Baking Bread

by Sister Cordy Korkowski

I have always been intrigued with bread. This stemmed way back to my teenage days when under the guidance of my mother, she taught me how to make white bread. I practiced diligently. Once when my parents left for a few hours, I tried to do it on my own. I was about nine years old. It was a disaster. I ended up taking the entire pan of dough into the deep pasture and with my large spoon, made a mountain of white dough. I threw a little grass over it to camouflage it. I told no one. Later in the evening, because I felt very guilty for wasting so much flour, I went back into the pasture to check my dough. There were three chickens stuck in it. I released them, walked home and said nothing. Years later, I told my parents the story. They got more than a chuckle out of my ordeal.

My mother won a Pillsbury Bread Baking Contest at one time. I was so proud of her.
From those early days of bread baking, when white bread was THE bread, we as a family enjoyed coming home from school and diving into a loaf or two of white bread. It was always well worth the wait.

I have moved out of the ‘white bread’ category to many other types of breads. Several years ago, I purchased the book, 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood. He states in his book, “Bread links all cultures together. It holds a social and gastronomic significance for everyone. In this most recent book, Paul Hollywood outlines the recipes for Basil and Olive Foccacia, Chocolate and Sour Cherry Bread, Brioche, Olive and Sundried Tomato Bread and many more. Having grown up in Liverpool, the oldest of three boys, and testing recipes in his father’s bakery, Paul Hollywood came to realize the variations and different types of bread were endless. His recipes attest to this.

Bread has been very much on my mind during the month of August as we celebrate the weekend Liturgies hearing the Gospel of John each weekend with the theme of bread. Jesus was very familiar with bread. Jesus tells us, “I am the living bread come down from heaven…and whoever eats this bread will live forever”. John 6:51 Bread truly is good for the body, and good for our spiritual connections with our faith.




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