Thursday, May 21, 2015

Five Minute Friday: Rise

Note: This post is my weekly contribution to the Five Minute Friday community that is hosted by Kate Motaung on her blog Heading Home. Click here for more information about Five Minute Friday and how you can get involved! To link up with all the other entries for today's prompt word, click here.
 
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It is my first Christmas Eve in Pennsylvania and I am standing alongside my eventual mother in law Balinda as she makes her traditional Christmas buns. I can smell the warm yeasty dough as she pulls it from the oven in its bowl and feel a little frisson of happiness as I watch her punch it down and then pull it from the bowl to make the buns. That little action of punching down the dough and then watching it rise again is one of my favourite things about working with yeast.

A pan of Balinda's yummy buns all finished! Makes my mouth water just looking at them!
Yeast is a living organism that feeds on the sugar in the dough and gives off carbon dioxide which, of course, causes the dough to rise. The great thing about yeast is that they are insanely resilient little things. You can freeze or refrigerate them and they just go dormant until you add warm water and sugar to get them awake and ready to eat again. There is something so satisfying about watching them bloom and then the resulting rise you get once they're incorporated into the dough. And then you get to punch it down -- fwoosh! fwhiff! -- and watch it rise again, ever so slowly. I love to see the puffy rolls once they've been formed and risen a bit in the warmth of the kitchen.

I'd like to say that I have some amazing way to tie all of this into a faith related lesson, but I don't. I've had a lot of trouble this week rising high enough to function in my day to day life, but that is the nature of things for me right now in this season of my life. Some days and weeks are easier than others. So instead of a lesson, a little memory and a few thoughts on baking. Hope you enjoyed it.

Since I'm talking about baking...what is your favourite baked goodie?

Join in the Five Minute Friday fun and link up at Kate Motaung's blog!

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4 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 21, 2015 at 11:12 PM

    Oh, I love baking bread from scratch. The process may take awhile but the smell and taste is what makes it worth it. I don't eat bread at home as I have children with food allergies. But I do love homemade bread. I especially love to eat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on a rainy day. Thank you for sharing these memories!

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  2. UnknownMay 21, 2015 at 11:24 PM

    I did the most amazing thing with my daughter. We put yeast under the microscope. We did dormant yeast, and warmed and growing yeast. It was so insanely awesome. Baked goods? I like bread and I like cookies. :D
    Hugs,
    Melinda
    (visiting from FMF and mghollis.wordpress.com)

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  3. randi cMay 22, 2015 at 12:16 AM

    I love the smell of a yeast dough, and the satisfaction of punching it down! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and this memory, I loved it. And, I think, it's ok to not tie it in to a faith based lesson directly, I caught nuances of rising to connection, of appreciating the art and beauty of caretaking; both of those are deeply spiritual to me. (Besides, in three weeks so far I have not made a direct link to that either, it's not my jam. But our faith is breathing life into our words even when not written out explicitly!

    From #21 on FMF

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  4. AmyMay 22, 2015 at 11:51 PM

    Oh yum! There is something relaxing and satisfying about making bread (which is also my favorite baked good--it totally indulges all 5 senses)!

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