Bread as a Gift
Finding appropriate gifts for friends, acquaintances and family can be a challenge. What do you buy for your parents who have encountered decades of birthdays and life and have an already large collection of unnecessary items? What do you give your friend who, as far as you can think of, only wants $100 candles? What if you want to show kindness to the people close to you but you don’t want to buy an expensive candle? How can you give people something when it’s not their birthday and it not seem weird? The answer to all of these questions is bread. Give people bread. Make the bread yourself and give it away. You will be overwhelmed by people’s appreciation and joy and receiving a loaf of bread, even if you feel like the loaf you made isn’t that great.
Bread is simple and complicated at the same time. It has few ingredients, but it takes a thought and consideration to produce. Most people know this about bread which is perhaps partly why they appreciate it so much. But also, fresh bread is such a simple, comforting and enjoyable thing to eat. It is the food equivalent of someone giving you a wholesome, caring hug. This is also why people are so happy to receive a loaf of bread.
During lockdowns bread enables you to connect with friends and family when you are not able to actually meet up in real life. You can show them that you are thinking about them by delivering them a loaf of bread. It creates a small but exciting event in their lives, at a time which often feels like everything and nothing is happening at the same time.
At times when life is stressful, a loaf of bread is also a gift to the self. In making bread, give yourself time, time to stop and think, time to use your hands for something other than looking at your phone. Bread making is like a little meditation, an act of simplicity in a world of sensory overload. It forces you to stop and think about the here and now, and your here and now becomes dough, its texture as it touches your hands. And of course, as well as the pleasurable and grounding experience of making bread, its enjoyment continues once you have finished making it. It can be eaten at any time of day and is an opportunity to share a moment of happiness with someone in your household.
Below is a recipe for making two very uncomplicated, very delicious loaves of bread: one for you, and one for your chosen person that you would like to give it to. You can start making the dough at night and bake your loaves in the morning.
Ingredients:
160g sourdough starter
16g salt
750g baker’s flour
570g water
Tools:
Dutch oven (at least one or if you have two you can bake two loaves at once)
Kitchen scales
Tea towel
A sharp knife
Method:
Mix all of your ingredients together to create a shaggy dough. Leave it covered with a wet tea towel for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, pull the edges of the dough up and fold them into the centre of the bowl. Turn the bowl around and repeat until the dough starts to form a ball shape. Leave covered with a wet tea towel for 15 minutes.
Now do another series of folds, the same as in the last step. Then leave covered with a wet tea towel on the bench overnight (for about 8-10 hours).
In the morning, take the dough out of the bowl. It should have grown in size. Cut it into two. Shape each dough ball into a circle shape by pulling the edges into the centre, similar to what you did in steps 2 and 3, but do more folds to pull the dough tight. Then put each dough ball into a small sized bowl and into the fridge.
Get two Dutch ovens and put them inside your oven. Alternatively, if you don’t have two, you can bake each loaf one at a time in a single Dutch oven. Turn the oven on and preheat it to its maximum temperature (about 250 degrees Celsius) for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, get your bowls with dough in them out of the fridge and tip them out onto a piece of parchment paper each. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross shape into the top of the dough. Give each dough a small spray of water if you have a water spray bottle handy. If not, don’t worry.
Plop each dough ball into a Dutch oven and bake at maximum temperature for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes turn the oven temperature down to 225 degrees and bake for another 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes take the lids off of the Dutch ovens. Bake for another 15 minutes or until your loaves are golden brown.
Take the loaves out of the oven and let them cool. Then you can keep one for yourself and give one away to make someone’s day.