by Lori Castner

[Former Editor's Note from Judy Wilkinson: It's a great occasion at Bay View Chapter meetings when Lori Castner brings home-made cookies! Now that I've
read this article, we'll demand some kind of wonderful bread at a future meeting.]

Whenever someone asks me what activities I enjoy, the first one that comes to mind is baking bread, not a quick bread that mixes up in a few minutes, but
yeast bread which takes five or six hours from start to finish. When I was in third grade, one Saturday afternoon, my mother announced she was going to
bake bread, and I stood beside her enthralled as she showed me the steps to creating a loaf. She demonstrated the special process for mixing bread dough
called kneading, and let me check the size of the dough several times while it increased in volume in a draft-free location. I loved the finished product,
a hot light crusty slice with butter, but it was the process of producing loaves and rolls that got me hooked.

In Junior High, I discovered more about bread-baking as we spent several sessions in Home Economics learning how to bake loaves and sweet rolls. Because
yeast is a living organism, I understood I must use lukewarm water to soften the small granules so they would grow causing dough to rise and produce airy-textured
bread. Because of the time needed for the rising process, our class made the dough on Monday, kneading it by pushing our hands forward and pressing downward,
then turning the dough a quarter turn and pressing downward and forward. Each of us repeated these steps again and again until the dough reached the proper
texture, a smooth and shiny feeling ball, which we refrigerated. Then at our next class on Wednesday, we formed the dough into chosen shapes, loaves and
various types of rolls: spirals, butterflies, crescents, clover leaves. We left them to rise throughout the afternoon and through the dinner hour, then
baked them in a hot oven. At last, we carried our bounty back to the dormitory where we feasted with friends as though all of us had not just eaten a hot
meal.

Over the past fifty years, from my Junior High days until now, I have collected bread recipes: at first by transcribing them from braille magazines (enough
to fill three large binders), later by purchasing cookbooks and now by searching the Internet. Over the years, few steps in my bread-making process have
changed, except for the fact that today I use instant yeast which does not need to soak before being mixed with other ingredients. I do not use the very
popular bread machines; but rather knead the sticky, rough dough until it develops a shiny, satiny, elastic texture. I'm still more hooked on the process
of making bread than on the final product although I do enjoy my husband's eagerness as he waits for a fragrant loaf or a pan full of rolls to appear on
the cooling rack.

I have made many types of loaves: cheese-filled, oatmeal/honey, whole-wheat, cornmeal/molasses, and brioche. For holidays, I bake special breads. At Easter,
I traditionally make hot crossed buns. Occasionally I make rolls which are shaped like small pigeons; these rolls originated in the Ukraine where they
were served at Easter to celebrate the larks' migration to the north. When guests see a bread basket filled with these crusty shapes, they inevitably comment
in delight and surprise.

For Thanksgiving, I bake clover leaf rolls using the recipe I got from my Junior High Teacher, who taught at the California School for the Blind. At Christmas,
I bake loaves of panettone (a pine nut, and raisin-filled loaf flavored with anise seeds (I received several recipes for this traditional Christmas bread
from my cousin whose mother married into an Italian family).

Also, over the years, I have acquired a large number of implements for baking breads and rolls. Of course, I have loaf pans in many sizes and muffin tins
for holding dough for rolls. I also own a pan for baking French bread. It contains two long sections for shaping loaves; and each section is covered with
small holes. To use this pan, I place a pan of hot water on the bottom oven shelf. The oven's heat and the hot water combine to create steam, which permeates
the holes to create that marvelous crunchy crust. I most recently purchased a Pullman pan; this pan has a cover, and closing this cover while the bread
bakes creates a square loaf, perfect for sandwiches, and gives the loaf a very dense, moist interior.

Many years ago, my husband bought me a beautiful, large, hand-made pottery bowl; I use it exclusively for bread dough. And I knead bread on a large silicone
mat, a surface which prevents the dough from sticking while I work.

I never tire of reading bread recipes and blogs or of trying a new recipe or one that has its roots in another culture. The old-fashioned process of baking
yeast breads has filled many delightful hours, and the results have enabled me to share not only with family, but with neighbors and friends. Anyone planning
a bake sale?

Yeast Rolls (Refrigerator)

This is the recipe that my Home Ec. teacher in Junior High gave each student to use for making sweet rolls. I bake rolls for Thanksgiving using this basic
dough. You can skip the step for refrigerating the dough if you wish to bake rolls immediately.

1 Pkg. dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup shortening or butter
1 cup scalded milk
1/2 Tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
about 4 cups sifted flour

Sift flour. Soften yeast in warm water. Add shortening to milk and cool milk. Beat egg and add sugar, cool milk mixture, and yeast water mixture. Stir
in salt and enough flour to make a stiff enough dough to knead. Knead dough about 10 minutes until silky and pliable. Set in greased bowl turning dough
to grease top. Let dough rise until double in size. Punch dough down and place in refrigerator. (Dough will keep about a week). Remove from refrigerator
and shape. Let rise. Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.