I got carried away trying to write this and make it all about how I'm baking more and how it's a very healthy, grounding thing for me, but I'm too tired for all that. I just want to show off my bread.

My 2001-vintage KitchenAid stand mixer broke two weeks ago while kneading bread dough, and even though it was out of warranty, KitchenAid sent me a brand new model of the same capacity free to make it right. (I send the old one back to them next week on their nickel.) I knew it would arrive today, so last night, I made a sponge for a two-loaf 100% whole wheat bread recipe I've been using. The sponge is 25% of the recipe's flour, about 40% of the water, about 33% of the salt, and just a tiny sprinkling of yeast, mixed together and left to ferment at room temperature for 8-14 hours.

When the new mixer arrived, I washed all the parts and put the rest of the recipe's ingredients in the bowl and started the dough hook. The new mixers have this "spiral" dough hook that, for my money, works a lot better than the old one - the dough didn't climb up the hook and stop kneading now. The mixer also purred along gracefully, with its base never moving. I added the sponge to the new ingredients, kneaded it for well over 15 minutes until I got a good windowpane from the dough, and then set it in a closed container to rise.

About 90 minutes later, when it should have easily doubled, it had only risen about 25%. I puzzled and I thought and I pondered, and then I realized: I hadn't added yeast to the dough. I forgot it in a rush of things that were going on. The dough was rising because of the tiny amount of yeast from the sponge, but it would take 12-18 hours before it finished its first rise at that rate. I feared it would just be too sour by then.

But rather than throw it out, I decided to try fixing it. I took 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/3 cup of warm water, mixed them together in the mixer's bowl with a whisk, and added the full two teaspoons of yeast I should have added before, making almost a slurry. (I added 1/8 teaspoon of Vitamin C, too, because yeasties love it.) When it was all dissolved, I put the non-rising dough back into the bowl with the slurry, cutting into it with a spatula so it wasn't one giant water-resistant ball, and started kneading it again. The slurry was too loose to mix with the dough, and that's when I realized that the recipe has much more flour than water in it. I added another third of a cup of flour while the mixer kneaded, and slowly but surely, the dough took up all of the new material. It was loose and sticky at first, but after about five more minutes of persistent kneading, I had one solid ball of good, strong dough with a good windowpane.

It rose like a champ in the normal amount of time, did just fine on its second rise, and seemed even easier to shape than other times I'd baked. I used steam in the oven this time to help with ovenspring (the moist environment keeps the crust from forming too fast, before the loaf has risen as high as it can), and these are the results. These two loaves from today are probably the best-looking ones I've made yet. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Not only did I make them from broken dough, I fixed it all by myself. I was very proud of me. Next challenge: multi-grain bread!