I would consider myself a good cook, but I don’t hold the same title in baking. The reason why I like to cook is because you can experiment, you don’t have to go by the recipe exactly, and you really don’t have to measure anything. But during this time of uncertainty I am finding myself craving to bake! It must be a comfort thing – both the making and the eating kind of comfort. I’ve baked cookies with just three ingredients with my four-year-old son and I’ve made buns the cheating way with frozen bread dough. So, baby steps to say the least.
But this weekend I tackled making bread from scratch. This was way out of my comfort zone, but I had received a standing mixer from my husband this past Christmas and I had already purchased yeast packets and bread flour prior to being confined to my house – so what the heck! Wow, this was cathartic! A bit tedious; but there was something about kneading dough that I needed!
Maybe it was because it made me think of my Grandma who recently passed away. My Grandma’s generation didn’t always have the luxury to buy bread from the store. Baking bread and overnight buns were essential duties. I have always thought of my Grandma raising a family in a time that she did with respect and awe, but now more than ever. And now I find myself in some of the same predicaments she would have been in, in her time as a mother. I mean let’s get real; I am not going out back and milking a cow, but I am trying to not waste anything! I am saving the crusts from bread my kids won’t eat to make breadcrumbs for a dish later in the week. I am using my sons’ milk from their cereal they didn’t finish for coffee creamer for goodness sake! So, as I was going through the process of waiting for the yeast to proof and the many hours of waiting for the dough to rise (in the bowl and then again in the loaf pans) it was a thankful time to think of my Grandma and the wonderful woman she was. Or maybe it was just a good way for me to get out some of the pent-up aggression and frustration for not seeing anything outside of my home in three weeks!
Either way, it felt great to make something from scratch; it was doing something with my hands other than typing on a computer and it was a way to slow down that I think, if anything, has been the one positive from this pandemic. So, play a board game with your family, declutter the house, read a good book and bake bread. If I can do it, you can do it.
