A Year of Gratitude – April 11, 2024

Today wasn’t the first time I found my gratitude in a loaf of bread. With any luck, it won’t be the last. I couldn’t pretend to know how many loaves I have made over the years. I wish that I had kept count.

I only know that each one gave me the time and space to think only of kneading bread. Each one was a chance to focus purely on the act of combining flour and water, of coaxing it into shape and then waiting for nature to take hold. Whether I added yeast from the amber jar from the store or sourdough starter grown here at our farmhouse, I had to give the mixture the right conditions and then let the yeast either commercial or cultivated do what it was meant to do.

I’ve been on a real bread baking bent lately. I’ve been making around four loaves of sourdough bread each week. I’m honing my skills, practicing my shaping and scoring. I’m tinkering with my master recipe until I feel like it’s just right.

There are few bites of food more joyous to me than a warm slice of homemade bread with butter. I know that from a scientific perspective, you shouldn’t slice into a warm loaf of bread. Instead, you should allow the loaf to cool completely, to reach room temperature without being sliced into so that the texture will be at its best.

Yet there are times like this morning when I slice right into that warm loaf of bread fresh from the oven. My children had gathered in the farmhouse kitchen for breakfast. We were making eggs and coffee for each other and a warm loaf of sourdough was cooling on the wire rack on the stovetop.

The bread baker in me who is trying to make the “perfect” loaf wasn’t going to slice into the warm loaf. The mom in me grabbed my bread knife and sliced right into it. I cut it in half and turned the other half onto the cutting board to help retain the moisture while it cooled. Then I sliced the rest of it, grabbed the butter and a butter knife, and breakfast was served.

The perfect loaf is a good goal, but warm, fresh bread for breakfast with my children is better than any loaf I could possibly make. I’ll make the perfect loaf another day and let it cool before slicing it. But today, this loaf was perfectly suited to having a delicious breakfast with people I love. As we gathered around the breakfast table, I didn’t regret a single delicious bite of it.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.