Where did my infant go?

Bread Winner

I did it.  I finally made white bread from scratch.  It may sound strange to some, but this is the closest I have ever felt to my grandparents and great-grandparents, even though they have been gone for decades.  To them making their own food wasn't out of the ordinary, but to me it has provided a sense of independence and another feeling I can only describe as something along the lines of discovering a new planet that has been inhabited for eons.

Of course, my ancestors didn't have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer to do all the hard work for them.

It sounds like I'm doing a commercial for Kitchen Aid, I know, but I've had this thing for a couple of years now and never realized it's full potential.  Actually, I haven't been realizing my full potential either so I guess this day was inevitable as I progressed along.

Working with the pizza dough gave me the confidence to finally tackle a loaf of bread, and I honestly think I could not have done it without having struggled along these last few years in the attempts.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to trying new things.  I want to be able to be good at something on my first attempt, and through this process it became clear to me that in order to be good at anything it takes more than natural skill.  It takes an understanding of the process and how something is suppose to work.  My past failures were a result of following a recipe, but never fulling understanding "why" I was adding a certain ingredient, or kneading for 10 minutes, or letting it rise for so long.

Once again I turned to "Joy of Cooking" because this book is literally a kitchen bible!  Not only does it tell you how to do it, but why you are doing it in the first place.  If you don't have "Joy" then search the web, buy another cookbook, or do whatever you have to do.  I firmly believe learning this skill could really make a difference to you one day.   My prior failure with the Parker House Rolls (see previous posts) was a result of me not understanding that my impatience and cutting times shorter because I couldn't take the waiting was what was contributing to my failure.  And bread is not something you can rush.  You have to let the yeast feed and expand to get the lightness and fluffiness.  You have to have your liquid temperatures just right (too hot or too cold and you kill the yeast), and you have to be in the moment and enjoy the process.

Baking is indeed a scientific process, and cutting corners, adding too much or too little and not being totally committed to what you are doing will never give you the result you want.  Doesn't this sound familiar with how we live our lives?