• by Garth Bender , July 5, 2013

Baking has always been one of my many passions. In all of my time in the kitchen, I've discovered that the fundamental principles of baking are the same as the principles of the way we lead our lives … the way we approach our work. How we shape ourselves into the people that we want to be. Good people. 

I’ve found that there are three key principles that are critical in baking:

1. Ingredients matter
2. Timing can't be rushed
3. Results are never as expected

Here's what I mean:

Ingredients matter  

Bread has four basic ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water. Will you get the same results if you use all-purpose flour as you would using bread flour? No. Instant yeast vs. active yeast? No. Will you have bread? Yes, but the quality of the ingredients is the foundation for the quality of the bread. It's that simple. Use the best you can.

This is the same in life and in our work. Ingredients are what we're made of – patience, empathy, honesty, diligence – you name it. The aggregate of these ingredients, or traits, is who we are, and the more refined our ingredients, the stronger our foundation. We grow these traits over time, and, hopefully, are mindful of their progress.

Knowing what the right ingredients are or how to better refine them is an often seemingly insurmountable and never-ending challenge. It takes a certain level of diligence, discipline, and commitment to yourself and to your craft to continually improve on the inherently imperfect. Which leads us to principle number two.

Timing can't be rushed

Even with the best ingredients, there are some processes that just need time. You can expedite the proofing of dough in many different ways, but for what you save in time, you lose in the details. Bread proofed quickly can be bland and flavorless. Only time will provide a full and complex taste.

As in baking, there’s no avoiding that some things in life just take time. It’s often in our nature to look for shortcuts, but in those we lose the nuances. It takes diligence, discipline, commitment, and, with the addition of time, patience. Remember that whether you are baking bread, applying your craft or just working on being a better friend, you are honing a skill, a trait and ultimately, yourself.

If you’re anything like me, patience doesn’t come naturally. More than once I’ve thrown dough into an oven that I knew was too cold. That doesn’t make the endeavor a failure; it makes it a learning experience. Instead of a loaf of bread and a full stomach, I ended up with a flour brick and a lesson on the importance of appropriate temperature in the baking process. Not at all what I expected, but I didn’t give up trying and applied what I had learned the next go around. This leads us to principle number three. 

Results are never as expected

I've easily baked hundreds of loaves of bread in my life and no two have ended up the same or as I had expected. Even if I'd used what I thought were the best ingredients and taken the time that was needed, there are just too many variables. Maybe it was raining and the higher humidity had affected the dough. Maybe a breeze from open windows created a cool spot in the oven. It doesn't mean that the bread wasn't good. It just means that what I had envisioned and the result didn't match up. Somewhere around the 238th loaf, I started being okay with that.

So tonight, I’ll pack up my sheet pans, bread forms and proofing box. I’ll finally wash my baker’s couche and then tuck it neatly away in the back of a drawer. My mixer will get a much-needed break and I’ll hang up the apron that my mother made for me, in the pantry, where the door will remain closed for the foreseeable future. I’m not done baking for good… I’m done baking for now. It’s given me the perspective that I needed and provided those closest to me a steady supply of éclairs, baguettes and cakes. Now, for this summer’s garden …