knead a little background…

I knead my life like I knead my romance — with a little edge, divine inspiration, overabundance of humor and good food. You’ll learn more about my food obsessions through this blog, but I’ll cut to the chase (with some less-than stellar photos).

last weekend…

I was jones-ing for the smell of yeast that comes from a good knead. My kitchen is postage stamp-sized and many of my cooking utensils and vintage cookbooks are in storage from when I was thinking of moving into a place with my dream kitchen. I put my favorite things there so they wouldn’t get lost or broken or forgotten. But I didn’t move and I never took them out.

There’s nothing worse in the world than feeling that urge for fresh baked pizza or focaccia and knowing your pizza stone is across town. Or when you just finished watching the Great British Baking Show or America’s Test Kitchen and realize you’ve got the skills to make the perfect cheesecake but your springform is in storage across town. Or when you feel an unreasonable, inexplicable urge to put cake decorating competition in his/her place by making a more beautiful, more showier, taller, wider, more flowery-er cake to cement your rightful place as master cake decorator … but your tips are in storage across town.

Anyhoo…

kneading conflicts

So, it had been a while since I made pizza and I did a quick search for recipes and was horrified. Recipe after recipe of no-yeast, no-knead recipes. The no-yeast and no-knead parts all bold-ed in the title like that’s a good thing.

Am I crazy? Why in the world do people want loaf bread without yeast? I mean, I make no-yeast breads, too, but when it comes to bread bread, it’s all yeast, all day long. What’s bread bread? I’m talking, takes some effort to tear a loaf apart with your hands, bread. Or full of holes for the butter to seep into, bread. Or, keep you alive and full when you have nothing else, bread. Can double for a soup tureen, bread. Can stretch thin and top with many toppings, bread. Around since the beginning of time, bread. That takes yeast and kneading.

Another shock! A search of yeast recipes pulled up all sorts of references to a stand mixer with a dough hook. First thought was – oh yeah, my KitchenAid is in storage across town. Second thought: Is everyone using a dough hook to knead their bread/pizza dough? Why?! Kneading is hella fun! Second only to seeing your bread rise up and expel that amazing warm, crusty, yeasty aroma throughout the house, kneading the dough is king! I would knead even if I didn’t get the end result and I’m not just saying that because I don’t have access to my mixer. I’m saying it because when it comes to the knead, I really enjoy it. That’s right, I said it.

some insight?

So here’s where I make my metaphor. Kneading bread dough is like a romantic relationship. It takes work. I takes time. It takes making sure you have the right tools and plenty of elbow room. It takes paying attention and noticing when the dough is too wet, too dry, or just right (that wasn’t intended to be a sexual reference but take it as you will). And at the end, you have this lovely, smooth ball of responsive dough. Poking your finger into a ball of yeasty dough feels like poking your finger into flesh, it gives a little. It’s alive! Unlike every other ingredient you will add to just about anything you bake or cook, yeast comes to life in water with living, breathing bacteria that needs 1) water and 2) the knead action to be truly happy. Sure, the bacteria part sounds gross, but don’t worry – they’re all killed off when you bake it. By that time you won’t knead it anymore – see what I did there? 🙂 Bottom line, like love and romance, a good yeast dough will only thrive if you give it the proper attention.

I feel super-satisfied when I put my shoulder into that dough and watch it transform from a pile of raggedy, powdery, pasty wet flour into a smooth ball of yeasty goodness. Like I’ve accomplished something. The fact that our ancestors have been doing the same thing since the beginning of time deepens the satisfaction. As it was, so it is – anything in life or love is worth working for.

I put my ingredients together and made this beautiful bouncing ball of love.

and then I made an overloaded pizza … I have issues with impulse control. I’ll tell you about it in my next post.

Ava's Easy Pizza Crust

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Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
• 1 teas yeast
• 1 teas salt
• .5 teas sugar
• .5 cup water
• .25 cup water

Instructions

 

• Melt yeast in lukewarm water. Mix flour, water, oil and yeluten develops elsticity.ast with hands until it begins to pull together a dough ball. flower the counter lightly and knead dough until it comes together and gluten develops elasticity. Place smooth ball in lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. puch dough down, shape as desired, cover and allow to rise one hour more. Shape dough as desired and use immediately.

What about you?

If you’ve never tried making a yeast bread or pizza dough yourself, you might want to give it a try. There are easier ways to do it, sure, but none quite so wonderfully satisfying as with your own two hands. I’d love to know if you like making your own bread/dough or why you would never in a million years? Really, I’m curious.