How Bread Making is Transforming My Everyday

There’s something completely seductive about burying your fists in a thick pile of dough.

When I mix the bread dough, my mind retreats to a simple, understanding space. The ingredients and overall directions are (usually) incredibly straightforward. Combine water and flour, sit. Combine yeast and salt with flour and water mixture, sit. Fold, sit. Shape, bake, cool. It all feels easy.

Yet, there’s a complexity and depth to this simplicity.

Breaking down the simple steps, and the simple ingredients, every addition and action is having a profound impact on the end result. Within each strand of slow-developing gluten, there are complex reactions taking place. When I’m working the dough, and creating the bread, I’m often doing so in silence. Throughout the process, I’ve found myself learning more than how to encounter my next carb induced nap.

Patience is a Requirement

Plain and simple, once again, you cannot rush bread. Rush your bread and it will be dense, bland, and best served as a paperweight. Walking through any reputable Baking website such as King Arthur Flour’s recipes, you’ll see the amount of time that is required for each bread. In most cases, it’s going to be a minimum of a 4 hour commitment. In books from renowned bakers, such as Ken Forkish from Flour Water Salt Yeast, you’ll notice that almost every single bread is a 8–24 hour commitment. Quality bread takes time, and it takes patience. A bulk majority of this time is spent letting the dough be, and waiting for the next fold or waiting for the dough to rise.

While you’re waiting, you learn how to be patient. If you’re like me, you want to do it all RIGHT THEN RIGHT NOW. Waiting is a waste of time, think about all the things you COULD be doing. Then, you rethink that statement. Think about all the things I CAN do.

While I’m letting my dough do its thing, I do mine.

Proofing time (letting the bread rise and gluten process) has become my time for productivity. 1 hour wait? I’m folding laundry and enjoying my favorite Netflix show. 5 hour wait? Might as well run an errand and mop the floors. The second I let myself start to think about the dough and how bored I am, I know that’s my cue to get busy…