The Staff of Life: Our Daily Bread
The Staff of Life: Our Daily Bread
James Beard, the renowned American chef considered good bread “the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” There is nothing with which to compare whole-grain bread, piping hot from the oven, with rivulets of real butter running down the sides. Suddenly, Robert Browning does not seem quite so mawkish when he sings, “If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tasteth all the stars and the heavens.”
For centuries, bread has been the staple food of the people. Whether it is made of ground whole wheat, corn, quinoa, barley, or a fragrant grain blend, old-fashioned bread is a far cry from the pale, flavorless and nutritionally worthless fluff lining our supermarket aisles today.
For the past several years we have been grinding our own flour and baking our own bread, both immensely satisfying tasks. It is a privilege to provide our family with tasty and healthful food.
Rye bread will do you good,
Barley bread will do you no harm,
Wheaten bread will sweeten your blood,
Oaten bread will strengthen your arm.
Irish Proverb
And wine [that] maketh glad the heart of man, [and] oil to make [his] face to shine, and bread [which] strengtheneth man's heart.
Psalm 104:15
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 4:4
Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11
The following recipe is our recipe for daily bread. We are able to use it for morning toast, sandwiches, and even miniature pizzas for an interesting lunch. After several years of using the following recipe, we have been able to make our bread by memory. Although the recipe may seem lengthy at first, rest assured that it will become quite familiar with time!
Fill a kettle with water and heat on the stove.
Grind 7 cups of wheat (we prefer golden). Into the Bosch measure 3 heaping tablespoons of milk power, 3 1/2 tablespoons of yeast, and the flour. Mix on speed one for five seconds.
Measure 2/3 cup olive oil, 2/3 cup honey, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 4 large eggs. (We measure everything into one measuring cup: the oil to the 2/3 c line, the honey to the 1 1/3 c line, and then the rest of the ingredients.) Fill another measuring cup with 4 cups of tap water and 2 cups of hot water from the kettle. When the water has come to 120°F or thereabout, put the mixer on speed one and quickly pour in the honey mixture and the water simultaneously. Mix until just combined and then let sit for ten minutes under a moist towel.
Meanwhile grind 5 more cups of wheat and mix the flour with 2 1/2 tablespoon of kosher of sea salt. Also take this opportunity to clean up the kitchen.
After ten minutes, turn the Bosch on speed one and add the flour/ salt. Let the machine knead it for three minutes and then allow it to rise for ten minutes under a moist towel.
Take this opportunity to grease six loaf pans, place an oven rack on the bottom of the oven, and clean the kitchen.
After ten minutes, remove the dough from the Bosch and separate into six equal parts. (Some prefer to use a scale, but I find that eye judgment is sufficient.) Everyone has a different method of shaping loaves. I roll it out with a rolling pin, roll the dough tightly, and then pinch the ends under. I have few problems with air bubbles.
(You can also use a loaf’s worth of dough for a pizza, focaccia, a calzone, cinnamon rolls, or rolls for supper.)
Allow the dough to rise in the loaf pans for twenty minutes or so. Be careful not to let over-rise, as the bread will then “fall” in the oven and be very hard and dense. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Bake the loaves for thirty-five minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped with a bread knife.
While still warm, cut your self a thick slice and spread with real butter and homemade jelly.
I have told you, Platero, that the soul of our town is wine, have I not? No; the soul of our town is bread. Moguer is like a loaf of wheat bread, white inside like the crumb and golden on the outside like the soft crust.
At noon, when the sun is at its warmest, the town begins to smoke and to smell of pine wood and warm bread. The whole town opens its mouth. It is like a huge mouth that eats a huge loaf of bread. Bread is life. It goes with everything: with the oil, the stew, the cheese, and the grapes, giving its flavor of kisses; with the wine, the soup, the ham, with itself, bread with bread. Also, it may be bread alone, like hope, or bread with an illusion….
The baker’s boys come on their trotting horses and stop before each closed door. They clap their hands and call out: “Bread! Bread!”
Baskets are held up by bare arms; one hears the thud of the quarter-loaves as they fall against the buns, the large loaves falling against the rolls….
And poor children immediately ring the bell at the iron gratings or knock at heavy doors and cry, sending plaintive echoes down the corridors: “A little bit of bread please!”
Jose Ramón Jiménez, from Platero y Yo
Friday, November 21, 2008