bread and crackers

chanda and i baked bread today, and talked about how yeast is a fungi like mushrooms. it feeds upon the sugars in the dough, breaking them down and turning them into carbon dioxide; the same gas we exhale, the same gas the trees take in and turn into oxygen through photosynthesis. and like the mushrooms it feeds from a living substance and transforms it.

the recipe we used was an old one from the girls' playgroup in brooklyn. basically, a tablespoon of yeast is sprinkled over one cup of warm water or milk mixed with a spoonful of honey.

after it bubbled, we added olive oil and sea salt and spelt flour . .

mixing until a ball was formed and it was firm enough to knead on the counter.

then we oiled a bowl, covered it, and let it rise for an hour.

then chanda punched it down and formed it into a loaf.

she rubbed the top with egg and milk.

we baked it at 375 degrees for about forty minutes. it was so good that i almost didn't get a picture of it . .

in the afternoon, before running off to ballet class, morgana made almond pulp crackers, from elana's pantry. she had made almond milk in the morning, and wanted to use the leftover pulp.

she added flax meal (i had ground flax seeds in our electric coffee grinder a few weeks ago, and kept it fresh in the refrigerator), fresh thyme . .

olive oil . .

and sea salt.

elana's directions say to dehydrate at 135 degrees, but my oven only begins at 170 degrees, so i kept it in for about 10 hours. they turned out very good!