I can't believe I thought of this all by myself

Yes, folks, I actually have a kitchen tip today that I didn't steal from someone else. Aren't you pleased with me? :)

Some of you may remember the bread post I did last Tuesday. ( http://fruit-of-her-hands.blogspot.com/2008/06/memories.html ) A few of you were kind enough to say it inspired you to bake some bread. It did the same for me!

Seeing a new recipe that I wanted to try was also part of the reason I made a batch of bread. I was pleased, but not completely satisfied with the results, and I want to tweak it a little before I post the recipe here.

But it did feel good to be making bread again. Ah! All the senses are involved in the process:

The strong smell of yeast being activated...

...the smell of fresh flour (when I'm blessed enough to be using it!)...

...the powdery softness of that flour....

...the heavy, slippery weight of bread dough in my hands....

...the sound of the kneading machine whirring, or the thuwumph of dough against the table when I knead by hand...

...the silky smoothness of well-kneaded dough under my fingertips...

...the sound of timers going off when my bread has finished rising...

...and, of course, there's the taste and smell of bread fresh from the oven! With butter and cheese melted liberally over a slice? Nothing better!

And, when I made bread this past Saturday, I had an idea. A simple idea, to be sure, but one that I thought was interesting.

You see, for lunch, we had reheated pizza on some baking stones in our oven, and we happened to leave the stones in there. I mixed up my dough right after lunch.

I usually set the dough in the oven to rise, but on Saturday, when I opened the oven door, I was met with a blast of hot air. Those stones really hold heat, and the oven hadn't cooled down much at all. It was far too hot of an atmosphere to rise the dough properly.

But the windows in the kitchen were open to admit a pretty breeze, so the top of the stove or counters was no place for bread to rise, either - too drafty.

As I was puzzling over the situation, the thought came to me that I ought to be thankful that the oven was staying warm, because it would use less electricity to heat up again when I wanted to bake the bread. A frugal mindset helps keep me cheerful sometimes! (Tip #1; store baking stones in the oven when not otherwise in use!)

However, we have three baking stones, and I was sure that two would keep the oven sufficiently warm. Therefore, I removed one of the stones, and set it on the top of our stove. I could feel the heat radiating several inches above the surface of the stone, but it wasn't too hot. I set the bowl containing my dough on the stone, and covered it loosely with a cloth.

The dough rose perfectly. Later, for the second rising, (with the dough in the bread pans) I took a different stone out of the oven, because the first one had cooled. It, too, worked beautifully. The loaves rose high and puffy.


Oh - one more thing; during the process of rising, Mom needed to use the stove top. No problem. She just moved the stone, with the bowl on it, to the table. My invention is portable!

Pretty neat, huh?