Baking Your Way to Balance: How Baking Bread at Home Helps Me Overcome Challenges

Apr 21

Earlier this month I shared that I started baking during lockdown along with some new recipes I'd like to try this month. You should definitely check those out by the way.

Anyway, I used to like making cakes and collecting recipes with my mom as a kid but as I got older I had increasingly less time for cooking all together. Most of the time I would eat out between meetings or jobs and I found myself stocking up on ready-made frozen foods that I could quickly pop in the microwave.

After we lost our home to a fire, I started spending time with my mom watching cooking channels to take our minds off of things. I guess watching other people create such amazing meals made us want to try them ourselves. My mom was already a great cook and we started experimenting with dishes from other cultures.

It felt amazing to be able to make the things I used to buy and sometimes even make them much better tasting and healthier too!

When Covid hit, I was already working from home, and then the lockdown started so my days of eating out and eating frozen foods as I rushed between appointments came to an end. We had nowhere to go and all the time to experiment. Not only that, but the price of things started to increase, and we noticed that the quality of some things started going down. One of the top items on that list was bread. Specifically Jamaican hard dough bread. It's a family favorite and we would eat 2-4 loaves each week depending on who was visiting.

I thought what are we doing? We learned to make so many of our takeout favorites at home, we were eating healthier and feeling better. Why are we going out of our way to spend our hard-earned coin to buy something we're not even enjoying that much? There's got to be instructions and recipes online that could teach me how to make our own.

At first, I was really intimidated. Making bread from scratch seemed so complicated with proofing, rise times, different fours, and a myriad of accessories and techniques out there. But I drew from my experience with making other recipes successfully which gave me the confidence to try.

While the 1st loaf of hard dough I made was a bit wonky it was way more delicious than the ones we were buying! I just learned from my mistakes, made adjustments, and tried again. I realized that making bread wasn't all that complicated or costly, I just needed to prepare in advance.

Eventually, I used those initial experiences with making Jamaican bread to try other recipes like sourdough bread, a sourdough hard dough hybrid, hamburger rolls, bagels, cinnamon raisin bread for the fall, and artisan bread. I discovered that baking is an excellent way to relax and have fun while making something delicious. It's also a great way to explore my creative and artistic side. Not to mention recipes that call for kneading are a great way to relieve stress and tension!

Once I was able to successfully bake that first tasty loaf my mindset shifted from 'Can I do that?' to 'I can do that! How hard can it be? I've done something similar before.'

Now I make multiple loaves with different recipes almost every week almost without even thinking about it!

This is why I highly recommend trying something new leisurely or as a hobby, even if it feels scary or intimidating at first. Stay with it and don't give up! You may surprise yourself with what you're capable of doing.

Whenever we learn something new we can use that experience to boost our confidence to do even more. Standing on the shoulders of our past successes we can recall that success when we face new challenges and snuff out the voices in our head, or external naysayers, that try to convince us that we can't do it. Every new skill and knowledge is like fuel for a shield against doubt and fear.

If we can learn to apply this to our own personal growth it can be a powerful tool for success. It has been so helpful for me and I hope it inspires you too.

If you’re interested in trying bread baking for yourself here are some of my favorite recipes to help get you started:

No Knead Artisan Bread

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups warm water (optimal temp for yeast: 79 °F -81 °F)
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast (approximately 1 package)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
6 cups flour (750 g)
3 tsp salt

Instructions

Mix the yeast, and sugar into the warm water in a small brown. Set aside for about 10 minutes to get bubbly.
Add the flour and salt to a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Make a well in the middle and pour the water and yeast mixture in. Mix just until combined and there’s no more dry dough. The dough will look flaky, not smooth yet and it will be sticky.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel for about 30 minutes in a warm place like 75 °F - 85 °F.
After 30 minutes do 2 rounds of stretch and folds: Leaving the dough in the bowl, pinch a corner and lift slowly and gently so you stretch but don’t tear the dough pulling the pinch up then placing it towards the center of the dough. Go around the edges of the dough returning to your first fold, then go around a second time. Cover again and let sit for another 30 minutes
Do another round of stretch and folds but only go around once this time. Be gentle so you don’t pop the air bubbles that are forming. You should notice that the flour is less sticky and more stretchy. Cover again for 30 minutes.
Put a pizza stone or cookie sheet in the oven to heat up as you preheat. Fill a baking pan with 2 inches of water and put it on the bottom rack to make steam. This is what makes the crispy crust. Preheat oven to 450°F.
By now the dough should have doubled in size. Repeat 1 more round of stretch and folds to separate the sides of the dough from the pan. Sprinkle flour on the counter, and turn out the dough.
Divide the dough in half and form each half into 2 balls. Don’t knead or handle it more than you have to. Add a little flour if it’s too sticky.
Using a sharp knife cut an X shape on the top of the dough balls.**
Lightly flour another baking sheet** and place your dough balls on the sheet. Place that sheet with the dough on top of the hot pizza stone or cookie sheet in the oven.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the dough looks golden brown.