I was training a new baker earlier this week and as a result my sleep schedule is all messed up, and it's going to stay messed up for a few weeks. I hate that. In spite of that I usually enjoy it, because it involves teaching someone to bake bread and I love baking bread. As far as I'm concerned, baking cake and cookies and whatnot is horribly dull. Breadmaking, on the other hand, is exciting because you are dealing with a living organism--yeast--and a complicated mechanical structure--the gluten network formed through the kneading process. These two things combine to make the tasty food we call bread. I love bread. (REAL bread, that is. None of this Wonderbread nonsense.)
Bread-making uses all the senses. You feel the dough constantly to judge how the dough is coming together. You look at and feel the rising dough to determine if it has risen enough. If you think you've forgotten the salt then a taste of the dough is needed--a saltless dough has a distinctive flatness. In baking you look to check the color, to see if it is baking at the right rate. Smell helps you know if it has baked enough--does it smell like bread? Or does it have the alcohol scent of dough? You listen to the loaves as you tap tap tap to see if they are baked through. And all the while your mind is sorting through the information your senses are generating, comparing it to all the batches you've baked before and deciding what to do next. More flour? More kneading? More rising? Slash it and bake now, or wait just a little more? Will it rise more, or just collapse? Bread baking is never dull.
And best of all, and the end of it you have bread.
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