Baking bread

Here I am with another tangent and not the finish of the Scandinavian trip. I’ve come to realize that if I want to write about something I’d better do it, otherwise by the time I’ve written about what I ‘should’ write about I’ve lost interest in the thing that popped up. So here’s to baking bread

We haven’t had a lot of bread in the house for the last few years, trying to control complex carbohydrates and our weights. We are now seeing a dietitian, having gotten fed up with trying this or that and having it work for a while and then going back to our old ways. This time the goal is to learn to eat ‘intuitively’ and develop eating habits we can sustain over the long haul. So far my best record for losing weight and keeping it off is about 4 years. If possible, I’d like to settle this once and for all and the dietitian is pretty sure she can help us.

One of the phrases that sticks with me is ‘You can eat anything; you just can’t eat everything.’ I’m going to have to think about that and how that looks in real life. Anyway, back to bread.

I love bread. It is one of the things that means home, love, and comfort to me. Mum always made bread when I was growing up. I remember the smell and the way it permeated the whole house. I also remember the joy of a slice of warm bread. I’ll happily eat it without anything on it.

When I moved to Banff I made my own bread. I made bread when we were first married and, later, we had a long term relationship with a bread machine. I think we wore out three. So when Paige, our dietitian, said no foods were off the table. The first one I wanted back was bread. We’ve been buying bread for the last couple of weeks and, I admit, I have been thoroughly enjoying it. However, I also enjoy home made bread, so the last time we were shopping I bought some all purpose and some whole wheat flour and decided to give it a go.

The last time I made bread was during the pandemic. I didn’t know where my favourite bread recipes were so I downloaded one off the internet. Before I started I decided to thoroughly search the cookbook corner and I found Mum’s favourite whole wheat recipe. I had two standby bread recipes in Banff. Mum’s whole wheat recipe, which actually uses some white flour,  and an oatmeal molasses bread recipe that Jorie Adams, one of the admin secretaries, gave that me.

Today I’m trying Mum’s recipe, only one loaf, she generally made two at a time. I have three versions of the recipe, the original which makes two loaves, the ½ recipe which makes one loaf, and a version that makes 1 ½ times the recipe. All the permutations and combinations I’m likely to want.

I mixed the ingredients and immediately remembered the feel of the dough. It was too dry so I added a bit of water to it. Still to dry, a bit more water. When it was tacky but not actively sticking to my hands it was right. I did learn, in the recipe I downloaded, that the recommended time to knead bread is 8 - 10 minutes, so I kneaded it for 10. The next question was where I should set the bread to rise? Mum used to put it by a heat register in the hobby room. Then I looked at the oven and, wonder of wonders, there is a setting for proofing bread. Ah the marvels of modern technology!

The recipe suggested letting it rise for 30 - 35 minutes. I monitored it and let it rise for an hour. Again, it just didn’t look right after 45 minutes. It’s in the oven right now. I’m not using convection bake so I’ll be checking the time until the crust looks right.

When I was teaching we used to talk about tacit knowledge: the knowledge you have without really being conscious that you have it. I haven’t even thought of baking bread since the pandemic but I clearly remember how to do it.

I briefly wondered if I should invest in another bread machine. It was very handy when we were both working. Now that we’re not, it doesn’t take that much effort to make a loaf of bread and kneading it is kind of fun. I think there are more loaves of bread in the future and, for the moment, no bread machine. Stay tuned for the results of the molasses oatmeal bread which I’ll try next. I used to call it ‘bubble gum’ bread because the dough really is sticky in that recipe.