When I added “11. Make homemade bread” to the Twenty-five To-dos (Year 28) list, what I meant was that I wanted to make bread that required yeast and lots of kneading. I have made cinnamon rolls and quick breads in the past, but nothing that I thought of as “from scratch”. So a couple weekends ago, I decided to spend an afternoon up to my elbows in flour after being inspired by Megan to try my hand at bagels (she makes everything look easy). I also had recently learned the Japanese equivalent of tahini and was anxious to make hummus again, so I found a recipe for pita bread to try out at the same time.

The bagels required the most attention between rising, kneading, rising again, shaping, rising a third time, boiling, and then finally baking. My dinky micro-oven limited me to baking only two bagels at a time, and since each “batch” took 30 minutes, there was plenty of time to switch gears to pita bread in between. The pitas didn’t turn out quite like expected, in that they were supposed to rise enough to allow for pockets. But since we were going to eat them with hummus, that didn’t matter.

There is truth to the saying that kneading dough is therapeutic. The combination of the smell of the yeast and the repetitive movements was relaxing, and I spent the time lost in creative daydreams, mostly writing related. But the best part was eating the results. I’m a bread lover, and so homemade, freshly baked bread? Heaven. I will definitely be doing this again.