Spare a moment for homemade bread

A friend visited this weekend. As with all Italians, she had a fine taste for food and was not used to eating factory breads that are packaged to last for weeks. After trying two slices of Pepperidge Farm bread, my friend decided to make her own bread for the rest of the visit. What an elaborate process, I thought! But she assured me it would only take salt, yeast and flour, with 15 minutes of work. True enough. She made a dough in less than no time. Then we went on to do our own things for a few hours. When we got back, we just baked the dough for 15 minutes, and had bread fresh from oven to table. Here again is one of those most sketchy recipes I've ever collected, which describe the most lovely experiences in life.


Recipe: Simple homemade bread


Ingredients:
- 1 very full teaspoon salt
- 1 very full teaspoon yeast
- 1 lb white flour


Mix salt and yeast on a counter. Build a hill of white flour. Make a hole on top. Add some water and start kneading until it forms a dough that is moist and not too watery. On a large pan, flatten dough into 1" thick, or make into a few small rolls. Cut some lines on loaf to enable expansion. Let it rise in warm dark place for 2 hours. Bake for 15 minutes or until it looks like the color in the photo below. 

This bread is very simple. A life of such simplicity is itself a luxury. Truly many people cannot afford it because of too many demands they have in life. This reminds me of my first shock in graduate school. At the beginning, I made my own congee for breakfast. It's as simple as my friend's bread. After one week, I found myself in a discussion with two other international students on how much time we spent on breakfast. The Italian said he spent 15 minutes making his moka every morning. The Iranian said he would just grab a bagel with cream cheese and eat it on his way out, no more 7 minutes. Then I realized that taking 45 minutes daily for breakfast was not the lifestyle for a busy graduate student. Though I could not have such leisure every day, somehow I still never really gave it up. A life of simplicity is worth pursuing.