"Now that our days, our weeks and our weekends have a fairly predictable schedule" I said, "I would very much like to carve out time on the weekends for making bread."
"Oh," he replied, "I'd like that very much too."
See? I told him he'd come out good on this one.
To my core I really am a simple country girl. And as I get more years behind me I find that I'm looking at my life from a different angle. I want to keep things simple. Uncluttered. Un-messed around with.
Watching my son crawl around I realized that he was inches away from whatever chemicals I had used to clean the floor. So I started researching people friendly products. When he started eating solid foods I looked at what went into the baby food jars and how much a two ounce jar of smooshed bananas cost--freaked--and started making my own baby food. It was just a natural progression to start purchasing less processed, more natural and organic foods and products. And I discovered that I throughly enjoyed the bread making process. However, barely having a chance to finish a sentence, let alone bake bread, for the past three years it has sort of been reduced to a "holiday only" baking hobby.
Last Saturday as I took the time to coax flour, yeast and water into something light and airy I realized how much I missed it. I missed the entire process. The metamorphosis of dry dormant yeast into fragrant bubbly froth. The transformation of lifeless, sticky dough into soft, pliable future bread. The therapeutic rhythm of kneading. The dangerous possibility that something just might explode this time. Yes, it's time consuming and it takes careful planning around nap times. But fresh bread for supper and for the next couple of days was well worth the frustration of a baby not taking her usual three hour nap.
Which brings us to today. All along it was going to be a long, tiring day. Yet I really wanted to keep with this plan of making bread. I recalled a recipe from one of my bread books that made use of a bread starter. I've attempted starters in the past with disastrously explosive results...apparently one is not supposed to close the lid on the starter jar prior to the starter cresting--they should write that down. So while I was a little leery to attempt a starter again this one was a simple overnight process. I decided to live dangerously and give it a try.
When the little ones and I walked in the door from Angel Food distribution this afternoon not only was there was a bowl of non-explosive fermenting yeast paste waiting to be transformed into loaves of bread, but the heady, sweet smell of yeast permeating the house welcomed us home.
Kyleigh napped. Jacob went to the gun show with his dad. And, in quiet solitude, I baked.
Using the starter method eliminated the time consumption issue.
40 minutes to double in size. 10 minutes to knead into a soft dough. 15 minutes to proof. 35 minutes to bake. 
Bread making on a time schedule this life of mine can handle. Not only was it delicious, but I know each and every ingredient that went into it and into the ones that consumed it. Yeast. Flour. Water. Simple indeed.
4 comments:
breadmaking is one of the purest homemaking pleasures I know. Forget a bread machine, kneading is therapeutic, cathertic even. send me your starter directions, please :) so I can try it out
OH YUM! It looks wonderful! I use my bread baking machine every now and again but then I use a premade bread mixture to put into it. :-(
Cookies from scratch, yes! Cake from scratch yes as well! But bread? Doesn't hold quite the same fascination. I LOVE to eat it though, slathered with butter. :-)
I broke down and bought the Bread in 5 minutes a day cookbook, but haven't started yet. Basically though, I mix a week's worth of dough, let it rise, then it all goes into the fridge and I pull off a pound a day for that day's bread. Second rise, then homemade bread in less than an hour. The flavors improve as the dough waits in the fridge, like a starter would.
And I haven't tried it because if I get any pudgier I'll have to shoot myself. :)
But I could send you more info if you'd like.
Peace out... we're running the log splitter today. Guess which of us is running the power tool and which of us is carting loads of wood back and forth?
Once upon a time a million years ago, when Dear Hubby and I first married and before the babies arrived, I used to bake most of our bread. I think if I still did I'd probably weigh about 1000 pounds by now, ha! Yours looks simply scrumptious, Dori!
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