Baking bread

I am a baking enthusiast. I especially like baking bread. Having grown up in a family full of women terrified of yeast, a couple years ago I rebelled by shunning quick breads and purchasing my first packets of yeast. With the rapid-rise yeast, I've baked white breads, and whole wheat breads, dinner rolls, sweet breads and cinnamon rolls. I'm pretty good at it, and there's something about the process of kneading dough that is almost meditative for me. I get my best creative break-thrus in this state. Except, the other day, my kneading made me wonder how people made bread before they could pop down to the supermarket and pick up some yeast.

Since I've been online, I've become utterly incapable of wondering about something without asking Google to enlighten me. How did pioneers make bread? Yeast is in the air, it's all over the place. You can cultivate your own yeast with flour and water, and there are all different kinds of yeast and they all have food preferences. The kind of yeast you cultivate depends on the type of flour you use. The yeast that likes rye flour is different from the yeast that likes wheat flour, and who knows what that stuff in the packets likes... I'm completely amazed by this discovery. So, a few days ago I mixed-up my own bread starter. Today was Day Three, and the first day I had to feed it(equal parts flour and water) since it was born on Saturday. I think it will be ready for the initial batch of bread on Wednesday.

I'm completely blown away by the process and now feel ridiculously empowered. Empowered but somewhat ashamed to admit... my first thought after seeing the process working? Now, in case of a Zombiepocalypse, I can still make bread! Oh yea. Carbs: 1 -- Zombies: 0!