Bread Nirvana
Why? Well, there's more there than meets the eye.
It all goes back to my childhood. (Stop groaning, you knew I couldn't keep this short.) I have distinctly awesome memories of helping my mom cook, with everything from normal evening meals to Thanksgiving. It was the baking that really got me -- cookies, cake, and in particular bread. From the time I could reach the counter, she let/made me help. Usually the annoying jobs (mixing in particular), but it developed into a fascination with the process ... and the end result. It was mystifying to me that sugar, flour, water, and this random fungus could make something so indescribably tasty and comforting, but it happened every time.
As the years went on, I got to be a better baker myself. I didn't always need supervision and those end results got to be more and more reliable. When I got to college, I found my baking abilities to be a surefire way to make, keep, and occasionally appease friends (if any of those applied to you, I don't really want to know) and it continued. Cookies, cinnamon rolls, cake, you name it.
But the bread would end up being my favorite.
About five years ago, I stopped buying sliced store bread. I can't explain what the mental process was, but I'm reasonably certain I looked at a half-eaten loaf and just thought, "You know ... This isn't tasty." It made my roommates happy because that meant I was baking weekly, and it made me happy because I preferred to spend my hard-earned money on flour and yeast that would keep almost indefinitely than on a loaf of bread with ingredients that confused me.
That mild obsession (no doubt aided by my continuing fascination with the chemistry of bread) continued, and to this day I don't buy normal store loaves. [I'll occasionally spring for bakery rye bread, but that's about it. If I could find a reliable rye bread recipe I'd probably change my approach there, too.] As a direct consequence, I don't eat as much bread during the summer, when it's too hot to spend much time running the oven in this house.
Tonight, after several weeks going without, the house was finally cool enough and I had enough time.
And oh ... It is so good to be back.
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