. Truly our aspirations and reality are some distance apart! (Cakes worked, though!)
Experienced the same ice and decided to make bread and pizza dough. What else would you do with the hours stuck inside? Clean? Naw, I’ll add to the mess.
Store your yeast in the freezer and you’ll never have to worry about an expiration date again. (This works for flour too, Kirra.) I freeze many things I buy in bulk — nuts, butter, coconut flakes, seseme and poppy seeds — anything that contains oil because that is what goes rancid.
I do bake bread on a semi weekly basis, and it’s delicious 🙂 When you do that, you buy yeast by the pound. And ice and bread are deeply related. I’ve baked more bread this year than ever (maybe I’m subconsciously trying to pack enough weight on us to survive the cold?) Anyway, I just wanted to say that you made me smile, and I’m so happy your yeast was still good.
You should check out the book “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day”. If awesome bread can be life changing, this book changed me life!
I’ve looked at that book, but the daily part scares me!
Looking at the picture of your bread, I could literally smell it. My bread machine used to be my favorite small appliance, but most gluten-free bread recipes suck, so it hasn’t gotten much use for a while … meaning I, too, have recently thrown away a long-expired jar of yeast. I did, however, replace it last week. And as soon as I locate two more kinds of flour, I’m giving it another shot. If it turns out as well as promised, I won’t just be making bread semi-regularly, I’ll probably be baking it daily for a month. 🙂
I’d probably need to be hauled around with a two-wheeled cart, but for month? Yeah. It would be worth it. 😀
Just a thought; yeast at the grocery store is really expensive compared to yeast at a health food/ natural food store. I am able to get it much cheaper there. I also buy all my herbs and spices there because it is cheaper, and when in need some weird spice I can buy just what I need instead of a $4 jar.
I learned to bake as a child and have gotten better at it with practice. I sometimes get bread baked once a week. Thanks to your blog I have been baking more because I have finally managed to truly clean the kitchen. 🙂
I was baking bread fairly often but my cat kept getting into it. She would tear through saran wrap, foil and even managed to pop the lid on tupperware. She only goes after homemade bread and she’s too wily for her own good. I tried storing the last rolls I made in a ceramic cookie jar and caught her trying to push it off the counter. She would love your bread. It looks delicious!