Baking bread

When I was fourteen my sister and I got interested in baking bread. It happened when we bought a copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook, which had a whole chapter of bread recipes.  We made stuff like pumpernickel rye bread and raisin bread and corn bread.

I got interested in baking again in my mid-30s after we bought a bread machine.  I have a cyclical system to ensure variety, since baking can get boring sooner than you expect.  I try to bake once a week, with a cycle of twelve loaves.  The first, fifth and ninth are whole bread (which has the nicest smell while it's baking); the third, seventh and eleventh are multigrain bread; the second and eighth are raisin bread (my sister's favourite); the sixth and twelfth are rye bread (actually a combination of rye flour with white and whole wheat); the tenth is cheese bread; and the fourth is plain white bread.  I like to use honey and molasses to make whole wheat, multigrain and rye.  It's a challenge balancing the amount of flour with the amount of water so the loaf will be big, but not big enough to crowd the skylight on top of the mini-oven. (More flour makes it smaller, more water makes it bigger.)