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All You Need is Bread

When life gives you lemons...bake bread.

Okay, that's not how the saying goes, but on a dreary, damp and rainy day, lemonade just didn't fit the bill. Warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven bread slathered with butter was exactly what the doctor ordered - or would have if the medical professionals weren't so busy being Super Heroes. SHOUT OUT to all the health care workers out there!! Thank you! You are amazing. 

Bread - a neighbor, who is a bread baking expert, suggested trying it out for ourselves. Full-disclosure: I love to bake, but I am not a breadmaker. When I've tried, in the past, I've struggled to get the dough to rise, resulting in loaves that were better suited to door-stopping or caber-tossing than eating.  So, it was with a little trepidation that I suggested to Ben and Nicholas that we break out our kneading fingers and give bread a chance. My bakers needed no encouragement. They were in and ready to get their flour on. 

I found an Easy Homemade Bread Recipe, with simple directions, pictures and video demonstrations. 

We mixed and kneaded...



...we waited for the rise...


...we punched and baked.

Nicholas wanted his bread scored with a smiley face!

And guess what? We made bread!


 Soft and fragrant bread that the boys gobbled up with pride. 


I discovered that there is a sort of rhythm to bread making - it's a steady process that needs patience. Making bread demands that we slow down, pay attention, take care, wait. But the yield at the end is more than worth it.   

Hmm...there's a message there. 😉

And there isn't much better than the smell of bread baking in the oven. It's warm and comforting (although Nicholas did comment that it smelled like a certain restaurant we visited the last time we were in Hershey).  

The trick to getting the dough to finally rise? The recipe suggested allowing the dough to sit in a warmed-up oven. It worked!

Take my neighbor's advice and try this out for yourself.  If nothing else, breadmaking is a great activity to keep the kids busy. And it incorporates a whole lotta learning - measurement, reading, home economics, chemistry, history... check out this great article on The Science and Magic of Breadmaking or this fun video that answers How Does Bread Rise?


It's time to get my sugar-plums to bed - where I'm sure they'll have visions of peanut butter and jelly on freshly baked bread, dancing in their heads.

Happy breadmaking!

xo Naomi 

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