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Like bread rising
Apr. 11th, 2010 02:32 pmI love baking bread. It reminds me that life isn't about timing or exact measurements or verifiable perfection. In Egypt the bakers started out in the morning with the same ingredients but never knew whether they would end up with bread, beer or some combination of the two. Even with the reliable ingredients we have today, bread is not something that can be made well by precise measurement or blind obedience to timelines. Making bread is organic and is different each time you do it, even if you do it every day.
The temperature of the water effects how well the yeast reacts and the age of the yeast effects how quickly it raises. The sugar and salt may always be sugar and salt, but no bag is every alike and even the best yeast is a fickle creature and can only react to what it's fed. Sunny days are the best for baking bread. Is there a front moving in? Is the pressure falling or rising? What type of oil are you putting in it? What temperature was it when you added it? How cold or warm was the flour -- and yes, that makes a difference. As does the type and brand of flour you use.
Bakeries control all of the variables. They have to in order to put out a consistent product. But the more you control it all, the poorer the quality of bread. Wonder Bread isn't. It's edible and it's cheap, but you can roll it up into a little ball and the only difference between the bread and the crust is a slight color change. My cousin's girl calls store bought bread "fake bread". She's not far wrong.
There was a line I read once and for the life of me I can't remember where it came from, it was: Time, like bread rising. I understand that. It takes as long as it takes. There is not 'time" there is only conclusion. It may take a half hour or two hours for the bread to rise. The usual instructions are "Raise until double in bulk."
Those instructions go with "Add flour until stiff" or "Add sifter of flour plus just a little more, if needed". This is how I learned to bake. My recipes have other similar instructions, such as "Add water like pie crust" or "Bake in hot oven until done." One of my favorites goes "Add two eggs, three if available. May omit if you have none." That recipe was clearly written during the Depression when good cooks were the ones who had ingredients.
The recipes lack cooking temperatures because the stoves were heated with wood and didn't have accurate temperature gauges on them. Things were measured in cups but that cup didn't have to be a measuring cup. I still have two white "Baking cups" that my grandmother had. They hold about a cup and a quarter of ingredients. Teaspoons and tablespoons were used on the table and pinch, smidge and dash were all accepted and understood. This is how I bake.
This is how I live my life.
There isn't a template that I lay out before me. There isn't a recipe for success that I can mix together. The variables can't be controlled. I may just be out of an ingredient today. The low that is moving in is going to make it really hard to do anything. No one has ever come up with an accurate gauge to control the temperature of my life. Sometimes the sun just won’t shine and the water is always cold.
But "Time, like bread rising." I'll get there. There are no deadlines. There is no failure. The loaf I have today, with the ingredients and circumstances may not be perfect. But it's edible and even at it's worse it's better than Wonder Bread. And tomorrow? Tomorrow with it's new ingredients and new circumstances? Tomorrow I can bake again. There's no deadline. No perfect recipe that I have to adhere to.
Time. Life. Like bread rising.
The temperature of the water effects how well the yeast reacts and the age of the yeast effects how quickly it raises. The sugar and salt may always be sugar and salt, but no bag is every alike and even the best yeast is a fickle creature and can only react to what it's fed. Sunny days are the best for baking bread. Is there a front moving in? Is the pressure falling or rising? What type of oil are you putting in it? What temperature was it when you added it? How cold or warm was the flour -- and yes, that makes a difference. As does the type and brand of flour you use.
Bakeries control all of the variables. They have to in order to put out a consistent product. But the more you control it all, the poorer the quality of bread. Wonder Bread isn't. It's edible and it's cheap, but you can roll it up into a little ball and the only difference between the bread and the crust is a slight color change. My cousin's girl calls store bought bread "fake bread". She's not far wrong.
There was a line I read once and for the life of me I can't remember where it came from, it was: Time, like bread rising. I understand that. It takes as long as it takes. There is not 'time" there is only conclusion. It may take a half hour or two hours for the bread to rise. The usual instructions are "Raise until double in bulk."
Those instructions go with "Add flour until stiff" or "Add sifter of flour plus just a little more, if needed". This is how I learned to bake. My recipes have other similar instructions, such as "Add water like pie crust" or "Bake in hot oven until done." One of my favorites goes "Add two eggs, three if available. May omit if you have none." That recipe was clearly written during the Depression when good cooks were the ones who had ingredients.
The recipes lack cooking temperatures because the stoves were heated with wood and didn't have accurate temperature gauges on them. Things were measured in cups but that cup didn't have to be a measuring cup. I still have two white "Baking cups" that my grandmother had. They hold about a cup and a quarter of ingredients. Teaspoons and tablespoons were used on the table and pinch, smidge and dash were all accepted and understood. This is how I bake.
This is how I live my life.
There isn't a template that I lay out before me. There isn't a recipe for success that I can mix together. The variables can't be controlled. I may just be out of an ingredient today. The low that is moving in is going to make it really hard to do anything. No one has ever come up with an accurate gauge to control the temperature of my life. Sometimes the sun just won’t shine and the water is always cold.
But "Time, like bread rising." I'll get there. There are no deadlines. There is no failure. The loaf I have today, with the ingredients and circumstances may not be perfect. But it's edible and even at it's worse it's better than Wonder Bread. And tomorrow? Tomorrow with it's new ingredients and new circumstances? Tomorrow I can bake again. There's no deadline. No perfect recipe that I have to adhere to.
Time. Life. Like bread rising.
