Your hands were made for making bread

Everyone should make bread. If you haven't made bread yet, do it. It's satisfying in a way that cooking other things isn't. It feels primal, even though agriculture and then grinding grains into flour was probably one of the first hallmarks of civilization. You have to get your hands into it, it involves mysterious processes with yeast, and it magically changes from pale and raw to brown and perfect. And it's perfect as it is--all you need is a smear of Earth Balance or even hummus if you're into wanting actual nutrition with your carbs. You can make into baguette or focaccia or buns or good-old sandwich bread and enjoy it for days. If you've never made bread before it'll be a revelation, and even if it's the hundredth time it's still perfectly magical.

Vegan food will save the world

I make vegan food for sharing a lot. We have potlucks at work, and I bring food to bookclub, and last week someone came in to see me at the office and as a thank-you I brought home-made biscotti. Yes, I brought darling little green tea biscotti from vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. As a bribe, I can tell you baked goods are very effective. It's especially great when people don't know it's vegan initially--they pronounce it delicious (of course it's delicious! It's free goodies that someone gave you--hell yeah, that's always delicious!) and then you're like, "It's delicious, and it's vegan. BAM!" Because they are only so many reasons why vegan eating is hard. Animal products are the default, they are subsidized and artificially cheap and get added to everything; and people think vegan food can't be delicious. Once people realize that eating vegan is easier than it used to be, that you should know what's in your food and that adding, for example, a milk ingredient to potato chips is weird and wrong and why the hell would they need to do that anyway?? ...and also how easy and delicious vegan food is, then we're halfway to eliminating animal products. And saving the world, of course.

Spinster buns

I bought a stand mixer last week. It was on sale for Mother's Day--$199 down from $349!--and since I'm going to be a cat-hoarding childless spinster forever, I figured I might as well buy it for myself. I finally set it up on Saturday, and this being a long weekend in Canadia, I have had two and a half days to play with it. And play with it I have! I have already made seitan, focaccia, and cinnamon buns.


I've never made cinnamon buns before. When recipes involve making dough, kneading dough, and rolling it out, my eyes start to glaze over and, zombie-like, I pull out my cupcake cookbook.


But this was delightful. The stand mixer kneaded the dough for me, twice! And then mixed the icing too. I used VegNews' recipe here; I found it less fussy than the other one I checked. And now I have cinnamon buns to share with my friends and co-workers, which is who you share baked goods with when you're a spinster.

The stuff of life

Mmmm, bread. The smell of baking bread is unparalleled. But I would venture to say that most people don't know how good baking bread smells. Or how a shmear of margarine melts into a slice cut off a still-warm loaf. Because no one bakes bread anymore.

When I take bread to book club or to work, it goes over well. Most people freak right out. "You actually made bread!?" It lessens the wonder somewhat when I say it's easy. But not much, because people don't actually believe me.

I think I had somewhat of an odd childhood--my parents actually cooked. From scratch most of the time. I know--and since you're a loyal, dedicated follower of my blog, you know too--my mom didn't really cook, but she did bake. We had fresh home-made muffins almost every week. And she made noodles from too, like my dad. And Dad always cooked from scratch. (Except for canned mushrooms. *shudder*) So it's not that weird to me that I make cupcakes and pasta and soup and pizza and bread all from scratch. But apparently it's weird to others.

So I say, "No really, it's easy. It takes a little time, but it's not hard." And no one believes me. So I expound, "The hardest part is having 3 or 4 uninterrupted hours to start the bread, let it rise a couple times, and bake it. But the process it self is easy." I think people may believe me a little at this point, but I doubt many of them are yet making bread from scratch.

But I want you to make bread from scratch. DO IT. It's delicious and very satisfying, and will impress the hell out of everyone, including your significant other, your boss, your boss's boss, and your mother-in-law. To facilitate this, I have summed it up into several E-Z steps, with helpful hints where necessary.

Step 1: combine ingredients.
This is pretty self-explanatory. The most important factor is remembering to stock enough flour and active yeast. It's a little messy: you will end up with dough on your hands.
Step 2: knead.
This one should be self-explanatory. If not: kneading allows the yeast to start working and allow the gluten to develop. It gives the bread its texture. Don't neglect the kneading.
Step 3: rise.
This one is easy. Once you've kneaded the bread, you have to leave it in a warm place to let it rise. I accomplish this by turning the oven on just enough to get a little warm (around 200 degrees), opening the oven door and placing the dough in its bowl on top of the stove.
Step 4: knead again.
Should be self-explanatory by now.
Step 5: rise again.
This time, when you're done kneading, the dough goes into a pan to rise.
Step 6: bake.
Make sure you pre-heat your oven and that you leave enough room above the pan so that when the bread rises it doesn't hit the element. Trust me: stupider things have been done.
Step 7: cool.
This is important: turn out the bread from the pan. Otherwise, as it cools moisture will be trapped between the pan and the bread, and the bread will get get moist on the outside. In case this comes as a surprise, I'll warn you: moist bread is bad.

Start with bread recipe from a cookbook or a website you trust, using ingredients you are familiar with. In only a few short hours you will have the smell of delicious warm bread wafting through your kitchen.