Cucumber Dill Bread

You may know by now that I am a big fan of fancy food and interesting recipes, but sometimes you just want something simple and tasty and nice for dinner.

So I spread some cream cheese on some cucumber dill bread, and put smoked salmon on top of that, with just a sprinkle of dill.  Not pictured - the piece of salmon that has about 2 whole tablespoons of dill on it because I forgot my dried dill doesn't have a shaker top before sprinkling.  headdesk

Make bread!

3/4 cup peeled and shredded cucumber (this is essentially 1 cucumber)
1/3 cup sour cream (drain any extra water that has separated out)
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dried dill (or 2 tsp fresh dill, snipped)
1 tsp active dry yeast

 *between 1 tbsp and 1/4 cup water  (I'll explain shortly)

 Add all ingredients to the machine in the order listed except the water.  In shredding the cucumber, you may have noticed that it has lots of water in it already.  The original recipe called for me to drain all cucumber liquid and to add 1/2 cup of water, but I would much rather keep the fresh flavorful water that just came from the fresh cucumber!  Why would I replace that with unflavored boring water?

OK!  I'm getting distracted.  You've added your ingredients, yes?  Turn on your basic white cycle for the 1.5 lb loaf, and WAIT.  Wait until it all starts to mix together, with your extra water nearby, and wait to see what it needs from you.  If the dough stays dry and won't stick to itself, won't make a nice smooth ball (which it probably won't, unless that cucumber was packing a lot of water), slowly add water, a tablespoon at a time, until you get the right texture.  Try not to get overambitious and add a whole bunch of water at once, that's how I ended up with a soggy, doughy loaf the first time around.

Now wait some more  - wait for your bread to bake, and enjoy!