Kneading and Knowing

There is nothing like the smell of homemade bread wafting through the house. It’s been awhile since I’ve made any, but today seemed like a good day for it. Making good bread is a bit of work, but the final product is worth it every time. It’s the kind of thing that delivers a sense of accomplishment while at the same time providing the opportunity to give of myself for someone else’s pleasure. (After all, I’m not going to eat both loafs by myself!)


For the faint of heart or those that have culinary challenges, know that the process of making bread is not complex. The ingredient list is short; usually flour, salt, yeast, and water, some hard work in the form of kneading, waiting awhile to let it rise (maybe write a bit…), giving them one last bit of work, and then bake until done. The outcome fills the house with an unmistakable and comforting aroma.

In my opinion, the best breads use just the simplest of ingredients, including the yeast, which most people consider the “magic” of the bread making process. In reality, the yeast is just a single-celled organism and not at all complex or magical. The magic happens when you work the dough -- that’s when you trigger the process that helps to strengthen the dough and enrich the breads with their unique qualities.

The more energy we invest in the early part of our process, the more complex and complete our result will be. The focus of our attention will be stretched and pulled, but more importantly it will be strengthened by the all the measured ingredients we use and eventually activated by the most simplistic ingredient of them all.

At some point in the process, it will become apparent that we have laid the groundwork and we will see that they are ready to rise on their own. While tempting to keep our effort focused on them, the time will have come for us to leave them alone and let them build on what we started them with. We’ll look in on things in a while and we’ll be amazed at how much growth has taken place. At some point they will probably need us again, one last shaping moment, a gentle one this time. Our work is really done, but it will be nice to have one more opportunity to impact the final outcome.

Then before you know it, they’re going to be complete. Even though we’ll have been involved much of the time, it will seem like the process had just started a few moments ago. We’ll be able to recall the hard work it took to get to this stage but we won’t feel the hard work. Instead we’ll be happy to bask in the warmth of what’s in front of us, fully aware that we may have been the cook in the kitchen, but like any good bread, the magic is in creating the right mix of ingredients that allows for their own internal growth.

And we’ll know that the kneading was just the starter.