A Kneady Note...

I have wonderful memories from my childhood of my Dad baking bread on Saturday mornings. He would let we kids make a little loaf  for ourselves that we didn't have to share. I recall one morning Dad got fancy and made a braided egg bread. He was the baker until my Mother stepped in to start making a more healthful whole wheat for her brood. Oh, the smell of bread baking...

So, I made my first loaf of homemade bread yesterday and I enjoyed the entire process, asking myself why on earth it took me so long to attempt such a task. It was not difficult. I mean how hard is it to stir together flour, yeast, butter, salt, brown sugar and water?

I love the idea of having control of what goes into this staple I eat most every day. Keep the preservatives out of my body, thank you very much. I love that I don't have yet another bread bag to recycle.  I don't have a mixer, so used a wooden spoon, just like women used long ago. Any type of baking from scratch requires a little bit of calorie burning effort, and I could definitely feel the effort in my arms from the mixing and kneading. A little bit of a workout was one benefit, but so was the reminder of what it means to be self-reliant. It felt good to take back a bit of power that I gave away so freely in our modern, convenience culture.

Last year, my folks gave me a wooden spoon, a large mixing bowl and loaf pans for my birthday. I can guarantee this will be something I use over and over again. Let's face it, homemade bread does not just taste better, it is also less expensive and these days the baking of it is an act of empowerment.Well, for me, anyway.

The recipe I used was from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but I am sure there are many simple recipes online. Bread making is not hard, it just takes time, like any worthy pursuit.

Make a loaf of bread...you knead this experience!