Flashes of Panic

My breadmaker won’t knead. Actually, it will; it does fine with small loads, like my pizza dough. But if I give it a full-sized loaf it quits turning the paddle. I can hear the gears turning inside, but something’s slipping somewhere under the resistance of the dough.

This is frustrating for several reasons. One, I got up this morning planning to put a loaf in and then go out and run; instead, I wasted an hour trying to get the dough to knead, and wound up cutting my run short and buying a loaf of bread at the Foodmaster on the way home. Two, I wind up taking perfectly good and useful ingredients and turning them into a useless lump of not-bread; I’ve done this a few times now, before I figured out how bad the situation was.

Three, I’m frustrated that somewhere, we made a decision to dedicate resources (plastic, metal, electronics, cash) to a very specialized piece of machinery which doesn’t last beyond three years of use. This is a big hunk of appliance; my choices now are to open it up and try to fix it myself (a questionable proposition, but one I’m toying with,) put it on Freecycle looking for someone else to fix it (probably the safest route,) or just throw it out (an idea which makes me cringe: what a waste!) Why couldn’t we make something more durable?

Certainly replacing it with yet another bread machine seems like a bad bet. I really need to retrieve my loaf pan from Amherst and make my bread a more old-fashioned way. (Or make my week’s bread while in Amherst.)

Now Playing: Dan Takes Five from In the Land of Salvation and Sin by The Georgia Satellites

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