I have been seriously baking bread for three or four years now. Other than the odd blip, we are pretty much self-sufficient. I have grown to love watching and kneading the dough - learning to feel when it is ready, rather than relying on a timer. I love the variety of things which can be made from the simplest of ingredients; flour, water, salt and yeast - bread and pizzas - and then slightly more complex variations; sourdough and breads based on enriched doughs, like these hot cross buns. I also realise there are some lessons from baking bread which apply equally to leading a church.
I love enriched doughs, especially for brioche loaves. When I first started the mess was awful - dough splattered up curtains and several early attempts ended up being scraped into the bin. The problem is that the initial dough is easy to knead (I don't have a stand mixer, so it is all by hand) but then you come to adding the butter. At first all seems well and the baker feels brimming with confidence, but then there is the dawning realisation that the butter has barely incorporated into the dough, and the kneading has merely resulted in the butter being pushed out the other end and smearing across the working surface. Patience is needed and the experience to know to trust the process. A different kneading strategy is helpful (slap and fold) which encourages gluten development without losing control of the sticky blob in front of you and the temptation to reduce the stickiness by adding a bit more flour needs to be resisted. Patience and confidence to look past the mess and see that the dough will come together are vital here.
Unlike using instant yeast, a sourdough loaf is very different. Although the actual hands-on time is the same, the time from start until taking the loaves out of the over is something like 20 hours including the overnight feed of the starter. (At some point it would be worth re-reading some of the Biblical references to leavened bread and yeast with sourdough rather than yeast powder in our minds). There is a balance required with the sourdough process; one the one hand it is important to leave sufficient time for the bulk fermentation, for example, to take place but on the other there also has to be the confidence to know when the dough is ready enough. When I want to bake sourdough I know that I need to get the starter going last thing on the night before. If I do that then I will be mixing the dough first thing the next morning, say 7am, and then there will be a couple of stretch and folds required over the next couple of hours. I know that I will shape the loaves and leave them to rest around lunchtime before placing them in the banneton baskets and then leaving them to prove with a view to baking around 4pm. Many external factors play a part here, not least the temperature in the kitchen. It can be frustrating to start the process and then have something come up which cuts across one of these key moments. A degree of experience-learned judgment is needed in order to know how to modify the timings on the hoof. In other words one needs to have got it wrong and worked out why frequently enough to be able to then know the right changes to make.
Dough needs both salt and yeast in order to give a flavoursome and well-risen loaf. Ironically, salt is detrimental to the efficacy of the yeast. In a normal yeasted loaf the salt and yeast would be measured and then placed at opposite sides of the mixing bowl, keeping them apart for as long as possible. When I make sourdough I hold back a tiny fraction of the water and add the salt to that, setting aside for half an hour whilst the more delicate sourdough starter can begin to work. It is also counter-intuitive that very dry flour seems to be able to resist the presence of the water. Time is needed for the flour to become fully hydrated, a process known as the autolyse. Therefore, care is needed. Not all the ingredients mix easily and some even need to be held back for a short time - even though their presence is vital for the final loaf.
It seems a bit strange to learn that it is important to let the gluten in the dough rest, especially after some work has been put in. A lot of loaves require a pre-shaping (getting the loaf in sort of the right shape) and then 20 minutes or so of resting before the work involved in finishing the shaping and creating the surface on the dough which will become the crust. If you only shape once then you can feel the resistance and the dough pulling back, especially when making a pizza base! In order to get a soft workable ball of dough which can be stretched out to carry all those beautiful toppings I leave my dough to rest for 2 hours. Sometimes it is as important to allow the changes brought about by shaping to rest and relax in order for the next stage to work best.
Even after all the essential care has been taken there is still the moment of chaos as the loaves are placed into the hot oven. A visually satisfying loaf will have some oven spring and some crusty edges. In order to allow the chaos of the spring to take place but within some limits, it is crucial to score the loaf - a razor blade slicing into the top of the loaf to give some outlet for the expansion. The exact scoring is entirely personal, and can add to the beauty of the finished article, but the chaos has to be channeled slightly to let the energy out in some way.
This might sound complicated, but when it works a hand-made, home-baked loaf fresh from the oven is second to none. Likewise, bringing about change in church can be messy and chaotic, but there is no sight better!
I'd love to know if there are any other parts of baking that apply to church leadership that I could add.
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