Gluten Development
The Start
In November of 2018, I hopped out of bed one morning and said “I feel like making bread today.” little did I know, that statement and whim of a decision would start to guide my life in more ways than I would have expected. Bread became therapeutic, it became a challenge, an art form, something that moved my soul in ways that can never be undone.
You see, bread came at a good time. Winters are always hard for me — Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) hits me in the face harder than a cart full of bricks. Bread making allowed me to get out of bed when I didn’t want to and gave me a reason to share my love of craft and food to people in my life. Something so small and insignificant as a loaf of bread really changed how I felt during times that have usually been dark.
I started with a simple yeasted loaf and slowly built my vocabulary of flours, loaves, and more skills needed (dare I say kneaded?) to dive deep into the world of home bread baking.
Lessons of Love
I love bread.
Not only for its taste, texture, and chew but for its basic characteristics. Bread is simple. At its core, bread is flour (of varying kinds), salt, water, and yeast. What comes from bread is living and some may even say breathing. As time passes, more life comes. As more work is put in, more structure is created. As fire is added, growth happens.
When I think about bread, I realize it had taught me a lot more than being just “a craft.” I truly believe that through the art of bread baking, I have learned a lot about life.
First and foremost, I learned Patience is Key. Whether it be in life or through a craft, nothing comes immediately and in bread baking, if you’re not willing to wait for it, you’re going to end up with a shitty, undeveloped loaf. Something comparable to life, if you’re not willing to wait for the good things to come, you will never know how sweet they could taste or what they could become.
Secondly, sometimes you have to step away and trust the process. In loaves that take a bit longer, you don’t watch over the dough like a hawk; you must let it sit for hours (maybe even days) on end. That uncertainty of what is happening is super stressful, but ultimately if you just let it be, then you will come back after the proofing or resting time and will find that the dough is more workable and has even grown double its original size. Looking at my life, I have seen that in my most stress-filled moments or times when I didn’t know the answers, I needed to step back. I needed to stop micro-managing the things in my life I couldn’t control and focus on the ones that I could (and trust that everything will fall into place). And yeah, life sucks sometimes and things get messed up along the way, but 8 times out of 10, I never needed to worry about the minute details — just like I don’t need to watch my dough rise (or paint dry).
Finally, be a child, live a little. As much as baking is an art form or even science, I have learned to enjoy every moment of the process and not take myself so seriously. Being able to play with my food and shape into whatever it needs to be or making a mess without a worry to clean up (even though I do…) or even just mixing things together to see what happens, reminds me that it’s something playful and something to be enjoyed. I want to live my life in just that way. There is something magical about child-like enchantment. The way that exploration is given a fresh meaning and how new things are like a breath of fresh air. I never want to lose how playful life can be even as I grow older. In each moment, no matter how serious, I believe there is always a speck of good that can be found, a grain of inspiration.
Final Thoughts, Looking Forward
This year, I vowed that I would make some sort of bread every week and so far, it has been successful. I have kicked off 2020 with making Foccacia, beignets, deep-dish pizza, biscuits, milk bread, morning buns and I look forward to making more.
Since starting, I have made over 50 loaves of bread (i guess batches… not so much counting the little buns and shaping) and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Learning something new every time fuels me to make something better and hopefully learn what makes a good loaf. Over time, I will gain more confidence and hopefully be guided into pursuing something more with bread. All I know is that I believe in development, and like bread, I also believe in gluten.