Our neighbor brought us a dozen fresh brown eggs. I decided to make some lovely egg bread (braided, prettified with seeds on top) as a thank-you. But due to Unforeseen Circumstances (tm) I didn't get to it until yesterday afternoon. Cleared the counter, washed it down, the usual prep for breadmaking. Got out the recipe, which I hadn't made in awhile (it calls for quantities of milk, butter, and eggs) and set to. Zipping merrily along, but interrupted by a phone call, I ....managed to leave the eggs out. I did think, at one stage, that it wasn't taking its full complement of flour (should have been a signal that not all the liquid was in, right? But I had other problems to think of...) and it was not until I had it through the kneading and into the greased bowl for first rising that it dawned on me...no eggs had been broken in the making of this bread.
I looked at the smooth, round, ready-to-rise mound of bread dough and quietly said a number of words, because at that point you can work salt into a dough, but eggs? No. Or I wouldn't. So out to the utility room it went (hot room, no AC) to sit on top of the washer and rise. Obviously, it wasn't the right bread to give our neighbor. I wondered what it would be like, in fact. Brought it in, punched it down, divided it, and made two round loaves instead of two braided loaves. Slashed the tops before baking, shoved it in, and hoped for the best.
And got two lovely, rich, incredibly tasty white bread loaves. So what you get if you leave the eggs out of that recipe is...really good bread. A lot richer than what I usually make (more sugar, butter instead of vegetable shortening and more of it per loaf) but a lovely velvety texture and a good firm crust. Would've been even better if I hadn't decided against an egg-wash over the top. (I reserve that for breads that already have egg in them, usually.
I know there are people for whom bread just refuses to "make", but I've found bread incredibly forgiving of my (many) mistakes.