Day 8: Mar. 1

A Day to BAKE

The Spiritual Practice of Seeing God in a Piece of Bread

"The Rabbi turned to his students and said: 'Do you know where God is?' He took a piece of bread, showed it to them all and continued: 'God is in this piece of bread. Without the manifestation of God’s power in all nature, this piece of bread would have no existence.'"

With a piece of bread, say a prayer of thanksgiving and spend a moment contemplating its origins. Look into the bread to see the baker, the measuring cups, the warm ovens baking the bread; look deeper to see the wheat mill and the raw grain; and look deeper yet to see the wheat fields, the rich soil, the clouds offering rain, the sun making new growth possible. See the farmer planting the fields in spring and see the farmer's parents nurturing him or her from childhood.

Continue back as far as you like, realizing that "in the beginning" there was only God.

This is the unfolding story of Creation and the Eternal One's power of transformation; this is knowing that God is in a piece of bread. — James L. Mirel, Karen Bonnell Werth in Stepping Stones to Spiritual Living

Baguettes

6 cups (766 g) unbleached bread flour
2 ¼ tsp (16 g) salt
1 ¾ tsp (5 g) instant yeast
2 ½ cups plus 3 Tbsp (610 g) cool water
flour, semolina, or cornmeal for dusting

1. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, salt, yeast and water. Mix with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on low speed or by hand until a dough comes together, about 1 minute. Continue mixing until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Transfer to a lightly oiled work surface.

2. Using oiled hands, pat the dough into a disk. Choose one side and stretch it and fold it back in on the dough. Give it a quarter turn and repeat with another side. Repeat two more times for a total of four times. Cover the dough with a bowl and rest for five minutes. Repeat the process, stretching and folding four times, every 5 minutes, four times total. Spray the bowl you’ve been using to cover the dough lightly with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turn to coat and cover. Refrigerate overnight.

3. Bring the dough to room temperature. Gently transfer to a floured work surface using an oiled dough scraper. If the dough is too sticky to handle, lightly sprinkle flour over it. With oiled hands coax it into a roughly 8-inch x 6-inch shape. Divide it cleanly in half, and let it rest for 5 minutes.

4. Arrange an oven rack in the lowest position. Place a metal baking pan in the bottom of the oven. It should be deep enough to hold a cup of water that you’ll pour in before baking to provide a steamy environment. Preheat the oven to 500⁰ F or 550⁰ F if it will go that high.

5. Turn two baking sheets upside down and over with parchment. Mist with oil and dust with bread flour, semolina, or cornmeal. With each piece of your divided dough, cut three long portions and transfer to the baking sheets. Using a sharp serrated knife (dip it in water between each cut), score the bread making diagonal slashes across the baguettes.

6. Prepare 1 cup of hot water. Carefully slide one of the pieces of parchment with three of the baguettes onto the baking sheet. Quickly add the water to the bottom of the pan (use an oven mitt because the water will turn to steam when it hits the hot pan) and close the oven door.

7. Bake until golden brown, 20-35 minutes, rotating halfway through. Transfer to a cooling rack and repeat the process with the remaining loaves.