Yesterday, one of the bloggers I follow posted on making cinnamon buns. Now cinnamon buns are one of my favorites. My Mom, who passed away in 1973, made awesome cinnamon buns. I can still remember them because they were so good.
So the cinnamon buns reminded me of some experiences people had making home made bread. When I went to the Arctic in 1963 very little fresh food was available. We were given a ration with a year's supply of food. That didn't include fresh bread. We had 200 lbs of flour and a bunch of yeast. I was single and bought bread at $2.50 a loaf which was an unheard of price. So the women who came north baked their own bread. Probably none of these young women had baked bread before they came north. First time experiences working with yeast and dough were quite challenging. There were many famous flops before there was any remotely edible bread. One girl admitted that when she threw her first results out that the dog wouldn't eat the product.
It wasn't all doom and gloom. For my second posting I was married. My wife made bread and she was very competent. We had an oil stove with a shelf above the stove top. The temperature on the shelf was perfect for rising dough so we had spectacular bread. I still remember eating great tasting bread.
The best batch of bread we had was when I was involved in the process. My wife had started mixing a bread dough. She was the settlement nurse and was called away. She told me to keep stirring the bread and add a little flour once in a while. She said she wouldn't be long and not to stop mixing. Well, you guessed it. she was delayed . When she got back there I was still mixing the dough. She rescued me and she claims it was the best bread we ever made.
I'm sure that if bread making wasn't so laborious that very little bread would be sold in stores or else they would have to significantly improve their product.
Ooh! The delicious smell of home made bread!
