Buns and Burgers. Gregory Berger

The Baker

      “There is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”

      ―M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

      I still don’t really identify myself as a baker, even though there are a lot of folks that only know me as a baker. I still say “graphic designer” when someone asks what I do. But what I really do is bake. I bake all the time. I bake loaves, I bake buns, I bake English muffins. There is always a loaf either on its way, or noodling around in my brain, trying to get out. But I don’t work in a bakery, and I never have. I did plenty of time in a kitchen, but never in a real, working bakery.

      Baking allows me time to breathe each day I do it. It gives me a break from the bustle of getting my kid to school, packing lunches, answering emails and texts, plus cramming in a full day of work. Baking has little moments built into the process that force you to take a break. It’s been an hour—time to punch down the dough. It’s doubled in size—time to roll the buns. It’s rested for 20 minutes—time for the salt. These little moments bring me out of my head and my regular work life, and force me to be present, even just for a few minutes.

      There’s a magic to taking a few ingredients, mixing and kneading, and turning them into a work of art. I think it’s important to know how to make and serve your friends and family the bread that came from your own hands, and was baked in your own oven. No thiamin mononitrate. No soy lecithin. Riboflavin? Nope. So, it’s going to get moldy more quickly. It’s going to dry out after a few days. But those are good things! It’s scarier to see a loaf of bread that doesn’t get moldy. I’ll take the mold.

      Another thing baking does is that it allows one to make connections that might not have happened without bread. I bake so much that my little family couldn’t possibly eat all that I make, so I give it away. I call it “bread bombing,” and it’s the best. Think of it as a “ding dong ditch,” but instead, you leave a loaf of fresh sourdough. I think that sharing food, especially something you created, is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It fills my cup, and fills someone else with bread.