Friday, July 17, 2009

Give us today, our Daily Bread...

I am in a bread-making phase of my life; it is just another addition to my list of stress-busting activities, which currently looks like this:

Run.
Doodle with inky pens.
Make jelly.
Eat jelly.
Run.
Smell Rohan's hair.
Kiss Charu's cheek.
Spar with Tony.
Run.
Drink coconut cream with brown sugar.
Run.

Now, after the last Run, I can put - Bake Bread. It is so simple, and quite satisfying a quest -- just scoop, mix, pour, stir a little, then mash your fingers into the dough and work it. The action you need to apply on the mixture automatically transitions from squish...sshhh...to...squelch...cchhh...to...squeeze...zzz...to...knead...and knead... and knead (ok maybe I sometimes overdo it) till fatigue (or a niggling back ache) nudges you out of your trance, at which point you should have a ball of elastic and maybe somewhat sticky dough. Leave it to rise while you wash up, and you will notice that the skin on your hands are quite smooth and supple. You will be tempted to start your own yeast-based beauty products. By the time you finish daydreaming about your multi-million dollar empire (or if you are a little less ambitious in business but more so in other ways, then you may have actually smeared some of the stuff on your forehead...), you can check on the elastic ball and find that it has doubled in size. Imagine that its the face of someone you despise, and punch it down once more. Finally, depending on what you or your intended consumers may want, shape them into whatever you like, and bake; I use a 180 deg. C convection oven but best to follow a proper bread recipe, measurements and all. I must try that one day... follow a proper bread recipe, that is...

Recently, I discovered that oatmeal bread is ONE way to get Tony to consume oats. Hooray for bread! So here are photos of my 'success':



Success at Right, and Bread at left :-D


Charu practising to be brand rep for when mum's bread gets deployed commercially...


When I have unpaid labour, I get to make these (can you spot a little finger?)


Brand rep again...




Say if I REALLY opened a bread shop, what would I call my stuff? How about -- Well-Bred :-)))