Of all the baking I’ve done over the years, I haven’t tried a loaf of bread from scratch, like, ever. I’m not talking about banana bread, pumpkin bread, applesauce bread – the mix and bake kind. Done plenty of that. Something about the active yeast, kneading, rising, pounding, rolling, more rising… was intimidating. But… is there anything that smells more wonderful or is more satisfying than a fresh warm loaf of home baked bread? In my book not many things compare. My Aunt Virginia, who was a prolific baker and maker of delicious italian foods and cookies… had a bread baking machine. She raved – all you do is throw in the ingredients and it does all the work. The bread was delicious… but something about that process seemed… fabricated.
Recently a blog friend, Diane over at Lavender Dreams , shared a favorite bread recipe on her blog and had been making it for years for her family. Yesterday when I had finished the barn and coop chores in the chilly autumn morning air, I said… self? Wouldn’t this be an awesome time to get over your bread baking anxiety and just do it? I needed two ingredients I don’t stock here – active yeast packets and whole wheat flour. Found them at the grocery store and returned to start the process…
(yep I roll things out right on the counter – cleaned first, of course).
After the mixing and rising and kneading and separating into two dough balls and more rising and punching down and rolling and then rolling again, pinching and butter basting and FINALLY… baking…. ooooh, the result was delicious, amazing, hearth warming. Can you believe I didn’t get a picture of the finished product? You’ll just have to take my word for it. And… if you haven’t gotten over your fear of from-scratch bread baking yet, get over it – the end result is so worth the effort.
Thank you, Diane – for unknowingly helping me get over my bread making anxiety. It’s a beautiful thing.
