Bread

A word of wisdom: do not attempt a bread recipe on a weeknight, unless you're a night owl and don't intend on getting much sleep.

My husband adores brioche (which is hard to find here and no, Challah isn't brioche) so I wanted to try Julia Child's recipe for the buttery bread.  All was going well until the first rise...."what?!? it's 7 hours long?" were my thoughts after I placed the dough in the bowl and turned the page in the recipe book. Since I started around 6:00 pm this would mean that I would need to let it rise until 1:00 a.m. and then prepare it for a second rise.  So, I decided to let it rise and rise and rise until I awoke the next day at 6:45.  Apparently between the 7th and 12th hour the dough gave up and began deflating. 

I attempted to save it but it was no use. It just left the oven and although it smells lovely and tastes fine, the texture is a bit like a dense cake instead of a buttery bread.

Lessons learned?
1) Read the entire recipe FIRST.
2) Don't start a bread recipe on a weeknight.