FULL DISCLOSURE: I did not do this week’s Martha Monday’s challenge. My mum did it instead.
Mum was at a loose end on Friday and so I said ‘why not make the Martha Monday’s project’ and she got right on and did it. Took photos and everything. This was Ana’s pick and she chose Rosemary Bread.
Now my mum is very keen to find out what everyone else thought, as we weren’t that keen and mum is wondering if she did something wrong. But like I have told her, some recipes just don’t work out (and truth be told, I sort of have my fingers crossed that someone else found it a bit cakey too).
So mum said: “I was looking forward to it I must say and reading the recipe it seemed quite easy to follow but I was surprised that the bread didn’t need to be kneaded and I think this may have resulted in us not liking the bread.”
To be fair, we did eat one of the two loaves but threw the other one away, we all thought it was a bit cakey – but looking at the photo in the recipe they look pretty much the same. So, not a recipe we will do again (unless everyone says that it was great and then we might give it another go – together)!
~ Pru and Julie
Perfecting Pru 
I find that almost any bread I make at home is just not as good as bread I buy, so in that sense I agree with your mum. The bread that I make that is the best is challah, maybe because it is a moister bread by nature. I’ve just grown used to home made bread not having the same texture as store bread. I don’t think your mum did anything wrong. And how nice that she got to participate! I just read an article in the paper that said that studies show women in their 40s and 50s often have their closest relationship (person they talk to most) with their daughters. It sounds like you and your mum have a nice relationship (totally off-topic here, aren’t I? It struck home though since my daughter is now 20 and I just adore her).
I think you are right about homemade bread never being the same as shop bought. I wonder if we had thought it would be more like ciabatta and that is why we weren’t so happy.
Your mom did a fantastic job! I wish my mom and I lived close enough to do stuff like this together. We liked the bread at first when it was still really hot. I can never wait until bread cools to start eating it. But the next day we did notice it was a strange texture. Kind of like pound cake. And the crust was not at all crunchy like one would expect from a baguette shaped bread. Oh well.