It’s no secret to those closest to me during the past couple years that I have developed a real affinity for bread-making. Not that lazy nonsense done with a machine, but really doing it all by hand, from scratch.
There’s just something beautifully simple and magical about exerting a small dose of effort, a bit of patience and getting something much bigger and wonderful in return. I could try comparing it to making and carrying a baby to term, or even a more direct hobby analogue like gardening, but I’ll just say that for me, making bread is not just therapeutic because of the tactility of mixing and kneading, but it defies the common logic that you get out of something what you put into it.
For years I enjoyed bread, assumimg that buying it from the store or during one of the rare visits to my grandmother’s house was pretty much the only way to get it. To learn how basic the recipes generally are, how cheaply they can be made, and often how much more delicious and healthy it is versus the chemical- and preservative-laden loaves from the market tend to be, I was not only surprised, but embarrassed–if not borderline ashamed–to have neglected these truths for so long.
All that said, the year or two of experience I gathered from learning and making various bread recipes while living in San Francisco have proven at least a little helpful while attempting to rekindle the hobby here in Japan. Aside from just plain enjoying it as a pasttime, the impetus is that I’ve found bread in Japan not quite to my liking. While many bakeries exist that offer specialty breads, pastries, etc., many of them don’t maintain as convenient hours as grocery stores, nor are they what I would describe as “affordable,” often ranging from 5-10 dollars for things you might pay 2-5 bucks for in America. That says nothing of the sizes, which tend to be half to two-thirds the size I am used to. On top of that, basic sandwich bread here is almost always that super-white, blocky stuff that many western people outgrow when they reach adulthood. For pre-made sandwiches, they even tend to trim the crusts off like some western children prefer. Whole wheat or other grain sandwich breads are nearly impossible to find.
