Four Loaves of Bread

As mentioned previously, when Marisa came to the United States, she gifted us a really special, handwritten recipe book with her favorite recipes from her family (as well as information about her family/friends).

One of the recipes was for their homemade bread (that they make at home multiple times a week!).  It is truly delicious, and over the course of the year we have gotten lazy and have not made it as often as we should (how American!).

When we have made it, it's interesting to note that Marisa says it tastes sweeter here (because hello, even our flour and other basic baking ingredients probably have some amount of sugar in them).  But despite that, it's still delicious.

One night, I thought I would be "smart" and surprise Marisa by making a double batch of the bread because she/we go through one loaf pretty fast and it would last longer and we wouldn't have to make it again so soon (probably also another "how American" line of thinking).

To give a bit of context, when she wrote this recipe book, she did a really nice thing by trying to convert it.  Each recipe is her original and then she has a converted version of it.  But - she did not know that we do not typically measure by ounces or grams when she made it.  So - the conversions may be a bit wonky.  

I tried my best to follow the conversions while doubling the recipe, but in my head, I knew something wasn't right.  I deducted that my doubling the amount of her converted flour was actually quadrupling it.

So - I rallied and modified the other ingredients to be in line with a quadrupled recipe instead of a doubled recipe.

She came up in the midst of this and we had a good laugh - she helped me finish baking the FOUR loaves of bread I did not intend to make.

They did end up tasting great, but sadly they spoiled before we could get to them.

So - lessons learned here:

- DOUBLE and TRIPLE check the conversions before making anything

- Put the extra loaves in the freezer so they don't go to waste

- Make homemade bread more often and savor it

- Know that even if we make homemade bread more often, it will still not be as healthy and wholesome as it would be in Europe because our ingredients are not as pure (Note - all of our gluten allergies/intolerances here that you just don't find over there).  Are we seeing a theme yet with food and health?  Marisa's family eats bread literally every day, and sometimes it's their entire meal.  Americans think that is bad and unhealthy (because our bread is bad and unhealthy).

I solemnly swear to make more of this bread before she leaves, as well as making it for my family semi-regularly after she leaves.