β€œDo you want to bring a β€˜starter’ over, or do you want us to start from scratch in my kitchen?”

This was my query to grandson Ian, who visits our house often this summer to mow and trim the lawn and help with other chores like car-washing.

β€œNo, we can do it all at your house if you have flour, milkβ€”and yeast, of course. You gotta have YEAST!”

And so we did, Ian and his Nana helping him to assemble the makings of two loaves of bread, one to share, and the other to take to Communion at our church.

Ian has the ingredients of bread-making in his head, but he obliged his Nana by writing down the recipe, so I could follow along.

 

 

First Ian assembled the ingredients on the counter top. Then he measured the water and heated it up in the microwave.

 

He added the yeast & water to the mixture of sugar and flour.

 

 

 

Next step: measuring the oil and stirring it into the flour mixture. He added flour to give the batter a more solid consistency.

 

 

 

 

The measuring and stirring went better with Big Band tunes from “Let’s Dance.”

 

 

It’s almost ready to bake. But wait . . . we need to knead!

 

 

 

 

Ian learned a trick passed down to me from his Great Grandma Longenecker: anointing wax paper with butter. That way, you don’t get your hands so terribly sticky.

 

After about 45 minutes at 450 degrees Fahrenheit, the bread is ready to take out of the oven, fragrant and flaky. It’s yummy with cherry butter or strawberry jam.

 

 

We ate one cooled loaf of bread with cherry butter. The other went to church with us one Sunday in July for the Communion service.

 

Oven-baked bread gives us daily sustenance. The Living Bread imparts life eternal.

 

. . . ThisΒ doΒ inΒ remembranceΒ ofΒ me.Β  Β  Β  Β  Β  Luke 22:19

 


Do you like baking your own bread? Any special recipes?

Does a bread baker you know come to mind? Here’s a place to recognize their skill.