Homemade bread.
It’s having a renaissance if you haven’t noticed.
You have only to look at the nearly-empty flour shelves in your local grocery store to know that people are baking. Bread flour isn’t the only baking ingredient in short supply; don’t even think about trying to buy yeast. In one week in mid-March of this year yeast sales were up 647% over the same week in 2019.
But why?
Michael Kocet, a mental health counselor and professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology has a theory. He argues that baking is a form of therapy. It delivers a much needed sense of accomplishment during this time of angst and unknowns, giving us something concrete to create, control and enjoy when we have the finished product. This helps to reduce the anxiety stemming from the unfamiliarity of dealing with a pandemic.
I know that I can certainly testify to the meditative effect of kneading bread on a tough day. I’ve gone through fifty pounds of bread flour during the last five months!
Sourdough baking has become my passion of late, thanks to my perky sourdough starter, Kellyanne. In fact, my Kellyanne is happily bubbling and burping on my kitchen counter as I write this. I bake sourdough bread at least twice a week. (A conceit in the sourdough baking world is to give a name to your starter, by the way.)
Sourdough doesn’t have a lock on my baking, though. There have been all kinds of bread experiments emanating from my pandemic kitchen of late–challah, focaccia, banana breads and this absolutely wonderful Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread.
Here’s the recipe.
I can attest to the fact that this cinnamon bread is delightful as I’ve had it for breakfast the past 2 mornings. It is yummy with a good smear of cream cheese I ,along with my husband Gene, are lucky enough to be Lorraine’s taste testers. Aren’t we lucky? We’ve gone beyond being testers as she is so very generous in sharing her loaves of sourdough bread. Gene looks forward to having a sandwich on her bread everyday for lunch. Occasionally she will say that Kellyanne acted up or didn’t perform like she should but to this non bread maker it’s always delicious. This bread makes a great gift?