It Is Risen

I love to watch the first yeast bubbles surface on the bowl of warm water, yeast and honey that is waiting on my ugly kitchen counter-top. When I started trying to do this six or seven years ago, I would timidly wait wondering meekly if the water was too hot? Was there enough sugar? Was the yeast dead? Ah! I don't know what I'm doing. I can't make bread. Is this going to work?? 

This...

But years later in my bright and airy Berkeley kitchen, that fear has been vanquished and replaced by showers of flour dust and shrieks of pleasure. I confidently throw water, honey and yeast into my favorite green and blue bowl, stir it up and then dance away but quickly return. My eyes train on green interior of the bowl, the one with the non-stick surface, the one I was given for secretary appreciation day when I worked long ago at this office in Portland. I gaze at the ingredients and wait for those first few bubbles to rise up, to break almost violently, to explode on the surface of the murky white water. They do! And then... I go a little wild. Yesterday I yipped around the kitchen, shouting for Eric to come and see. I love that part. 

The reason why I love baking bread is because it places me into the thick of what transformation is all about. My hands are all over it, kneading the raw materials, assisting their alchemical transition into nourishment! I love to get up to my elbows in gooey dough. I am surprised at how as I add more flour the dough comes together, although it usually stays pretty sticky and webs my fingers with salted, honeyed dough that I am then forced to lick off...

Rises to this!

Many thanks to Kate, my long ago neighbor in NE Portland, OR, One day Kate invited me down into her apartment kitchen and showed me how to knead. I am grateful to her, because before that I think all that goop had something on me but not anymore. Now, I FEAR NO GOOP. In fact I relish it. We are good friends.

Unlike acting, directing a musical, or writing a song (not enough songs at all lately) this creative process is one I have more control over. I'm the maker! Thank God for this! It's a practice that brings me A LOT of joy and solace in contrast other arts I do which often leave me hanging, waiting, wondering what will happen next. (Though singing, writing, playing instruments and directing give me lots of joy, too, in their time.) At this point in my amateur bread-making career, I always know that the dough will rise again, even if I screw it up one time.

Performing this ancient and wild transformation of flour into bread shows me how I do have power to transform my non bread-making life too. It's more complex than yeast bubbling in my favorite bowl, yes, but in the end its all about the raw materials I select and the care and confidence with which I handle them. It's like rising up from the doldrums. It's like being punched down from the heights and rising again. And it's about waiting for all that to bake into who knows what.

becomes that...

Here is the bread I made on Saturday. I strayed a little from the original recipe, adding pecans and oats and honey instead of brown sugar. You could probably add whatever grains, nuts, seed you have lying around around in similar quantities and it would be very nice. This is a pretty forgiving recipe, but you might have to make it a couple times before you get the hang of doing it how you like it. Don't give up though, having homemade bread really beats all.

Basic Whole-Grain Bread
Adapted from Laurel's Kitchen
By Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey 

3 cups warm water
1 heaping Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. salt
6 - 7 cups of whole wheat flour
½ - 1 cup of quick cooking oats
½  cup chopped pecans

Pour 3 cups of warm (between 100 and 110°) water into a large bowl. Add heaping Tbsp. of honey and Tbsp. active dry yeast. Stir to combine. Then step away, but not too far away so you can be present for the magic. In about 3 - 5 minutes the yeast should start to break on the surface of the water in bubbles. This is the best part.

Once the little yeast volcanoes begin to explode on the surface of the water in the bowl, you know it's ready. Add 3 cups of flour and the salt and stir to combine thoroughly. You want the mixture to be smooth, not grainy. It might take longer than you think.

Once that flour is integrated, add 3 more cups of flour and the oats and pecans, stirring the dough with a wooden spoon. Continually scrape down the sides and push floury bits into the ball of wet dough.

When the dough starts to come together, tip it out onto a floured cutting board. Keep extra flour on hand in a cup measure or bowl to smooth on your hands so you can continue to work the dough. This dough has always been a pretty wet one. That's what helps it keep its moistness. So, go with with. Keep your hands moving up and down. Press the heel of your hand pressing down the mass of dough. After 5 or 10 minutes, the dough should be starting to be less sticky and holding its ball shape. Try not to use more than 7 cups of flour total for this recipe. It stays stickier, but the texture will be better in the end.

Place the ball of dough back in the bowl and cover with a dish towel. Set in a warm spot and allow to rise until doubled in bulk. This should take between 50 minutes and 1 and ½ hours. 

During this second rise, preheat the oven to 375° and oil two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans (or around those dimensions). Once dough has risen, punch it down and separate it into two equal balls of  rounded dough. Place each ball in an the oiled loaf pans and allow to rise again until doubled in bulk, or until the dough has risen to just above the rim of each pan.

Bake in 375° oven for 35 to 40 minutes until deep golden brown. Remove from the oven. Take loaves out of loaf pans by running a butter knife around the edges of the bread in the pan and/or tapping on the bottom of the pan ferociously with a fork. Allow the loaves to cool on cutting board or wire rack. 

Slice and serve with butter and honey or jam, if you wish.

Makes two loaves.

And then...this. Homemade bread slathered with butter procured at Cheeseboard Pizza.  This is definitely what I recommend you try. Honey is optional, but very, very good.