Last Saturday I baked bread. Since I have baked my own bread all my life, that was hardly a momentous occasion but, for some reason, I thought beyond the almost-automatic steps (setting the yeast, mixing the sponge, kneading, punching down, kneading again, etc). Maybe it was the bread pan.
If that big old blue enamel pan could talk, what a story it could tell! It's no ordinary bread pan. First of all, it's big - the kind of bread pan every housewife owned and used a generation ago when making your own bread wasn't just the "getting back-to-our-roots" thing to do. It was the only way the family would have bread! My bread pan, you see, is the same bread pan my mother mixed bread in. She gave it to me when I was married (not sure what she used then because she still made bread...) and that pan has travelled with me from Saskatchewan to B.C and moved with me several times in this province. Now it resides on a shelf in my basement in the Chilcotin. I used to bake a batch of 10-12 loaves every week but now, living alone as I do, I bring it out only a few times a year. I am spoiled now - I do not like anything else.
If that big old blue enamel pan could talk, what a story it could tell! It's no ordinary bread pan. First of all, it's big - the kind of bread pan every housewife owned and used a generation ago when making your own bread wasn't just the "getting back-to-our-roots" thing to do. It was the only way the family would have bread! My bread pan, you see, is the same bread pan my mother mixed bread in. She gave it to me when I was married (not sure what she used then because she still made bread...) and that pan has travelled with me from Saskatchewan to B.C and moved with me several times in this province. Now it resides on a shelf in my basement in the Chilcotin. I used to bake a batch of 10-12 loaves every week but now, living alone as I do, I bring it out only a few times a year. I am spoiled now - I do not like anything else.
I used to always bake white bread but now I almost never do. Twenty years ago or so, I concocted my own whole grain bread and now I never bake anything else, not because it so healthy, but because I love it! Made with whole wheat flour of course, it also contains a variety of grains, brans and seeds. One slice of my bread can keep me going for the morning. But back to the bread pan...
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| My bread pan with a batch of rising whole grain bread. |
That pan has baked more batches of bread, buns and cinnamon rolls than I can envision. When I do imagine the loaves that emerged from the pan, I imagine them filling every room in the house and overflowing into the yard. From the Diamond Dot Ranch in Saskatchewan to the Chilcotin plateau in British Columbia, that bread pan keeps on giving. The base is slightly dented and there are a few rusty spots on the outside; the lid doesn't quite fit any more from jostling around in moves, I suppose, but it still does the job better than anything else - plus it holds a really big batch!
I still do everything the old fashioned way. I set the yeast in warm water with a little sugar in it even though it's fast-acting yeast. I still mix a "sponge" (works great because it rises to a bubbly mixture while I do morning feeding), and I still let it rise twice before making loaves. I guess I'm a creature of habit but why mess with something that works? Oh yes, I don't use a recipe either. The only thing that is an exact science about making bread is the amount of flour and that is measured by feel and texture, not an amount. I tried to write out a recipe for my daughter once, but she learned more by helping me anyway.
Benefits of homemade bread are many - better tasting, cheaper and healthier but making bread is also a great way to work out frustrations if my day is not going well. The harder I work at kneading, the better the dough and the better the bread.
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| Sharon's Whole Grain Bread |
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