Finding joy in the little things today

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I have made it my mantra to "choose joy" whenever and wherever I can. Hence, the name the "Joyful Gardener". It's amazing when you go looking for it, there are "joy moments" everywhere!

Today was pouring down rain and absolutely miserable outside. My greenhouse construction (coming in another blog post soon!) was stalled. Definitely an inside day which also means bread day around here! Is there anything better than the smell of fresh-baked bread coming from the oven?

Growing up, my grandmothers both baked bread and buns regularly. Along with regular dinner rolls, we has something called "zweibuck" (means two buns) which it literally is two buns stuck together. As a kid, I loved zweibuck because you could pull the two buns apart and place a dollop of homemade jam in the little well. If you want a recipe, try this one from Mennonite Girls Who Cook. The smell of fresh bread in the oven is one of those scents brings with it a flood of memories. For all of the things my grandmothers taught me, I never learned to bake bread.

On a visit with a friend who lives in the interior and has to travel long distances to go into town, baking bread for her family of 6 was a necessity. It was on one such visit, I learned the magic of baking with yeast and I have been hooked ever since.

During the pandemic when yeast was scarce, sourdough became all the rage. I learned how to make my own starter from Baker Bettie . There is a point around day 4 where your starter is supposed to double in size and, for lack of a better term, take on a life of its own. Try as I might I couldn't get my sourdough to take the leap of faith. This is a common problem for people trying to start their own starters and one that has people quitting before they get started. I read somewhere that a pinch of yeast would do the trick. Lo and behold, my starter grew!

One of the benefits, and yes joys, of working from home is that when you are making true sourdough bread, you need to age the dough (at least 18-24 hours). If you work full-time away from home, that poses a problem because you aren't home when the bread is ready to go into the oven. Working from home meant fresh bread almost daily. I used this recipe when I started. What I loved about it was that she provided a timeline from start to finish so I could plan when my bread needed to be baked. I didn't use fancy baskets or rice flour, seldom put in fancy cut marks to pretty the loaves up but my family ate very well. When yeast supplies were low, we could still enjoy our bread.

I branched out and tried everything from sourdough pancakes (they were meh) to cinnamon buns to hamburger buns. Both types of buns, cinnamon and hamburger, were a hit. The family loved the buns for their lunches (easier to work with than my big round loaves) and are something I continue to make regularly. They were soft with just the right amount of chew to them.

Basic bread became boring and the maker in me wanted to experiment with artisan bread. I experimented with herbs and spices, additions of nuts and berries, peppers and cheddar. Here are the family favourites: Italian seasoning with garlic; craisin walnut; jalapeno, cheddar, and black pepper.

Once I went back into the office, I couldn't keep up with the long rise that traditional sourdough takes so I improvised and developed a faster-rise bread that also can be used for buns. The artisan varieties also work well with this new recipe.

Here's how I make it: (I use a scale because I find it works best)

Basic Sourdough Bread Dough

• 170 g of sourdough starter (fed within the last 12 hours so it's nice and bubbly. Sometimes I do it in the morning on a Saturday and make the dough around 1 or 2 in the afternoon).)

• 300 g of warm water (not hot)

• 500 g of flour (I use white but you could do 200 g of whole wheat and 300 g of white too)

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp instant dry yeast

1. Place yeast in the bottom of a large mixing bowl.

2. Add in your starter and warm water, Stir to combine and moisten the yeast.

3. Measure out your flour and salt. Add to the yeast warm water mixture.

4. (If you are adding extras like I do with my artisan breads, now is also the time to add those items in-see my notes at the end for measurements).

5. Combine all ingredients until a sticky ball forms. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled. I use the "proof" function on my oven along with turning on my oven light. Doing this means the rise to double is about an hour to an hour and a half. If you don't have a proof function, placing your dough in the oven with the light on will work too. It might take a little longer to reach double in size this way.

6. Once it has doubled in size, you can remove it from the oven. At this time, set your oven to bake at 425 degrees F.

7. Stretch the dough between your hands and then fold it together. Do this 4 times. Pulling in all directions.

• If you are making a round loaf, reform into a ball. Place on parchment paper in a Dutch oven if you have one or place on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. The parchment paper makes it easier to lift it out of the Dutch oven when it's hot. Allow it to rise again. This will take about 30-45 minutes. It should be almost double again.

Don't forget about it like I did one time! This is what happens!

Bake for 40 minutes in Dutch oven with the lid on. Then remove the lid for another 5-8 minutes to make the bread crusty.

Jalapeno, cheddar, and black pepper

Dutch oven-baked goodness

• If you are making buns, pinch a golf ball-sized ball of dough. Roll in a small amount of flour to make it less sticky and then pinch and roll it until you have a nice round ball. Here is a quick tutorial I made that might help. Bake for 15-20 minutes. I put 24 buns on a pan to make them dinner bun size. If you want hamburger buns, make them a bit bigger and you will get 16-18 buns.

24 dinner rolls size buns

Hamburger buns with lots of cheddar inside and out.

• If you are making cinnamon rolls, this is the time to roll it out, add your cinnamon, butter, brown sugar and raisins. Bake as per the directions in the recipe above.

Pre-iced cinnamon buns. So yummy!

This recipe freezes well. I put mine in large Ziploc bags and freeze for up to a month or more. No freezer burn and they come out as fresh as the day they were made. The sourdough also inhibits mold growth so your bread will have a longer shelf life than other homemade bread recipes.

A note of variations/artisan flavours- You can play around with different combinations but here is what I use:

• jalapeno, cheddar, and black pepper- 2 medium-large jalapenos (I don't remove the seeds) sliced into discs, 1 cup cheddar shredded, and 1-2 tsp of ground black pepper

• cranberry walnut- 1 cup each craisins and chopped walnuts/pecans

• raisin bread- 3/4 cup raisins soaked for 10 minutes in hot water (then drained), 1 TBSP cinnamon

• Italian garlic- 1-2 TBSP (I use 2) and 2 TBSP minced garlic (store-bought pre-minced or about 6 cloves fresh)

Another note: If you find that you get too busy, or are going on holiday for an extended period of time, and aren't sure what to do with your starter, you can "park it" for up to a month in your fridge in a tightly sealed mason jar. Just feed it, seal it, and park it. When it's time to use it again, open the lid, pour off the gray liquid (the liquor), and scoop out about a half cup of the starter into another jar or a big bowl that you have a loose-fitting lid for. Feed it with 1 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 cup warm water. Let it come back to life. I often keep some starter parked in my fridge. Once a month, I take it out, feed it and then put it right back into the fridge. That way I always have some and I only take out and feed what I am going to use right away. No waste, no fuss.

On this rainy and gray March 17th, nothing beats the warmth and smell of fresh bread baking in the oven. This is where I found my joy today and I hope that you will find yours too. Sharing my starter (there is always lots to share) and the recipes with friends and loved ones is really a treat. It's how I show and share my love and my joy. I think I have half of the office making bread these days!

May you find joy in the little things.