Bread Class #1 - 60 Minute Rolls

We (myself and a coworker - Lora) arrived promptly at 7:00 p.m. for our first bread class. Several minutes of small talk ensued. And of course, we all played a good game of dutch bingo. Turns out, we're all second cousins. No we're not. I'm kidding. They passed out aprons and we all wore little name tags. Each of us took our place in front of the supplied white plastic mixing bowls. And then approximately 8 students and 2 teachers embarked on our lesson - 60 minute rolls. There isn't so much of an instruction time as there is a here's-the-recipe-now-go-to-it time. So there we stood, measuring ingredients, pouring substances into our bowl, mixing away, and then...THEN...came the kneading. Still no lesson on how to knead so I just faked it and went to it as though I had done it 100 times. So there I stood kneading away. Pretty soon we were shaping and kneading little tiny balls of dough and placing them in the pan. About halfway through one of the teachers accused me of being some kind of bread genius. She didn't believe that "it was my first time" and many of the ladies marveled at my perfectly proportionate little balls of dough. Ah, gee, thanks! What they don't know is my obsessive compulsiveness would never allow me to not have perfectly proportionate buns. Go ahead and laugh - you know you want to. And then it was time to let them rise. I was tempted to break out in song "Let It Rise", but I figured that could quite possibly weird out the other ladies so I refrained from the refrain. While we waited for the bread to rise, these awesome teachers we had (Karen and Joyce) decided for coffee time (yes, coffee time) we would eat next class' lesson. While we munched happily on oatmeal bread, Karen read a neat little devotional. After some more munching and some more visiting, it was time to bake the bread. Like little children we stood by the oven and watched as our bread rose to full potential and then turned a lovely golden brown. When the rolls came out of the oven we slathered on a nice layer of melted butter. And then came the best part, we got to take all 12 rolls home with us and indulge. Oh did we indulge. Hubby, to his credit, did a marvelous job over-stating my accomplishments as he attempted to oh and ah as he ate. It made me oddly happy. My first bread class was a raging success. I really enjoyed myself. I enjoyed meeting new people. I even enjoyed displaying bits of my very own sarcastic weird humor. But more than anything I thoroughly enjoyed my delicious 60 minute rolls. Yum.