There is an art to making bread. This art has been lost or looked over, I believe because of our fast-paced world, our need for convenience, our desire for instant gratification. It's often thought that baking bread from scratch is reserved for professional bakers, homemakers, or those with too much time on their hands. Why would anyone want to bake a loaf from scratch when a loaf a bread from the store is only a couple of dollars, or you can throw the ingredients into a bread machine and have the machine do all the work?
OH, my yeast and sugar water has doubled, I think. On to the next step. Adding flour, adding flour, adding flour. I can see this would have been good to do before I cleaned the floor...I have little puffs of flour everywhere! As I am doing this, my sister calls and asks what I am doing. Oh boy! Watching the dough climb up the motor of my kitchen aid mixer! yikes! She says to me, "can you imagine that Grandma sometimes made up to 20 loaves of bread a week!" wow. Going back to my earlier point...a lost art.
So, now that I've made a mess, er, I mean, some dough. I didn't let this large lump of climbing dough overtake my kitchen! Time for the first rise!
The suspense of waiting to see if each loaf will rise, the first slice, the smell. That aroma of fresh baked bread is like heaven! The first steamy slice with melted butter is a close second! Yum! Success!
"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water is indescribable in its evocations of innocence and delight." -M.F.K. Fisher
