Third attempt -- success.

It's been a while since I last tried to bake bread -- it's mostly because my boyfriend's sister moved out and took the measuring cups and spoons (they were hers) and I haven't replaced them yet. I still haven't, but today I decided to measure the ingredients with what I had. I still used the recipe for the basic loaf provided in TFL's Lesson #1. First, I checked to see what the average weight of flour is (I have a kitchen scale). The first site I came across, Artisan Bread Baking, said this:

A cup of flour defies all logic. A recipe may call for 6 cups of flour, or 4 1/2 cups of flour, or some other number of cups of flour without telling anyone what they mean. The truth is that a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 4 ounces to 8 ounces, depending on how it’s packed and what kind of flour it is. As a result, the baker is left in the dark as to what he should do. Here’s what I do: Forget cups and do everything by weight. I’ve gone a step further and now use the metric system as much as possible. Whenever I start a recipe that specifies flour in cups, I assume that a cup of flour weighs 4.5 ounces or 127 grams. If I have an idea of what the hydration of the dough should be, I make any corrections to my assumption. All in all, I’ve found that 4 1/2 ounces is a good starting point for a cup of flour. When I get the recipe where it works for me, I note the metric weight units and go with them the next time I make that recipe.

I saw on another site that they estimate a cup of flour to be 4 - 4.5 oz, so I figured I'd try starting in the middle with 4.25 oz and since the recipe calls for 3 cups, I used 12.75 oz of flour.

Next, I found a teaspoon my boyfriend's sister I left behind (she forgot about it in the dishwasher, mwahaha; also, I have bouillon spoons and I wasn't sure if it'd be about the same amount) and measured the salt and yeast with that. At this point, I was looking at a bread recipe on a blog and I think I mixed up the measurements with the ones here on TFL. I should've used another teaspoon of yeast and salt, but my loaf still came out good. The holes weren't very big, but at least there were holes and it wasn't packed together. I expect it'll be better if I had used 2 tsp.

Lastly, fortunately, I did replace the liquid measuring cup, so I had something to measure the water with. However, I found that I had to keep adding flour while kneading because it was too sticky and it was just all over my hand. It took a bit of flour to make it stop sticking to the counter. Next time, maybe I'll increase the flour to ~14 oz or reduce the amount of water.

I did a few things different this time. Instead of just baking it on a sheet, I used a loaf pan. I was inspired to do it in a loaf pan because I saw a video tutorial on shaping sandwich bread on the forums. I wasn't sure if the temperature and time would be different than what was in Lesson 1, which was 45 minutes at 375o, so I looked up a sandwich bread recipe I had favorited (to try later) and it said to do 375º for 55 minutes. I did it and my bread came out great and on second thought, I think I will try it for 45 minutes next time. Although it was nice and crusty, it was perhaps a little harder than I wanted. Like I said, not many holes, but I'll try to fix that on my next try (probably in a week or something; sometime I after finish eating this loaf). Another thing I did differently was that I had a pan of water underneath, so I could steam it. I think the last thing that was different (than my second loaf at least) was that I picked up a new bag of unbleached AP flour.

And now, some images of my "masterpiece." ^_^

Cut after it cooled down. I had a few slices with a butter spread. I'll be trying it with tuna or chicken salad tomorrow for lunch.

After my first two failures, I felt good after this one. I can't wait to try the next one and also to try a different recipe.

Update: 03/28/2012 - I finally bought some measuring cups and spoons! I had some open tuna that I needed to use up ASAP, so I caved and bought a loaf of sandwich bread to hold me over -- plus without the measuring spoons and cups, I felt like I would be wasting money if I didn't get as lucky as I did with this loaf, so I put it off until I could replace them. Once this loaf is gone, I will be back to practicing baking my own bread!