Bread

If I had to choose just one favorite food, it would be bread.  Not the loaf kind you buy from the grocery store and use for sandwiches, but the crusty, yeasty kind that most people buy from the bakery.  Not only do I love to eat bread, I like to bake it.

Yesterday the high temperature for the day was in the upper 60’s due to Hurricane Irene.  Luckily I live far enough inland in NY that we only had residual wind gusts and none of the terrible weather people downstate and along the East coast had to withstand.  Those cooler temperatures had me thinking of baking bread.  I bake a lot of it in the fall, winter, and early spring, but once summer comes no more homemade bread.  Who wants to put the oven on in 85 to 90 degree weather?  I guess I could borrow Sister #2’s bread maker but it just isn’t the same as actually making it yourself versus putting everything into a machine and pushing a button.

I’ve always liked baking bread, the mixing of the yeast and flour and other ingredients, kneading it, letting it rise, then kneading it again.  I find the whole process to be a great stress reliever.   I love how it warms the house, fills it with the most enticing aromas, and of course, that first bite still warm from the oven with butter melting into it.  For me, there’s nothing better.  (Though I have to admit homemade cookies are a close second.)

Katherine