Helping a family through bread baking

One summer years ago my mother taught a local farmers wife, we will call Mrs. Peterson, how to bake bread. Mrs. Peterson’s young family was having a hard time financially and my mother wanted to see them succeed. She taught Mrs. Peterson to bake bread, rolls, and other yeasted goodies. She gave her advice on how to keep track of money spent on ingredients, and run a small cottage business. It was a skill that would serve Mrs. Peterson for years to come.

My not so glorious personal baking history

Every little girl back in the 1960s had an Easy Bake oven. I was lucky enough to have one and loved making the latticed top apple pie and presenting it to my parents. My mother baked large loaves of bread each weekend of my childhood. I did get to help, but I never went from start to finish on my own. I watched and knew the movement and ballet that baking can be. Neuroscience tells us that mirror neurons help your brain wrap around and feel movements when you watch someone else doing something physical. This helped me when I started baking my own bread.