Bread Attempt #3: A short, fat failure!

My Jovial brand einkorn wheat came yesterday so I was excited to try to make bread with it today.  After going bowling with my 3 year old's preschool class I was pretty tired (and that was just from watching!) but I mustered up enough strength to give it a shot.

Unfortunately the bag of flour was a lot smaller than I had hoped it was.

Because it is called a "sandwich loaf" I was really hoping this would be the recipe that would replace our store bought bread that we use to make...sandwiches!

I combined 4 cups of flour with 1 tsp of salt in one mixing bowl

In a smaller bowl I dissolved 2 teaspoons of Fleischmann's active dry yeast and 1 tbsp of honey in 1 cup of warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Note:  Before really double-checking the recipe I had combined the honey and water with 2 TABLESPOONS instead of 2 TEASPOONS of yeast and this is what happened:

Nice head on that eh?  I ended up throwing it outside because I was afraid to pour it down the drain!

After the 5 minutes I stirred the liquid into the flour and kneaded it inside the bowl until it was to the point where I could knead it on the counter top.  It looked really nice, smooth, and much less sticky than the last try:

I let it rise in a greased bowl with a plastic bag on top since I only own 2 boxes of wax paper and 2 boxes of aluminum foil.  That's a head scratcher. 

Once it had risen for an hour I punched it down.  That step was NOT in the recipe but I had read to do that in other recipes so I just did it.  Probably this was my first real mistake.  After kneading it again for a few minutes I tried to shape it into a loaf.  That didn't work out so well.  I put it in the greased metal 8x4 pan and let it rise for 30 more minutes.  It did not rise very high this time.  Uh-oh.

The recipe called to bake it at 375 for 35-40min.  I checked it at 35 minutes and it seemed overcooked.  I took it out and it smelled like it had been about to burn!  

I took it out of the pan and placed it on the cooling rack.

I let it cool for an hour and then I went and cut a piece.  It was like corn bread texture.  Thick, dense, a little crumbly but not too bad.  Tasted great with butter on it.  BUT NOT A REAL LOAF OF BREAD like I have been envisioning!  I want bread I can use for sandwiches dangit!

My father has a Kitchen Aid that has a kneading attachment and he has a convection oven so I'm going to probably take my ingredients over there the next time I attempt this.  

Back to the flouring board.