Before jumping into the particulars of bread baking, we must check something first. What is your attitude towards it? Your perspective, your frame of mind will affect not only your enjoyment of baking but the process (and result) as well.
Do you feel any of the following about baking bread? That it/it's:
- tedious
- arduous
- difficult
- time-consuming
- complex
- unrewarding or frustrating
- intimidating
- requires special gifting- requires special (and expensive) equipment
- requires years of learning to do well
And perhaps that it's even a bit:
- mystical
- or even impossible (for you to do successfully)
Many people believe some or all of these things about baking. But I give you my word: It does not have to be any of these things!
Bread is simply a cooked composition of flour and liquid. Sometimes you add other ingredients, too, but bread is foundationally a very basic (and forgiving) thing. Flat bread, evidently, has its roots in a cooked grain mash that was baked on a hot surface. Yeast bread's roots are similar, but in a mash that was left out several days and leavened by wild yeast. (See Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.) For centuries people have baked: with state-of-the-art equipment or with rudimentary equipment, in the midst of leisurely lives or busy lives, in wealth or in poverty, as a treat or, more often, as a staple for feeding their families and communities. God gave us the grains and the yeast and all the ingredients necessary; He created the properties of those combined ingredients that develop such a tasty and wholesome product; He gave us the means for creating heat to cook and to bake; He gave us the knowledge to learn how to synthesize these things for making bread.
In baking, as with cooking and with any pursuit of worth, we must be teachable and have the desire to learn and to grow, with the faith and hope that God will provide everything we need, and He will continue to feed us with good new things as we come before Him in humility.
My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
~Proverbs 2:1-6
Take heart and have hope. You have everything you need if you have the basic ingredients and equipment and, most importantly: a longing for knowledge, a need for God's guidance, and the faith that He'll give you what you need. You will have so much fun on this journey if you do!
And perhaps that it's even a bit:
- mystical
- or even impossible (for you to do successfully)
Many people believe some or all of these things about baking. But I give you my word: It does not have to be any of these things!
Bread is simply a cooked composition of flour and liquid. Sometimes you add other ingredients, too, but bread is foundationally a very basic (and forgiving) thing. Flat bread, evidently, has its roots in a cooked grain mash that was baked on a hot surface. Yeast bread's roots are similar, but in a mash that was left out several days and leavened by wild yeast. (See Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.) For centuries people have baked: with state-of-the-art equipment or with rudimentary equipment, in the midst of leisurely lives or busy lives, in wealth or in poverty, as a treat or, more often, as a staple for feeding their families and communities. God gave us the grains and the yeast and all the ingredients necessary; He created the properties of those combined ingredients that develop such a tasty and wholesome product; He gave us the means for creating heat to cook and to bake; He gave us the knowledge to learn how to synthesize these things for making bread.
In baking, as with cooking and with any pursuit of worth, we must be teachable and have the desire to learn and to grow, with the faith and hope that God will provide everything we need, and He will continue to feed us with good new things as we come before Him in humility.
My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
~Proverbs 2:1-6
Take heart and have hope. You have everything you need if you have the basic ingredients and equipment and, most importantly: a longing for knowledge, a need for God's guidance, and the faith that He'll give you what you need. You will have so much fun on this journey if you do!
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