Baking bread with other people is more fun.
Baking bread with the people at Brady Bread Bakery is very fun.
Under Bob's watchful eye, the sponge, dry ingredients, and oil are all mixing together in this awesome mixer. That's enough dough for 30 pounds of bread!
The dough from the mixer is divided into two tubs for rising. This is just after this tub of dough was punched down.
Bob starts to scale the dough and Marilyn gets the pans ready. I didn't get a picture of all of us forming the loaves, because everyone works as quickly as possible to minimize the time between the first and last loaves so the rising time is pretty much the same.
Tony covers the formed loaves--two sets of four pans linked together placed on a tray--and sets them in the proofer.
While waiting for the bread dough to rise, we have time to do such tasks as put labels on the plastic bread bags. There's always time to sit and chat as well!
Marilyn keeps a close eye on the oven thermometer to keep a steady temperature. This oven has several racks that rotate while baking. It can hold more than our batch of 30 loaves!
Marilyn and Andrew watch the bread closely during the last few minutes of baking to determine when it is ready to come out. There are two of those great ovens side-by-side! I wouldn't mind having one like them.
Thirty beautiful loaves of bread cool on the racks! Note all of the bread pans below.
After forming the 30 one-pound loaves, there's always a small amount of dough left--perfect for trying out something new. Tony is tasting Bob's creation. He filled the center of the dough with chopped fresh garlic and onion before baking it. It was sensational!
A successful morning of baking! Not only did we produce thirty loaves of beautiful and delicious bread, but we all had an enjoyable time.
The proceeds from the bread sales fund some important projects: Jail Ministry, Brady Faith Center, and Pedal to Possibilities.
