TheBanyanTree: the beautiful bread

[Julie Anna Teague]

I decided to bake bread the other day. I am occasionally driven to do some
uber-domestic activity like baking bread or growing vegetables or raising
chickens. It allows me to entertain the fantasy that I could survive
without stopping by the grocery store on the way home from the office. 
Even with the stand mixer with bread paddle to do most of the kneading,
the bread took hours. This particular recipe had to rise four times. It
had bananas and orange peel and cinnamon and whole wheat flour. It smelled
heavenly while baking. 

When I popped it out of the oven, finally, at 10pm, I had the highest
hopes. It was beautiful bread--golden brown with a light, hollow sound
when thumped. I carried the beautiful bread through the house, showing the
other inhabitants what I had created with my own two hands, with my
beloved Kitchenaid stand mixer with bread paddle, with hours of my time.
But when tested, it wouldn't come out of the pan, so the warm, brown,
crusty top half separated from the thoroughly stuck bottom half, and there
were damp clumps of dough in between. The center of the loaf was a sinking
ship. It was not as flavorful as it smelled, not as tender as it looked. I
thought of the chickens in the back yard and the old song, "Chicken in a
bread pan, pickin' out dough". No doubt someone's utter failure sent out
to the hens. I gently placed the top back onto the bottom. It was
beautiful bread.

Julie