Lessons in Baking Bread

Lessons in Baking Bread
BY JACQUELYN DUGGAN

Go slow.

This phrase comes to mind over and over for me in the last six months since the beginning of the new year.

Interesting, because I am a natural ‘doer’ and busy-minded.

Also, didn’t we just come out of (what was for some) a slow year?

And yet, here I am – contemplating what is clearly a divine directive – to go slowly.

To savor the process.

I was thinking about this more recently while baking bread.

The act itself of baking bread is slow – simple, but also with calculated steps.

The ingredients are minimal, but the output?

Often, extraordinary.

I can’t help but wonder,

What if we approached every day like this?

Every time I make this go-to, beautiful, crusty loaf of bread, I remember what simplicity there is in the process:

It’s intentional.

There is a gentleness, putting the flour, salt and water together.

But then also, a rough & tumble of folding or kneading the bread.

Then time to rise,

… more time to rise,

Then time to bake & cool.

The product is a swoon-worthy loaf of bread that makes you dance in your kitchen (or maybe that’s just me!) because it’s so simply wonderful.

My takeaways from this process are two things:

 + It takes intentionality + time, and

+ it’s a slow, and joyful process (if I allow it to be)

I wonder again: what if we approached life in the same way that we bake bread?

Through simply, patience and intentionality?

I certainly don’t have all the answers here, and I’m okay with that –

But I do think there is something really profound to be learned through this process of baking bread.

And perhaps for me, it means to go slow and savor the process

If you’re open to it, I’d encourage you to make this delightfully slow bread recipe, and would love to know – did you learn anything from it?

(Even the tactical – like, don’t forget to preheat your Dutch oven before baking!)

What inspired you from the process, if anything at all?

The process, while not always (or ever) perfect – is, in fact, the whole point, right?

Learning those nuggets of truth to take with you on your own journey too.

Though – that perfectly browned, delicious loaf of bread you get at the end? It’s a pretty great reward for honoring the process.