I used to make all our bread and my favourite recipe was from this book
which says lovely things about bread-making, about "you and the dough - ripening, maturing, baking, blossoming together".
I used a basic wholemeal recipe from this book which was fab. - took all day, with multiple provings - but made wonderful delicious bread which was never ever heavy or ever went wrong at all really. The first stage involved all the ingredients except only about half the flour. So the mix is a dough-batter and can be beaten rather than proved - easier, and helps really get the yeast and gluten working together. Then after the batter has proved, the rest of the flour is added - kneading, proving, kneading, proving, kneading and shaping - baking.
Lovely lovely.
Now our bread comes from this machine, which is great. But I do sometimes miss the kneading and proving kneading and proving.
This is such a time for being grateful to have good bread to eat. Any bread to eat.
And for having loved ones safe. For shelter and a future.
Its a time when its easy to feel despair and anger.
This is Martin Ronson's cartoon from the weekend Guardian:
The World As It Is - or - Bones & Bonuses
The Guardian, Saturday 26 January 2010, p.35.
But rather than feeling despair or anger better maybe to do something, and here are a couple of the many many ways to do something:
Bloggers for Haiti, set up by English Mum
and Craft Hope Etsy Shop for Haiti - donations can be sent up till Jan. 20th when they are taking a break and regrouping - and you can buy lovely art and craft items in the shop, all money is going to Doctors without Frontiers in Haiti.
The Tassajara Bread book talks about making bread as to do with compassion, joy, offering - making love.
"Ingredients are not limited to food, but include joy, kindness and inspiration..."
A Theme Thursday post
22 comments:
Mum finally got one of those bread-making machines. Used once so far, as the ingredients can be rather pricey. I've got all me Grandmum's ol' bread recipes tho' :P
making it with love and compassion...i like that. we have a bread machine, but there is nothing quite like making it from scratch. happy tt!
I've gradually gotten back to making things like yogurt and apple sauce. Maybe it's time to add bread back into the mix. I hate using my bread-maker which makes these little rectangular perfect-shaped loaves. I want something more free-form, something more like myself!
Great post.
great post! I have been the keeper of em's bread machine for a few years now, while I don't make bread with it I do use it weekly to make pizza dough and on occasion dough for focaccia.
kudos to english mum and to the craft hope. it is gratifying to see the world response to the haitian disaster.
thanks for all that you are doing!
The man responsible for your bread book is Edward Espe Brown, a Buddhist priest. He made an interesting documentary called How to Cook Your Life, which I found and thoroughly enjoyed.
I am looking for a great Challah recipe...
Thanks for the link to Bloggers for Haiti.
What a lovely, lovely post Letty. I especially love that last quote. So true.
We have a bread machine, too....very nice for a quick homemade bread you don't have to fuss over. The kneading is fun, on occassion...when you have the time! Nice bready post, Lettuce! :)
The NFL actually set up a donate-via-text charity for Haiti. If you're interested, I can find the link.
Thanks for sharing those political cartoons, Lettuce. They are grim, aren't they? As you say, the best thing we can do is do something to make a difference, if only in a small way.
I don't have the patience for bread-baking - especially one that takes all day, but you ship a sample over anytime you feel inclined.
I agree with Kat about the grim political cartoons! Makes me spittin' mad!
Lovely post Lettuce.
Just visiting.. love this post .
Betty Ann aka ms hen
Great post. Never been into baking bread myself.
And thanks for the links!
I loved my bread machine till it broke. I have yet to replace it because I like to make the bread by hand.
nice post...
maybe i oughta try out one of those bread machines; looks like fun.
Lovely nostalgic post, Lettuce. I found one of those bread machines just left in front of an apartment a family moved out of down from my house. Haven't used it yet because there was no instruction book with it. It is brand new. One of these days I'll have to track some recipes down.
No bread machine in these parts. D does it by hand.
Cartoon gives one pause.
An excellent post here on so many fronts. good link there, intriguing cartoon and lovely writ eup on bread. I miss my bread maker in fact, let alone kneeding! Store bough is just not the same, now is it?
Bread is love.
Love is bread.
The Tassajara Bread book sounds wonderful - as does the wholemeal bread you made from it.
The cartoon is unnerving.
Loved this, I'm not a bread maker but even cooking for someone else has that lovely feeling of compassion, joy and offering. Unfortunately, I'm with Subby. It's cheaper to buy than bake here. Besides, the last thing I need is more carbs!
Thank you for the link!
And I'm going to try and pinch my Mum's Panasonic breadmaker that she never uses :)
given the tragic events in Haiti, 'Bread 'is a timely subject.
Great Post.
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