My Non-Bread Baking History

I grew up on Wonder bread in the fifty's.  Or maybe it was Tasty bread.  Some kind of soft, white, mushy bread anyway.  We ate it with our sandwiches, for toast in the mornings and it was always on the table with butter for dinner.  There was no such thing as artisan bread.  Oh my father would eat cinnamon raison bread mostly toasted.  We may also have had English muffins and refrigerated rolls that Mom would bake on special occasions.  But I know my mother never baked a loaf of bread in her life.  Nor do I remember any of my friends' moms baking bread.  I don't even think Mrs. Cleaver baked bread.  Cookies yes.  Bread no.  My grandmother never baked bread nor did my great aunt, Helen, who was a fantastic cook.  She fried chicken, made the best banana cream pies but never baked bread that I remember.

Jump ahead 20 some years and the only person I knew that baked bread was my mother-in-law.  She was retired and had time on her hands.  I don't remember much about the bread but my kids say they do and loved it.

Then in the 90's the bread making landscape changed.  Not for me, but for many women in The United States.  The bread machine was invented in Japan in 1986 and swept into the United States in the 90's.  By 1999 according to an article by Tatiana Bautista "What ever Happened to the Bread Machine? one in every 5 households had a bread machine.  But after the turn of the century for various reasons those machines ended up in thrift stores and yard sales which is where I bought mine, one sunny day in Chicago.  I never did get around to using it and eventually gave it to my middle daughter, Judy.  She actually has used it and during a recent visit made me fresh, warm, wonderful bread.   She lent the machine back to me to give it a try.

My interest in bread making was two fold.  First due to COVID-19 I had time and needed to find ways to fill it.  Second my husband, George loves artisan breads.  Unfortunately every one else had the same idea and in the early weeks of the pandemic I had trouble finding all purpose flour much less bread flour and bread machine flour.  It turns out that all purpose flour will due in a pinch.

I was very happy with the result of my first and only loaf I made in the machine.  It might have inspired me to get a machine of my own and delve into the bread machine recipes from the internet.  But my husband (always supportive of my adventures) changed all of that.  He surprised me with two books on bread baking.  Apparently he had come across an article on his Facebook feed of the best 5 bread making cookbooks.  The two he chose were: "The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook" and "Josey Baker Bread."

"The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook" came first and I immediately fell in love.  The Hot Bread Kitchen is a  New York City bakery that "is a social enterprise that provides a life changing educations and opens doors for low-income minority women" according to the introduction.  As I turned the pages I got more and more excited.  The recipes in the book are from around the world as are the trainees at the Hot Bread Kitchen.  Every page has exciting recipes that I wanted to try and I was having a hard time deciding what to bake first.

The "Josey Baker Bread" cook book is much different.  It is a tutorial on how to bake bread.  He takes you step by step with the recipes getting more and more complex as you move through the book.  He has a light and funny style.  Very engaging and definitely geared towards the novice.  Perfect for me.

So with the two new cookbooks I started out on an adventure of bread baking.  I have decided to do this blog mostly for myself; to keep a diary of my attempts.  What goes right.  What goes wrong.  I am not going to include the recipes of each bread because this blog is more about the process.  I would highly recommend "The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook" for baking all kinds of flat breads, yeast breads and everything in between from around the world.  I would recommend the"Josey Baker Bread" cookbook if you are just starting out as I am.