Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives

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There are also a number of sourdough recipes – I keep that for my fabulous local bakery, but you may wish to have a go – as well as a wonderful selection of sweet dough bakes and a section of cookies and cakes. Writing Breadsong with Al, which is a memoir as much as a recipe collection, forced her to confront how ill she had been. Kitty was doing well at school and was known for her infectious giggle, but, almost imperceptibly, she became less sociable, more anxious. It's profoundly obvious but there are just some things that are bound to help when you're not feeling well or when you are stressed and walking a dog or baking some bread or spending time with loved ones should be up there with things doctors prescribe.

Breadsong by Kitty Tait, Al Tait | Waterstones Breadsong by Kitty Tait, Al Tait | Waterstones

When this second half hour is up, remove the casserole from the oven - it will be very hot at this point. Her parents and siblings all tried to support her recovery but Kitty was very withdrawn and anxious.This is the hardest part, but it’s also the most important as the bread keeps cooking after you take it out of the oven. From the texture and colors of the cover to the texture and colors on the pages, it was clearly made with so much love.

Breadsong Book Launch — Five Little Pigs Breadsong Book Launch — Five Little Pigs

I started making this bread at a time when every day seemed like a war zone, full of panic attacks, extreme lows and constant blasts of exhausting mental shrapnel. Al, who worked with dyslexic undergraduates at Oxford University and the charity Now Teach, which encourages older people to go into teaching, pretty much wound down his career. Put a large cast-iron casserole dish with a lid and a heatproof handle into the hot oven for 30 minutes to heat up. Place the shaped dough on a sheet of parchment paper, cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, cosy place to rest for 1 hour. I am still only making basic sourdough loaves with the occasional foray into crumpets, bagels and doughnuts.But when their youngest child, Kitty, shows signs of suffering the parents make changes, they make way for a new set of priorities and they take a journey of discovery: of the magic behind the perfect loaf and the magic behind contentment. And while Orange Bakery became a huge success, it was definitely a gamble for her parents to put so much time and money into something like that. It doesn’t surprise me how much support this family received on their journey including from teachers at Kitty’s school. Kitty, of course, is also very honest: she didn't know why it happened, either, and makes no excuses for it, or for feeling the way she did.