For the Love of Food: baking to calm the mind

Cooking and baking is both physical and mental therapy.

— Mary Berry. 

Overwhelmed?
Not enough time?

These are some of the things that plague my mind and body each day (no-one feels fresh under stress). Unfortunately, I suspect this is the case for many others. The truth is, life can easily and regularly get on top of us. This can be combated by small (or big) sparks of joy each day,  even if that means only having time to read on the loo. But for me, stress has a funny way of beating the joy from my day.
I battle with a darkness that tries to pull me down, as I watch my dreams disappear, and of course it’s all self flagellation.
So, before I got too deep, I vowed to myself over the last week that I would fight back against the currents of stress and calm myself. Instantly, baking came to mind and my first wee project for ‘creating joy’ was born.

Sweet or savoury, we all have our favourites, that special thing we love to nibble. However, with our busy lives’ meals can pass by forgotten and unappreciated. Our tongue’s barely get a taste, as we rush to that meeting or drive to that next appointment. My personal relationship with food has been a weird one. I start healthy diets, and then find that I crash out weeks or sometimes days later. Good intentions thrown away as a sugar craving takes over. And so, when I saw the book ‘clean and Lean’ by James Duigan, I jumped in headfirst, wanting to break the cycle.

I read the book in half a day (I highly recommend it), during which time it gave me the idea for the next part of my blog project: to bake rye bread. A healthier alternative to normal wheat based bread and if I baked it myself there would be no added sugar. My mind would get a healthy creative hit, whilst my body would get a healthy food hit. A win, win!
However, I was very conscious that I didn’t overwhelm myself further. There is nothing worse than dousing the small flames of inspiration with stress, when you’re already stressed.
That’s when it hit me – Start simple.

So…I dived into the black hole of the internet and surprisingly, it didn’t take long to find a simple rye recipe. All I needed was four ingredients (see below) and some time to kill in the house; being a home bird helps with the latter.
If you want to bake, but feel overwhelmed, having an easy, inexpensive recipe helps immensely. There’s no pressure and you won’t over think it.

Let’s get baking!

Ingredients
300g Organic Rye flour (light)
250g Warm Water
3g Dried Yeast
6g Salt

Utensils:
Weighing Scales
Mixing Bowl (preferably glass)
Mixing Spoon (preferably wooden)
Baking Tin: I used 20cm x 10cm x 7cm (length x width x height)
Cooling Rack (or something similar)

Timings:
Preparation: 20-30 minutes
Proving: 2 hours
Cooking: 45 minutes

Method:
1. Place the 300g of rye flour into a glass bowl (or any bowl you have in your house). Then create a deep pit in the centre of the flour and put the 3g of dried yeast into it. Next pour half (125g) of the warm water into the pit to cover the yeast and leave it to stand for 15minutes (to activate the yeast; little bubbles will start to rise in the small lagoon).

2. As you wait, grease your baking tin. Butter is best, but you could also use grease proof baking paper.

3. Once the 15 minutes have past, add the salt and the rest of the water (and any other spices or herbs you fancy experimenting with, for example cinnamon / smoked paprika / basil etc).

4. Next mix the ingredients together. A wooden spoon is recommended. I have limited baking utensils, so I used a metal spoon (please note using a metal spoon can be sore on your palm). The concoction should be thick and sticky, leaving the bowl sides messy. Whilst giving your arm a good workout to get the spoon all the way round. If the mix is too dry i.e. not all the flour has been picked up in the dough, feel free to add more water; but only dashes at a time as you don’t want it runny.

5. Now wet your hands, plunge them into the gooey mess and pull the dough into the baking tin (your fingers will be covered in dough afterwards). Squidge the dough around the tin, until all the space and corners are filled and make the dough surface as level as possible.

6. Next cover the baking tin in a tea towel or cling film. I found the tea towel better as the cling film pulled at the dough surface, but please note the towel can get dirtied with dough. Then place the tin on the side, preferably in a warm place or in a warm draw and leave it to prove (to give it time to rise) for 2 hours.

7. After approx. 1.5 hours turn your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, so that it’s preheated by the time your dough is ready.

8. Once the full 2hours have past, remove the cover on the baking tin and place it on the middle shelf of your oven. Cook it for 45 minutes (or until golden on the top).

9. Once the bread is cooked, take it out of the oven, leave it to cool on a cooling wrack (I just used a raised grill tray from my oven). The bread should slide out easily from the tin.

10. If you want a taller, heavier loaf just double the amounts of this recipe and cook it to approx. 1 hour (if you like your crust very crunchy; lessen the time if not).

And that’s it!

I didn’t overthink or break the bank with this recipe
(Sainsbury’s: Yeast £0.85, x8 sachets ; Organic rye flour £1.50, 1kg) , and it was unbelievably satisfying seeing and tasting the golden crusts that I had created. Nothing makes your home smell better than bread.
Well… That and cake.

Thank you for reading, I hope you feel inspired, as I did, to turn your hand to baking.
Enjoy creating!

Thank you, ‘Virtuous Bread’ for sharing this great, easy recipe on your website. (https://www.virtuousbread.com)