Bread Baking and Eating

Flour, water, sugar, and salt. Mix these ingredients together in the right place and bake. The right touch takes these ingredients from humble cracker to masterpiece. It is about the flour. Wheat, bulgur, spelt, or potato. It is about the proofing. Hours spent in a ‘just right’ cocoon that allow the yeast and sugar to find their balance. This duet of patience and fermentation is what makes bread a delight to eat on its own or topped with a spread or butter.

The artisan baker will tell you where the grain is grown. They often know the years spent tending the ground to produce just the right depth of flavor and fragrance of the baked grain. The sparkle in their eye will convey their love of bread. Kneading the dough until its springy to the touch. Shaping the dough until its rise will be predictably perfect is at the heart of the bread maker's design. It is my belief that a good baker is like a trainer of horses. They whisper gently to the dough. They speak to it tenderly as to a nodding babe who does not want to nap. The baker mumbles in hushed tones. Coaxing the ingredients into joyful agreement. Every light stroke and firm press are the work of a maestro. The simple becomes the sublime in the early morning hours of the baker's task.

The baker will rise before dawn to prep their kitchen. Stocked with various flours as an artist palette of choices. Eggs and butter are set out to warm in the early morning light. Flour dusts the cool marble counterspace, the baker's shirt front, and the floor. The loaves, fresh from the oven, are lined up in rows like budding flowers. Placed one against the other, like dominoes, the crusty jewels are displayed. We eat them with our eyes and know at a glance they are delicious!

In the local neighborhood or countryside bed and breakfast inn; someone will be found with their apron tied, hands dusted with flour, and the oven preheating to bake the morning loaf or scone. There is something delightful and inviting about the local patisserie. Their transparent glass window allows the passerby to observe their bread making. Before the dust clears the air, we can smell the loaves perfuming the air with yeasty, sourdough, or fruity aromas. The sound of the rolling pin as it dances with lulling cadence up and down upon the pliant dough is a herald of lovely morsels being made ready to eat. Watching this ballet of motion between the dough and baker looks elegant and seamless.

Like ancient wisdom passed from generation to generation, family to friend, there is an exacting science to the ingredients and a freedom of interpretation and design. Wherever we are from, wherever we are bound, most often we will find and share a bite of bread along the way and when we reach our port or shore. Although, bread is more than flour, water, sugar, and salt; it is with these humbles treasures that bread begins.