The Art of Mindful Baking: Returning the Heart to the Hearth by Julia Ponsonby

  

I have a lot of cookbooks in my TBR, and there is nothing my husband loves more than for me to cook. To inspire me, I took photos with 24 cookbooks I have and I've prescheduled one post a month for the next two years. I'll plan to link up with In My Kitchen, hosted by Sherry's Pickings, and Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). To further inspire me, I've created a Cooking/Baking Challenge for me for 2026 in which I read and bake from and post about one cookbook a month.

The Art of Mindful Baking:

Returning the Heart to the Hearth

by Julia Ponsonby

How long have I had this book in my TBR? Years and years and years, I know. The copyright is 2014, and it's entirely possible that I have had it since then. Where did I acquire it? I don't remember, but I'm sure it was a gift; I'm always asking for books about baking for my birthday. 

Julia Ponsonby considers the topics of mindfulness and and simplicity and Slow Cooking and using our senses as each of these topics relates to baking, and she offers a dozen recipes to give us bakers a chance to consider all of these and apply them in our baking lives.

I tried a simple bread recipe. It's not wildly different from my go-to bread baking recipe. But this recipe notably slows me down, it encourages us to see and smell and taste what we are baking, and it involves a good bit of rigorous kneading.

Here's the recipe I tried:

LIGHT-BROWN BREAD OR ROLLS

Makes 1 round, oval, or rectangular loaf or 10 rolls

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes, plus about 2 hours rising

Baking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

10 oz. Strong White Bread Flour

10 oz. Warm Water

1 tsp. Sugar or Honey

6 oz. Whole Wheat Flour

1-1 1/2 tsp. Salt

A little beaten egg for brushing (optional)

1. Place the warm water in a measuring jug, then stir in the sugar and yeast. Leave to froth.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flours and salt.

3. Add the yeasty water and oil and mix until you have a soft dough and all the ingredients are evenly distributed. You are aiming for a soft, elastic dough that holds its shape. It may be slightly sticky on the surface, but it should not be sloppy. 

Knead gently in the bowl for a few minutes until fairly smooth, then return to the bowl to rise. Spray the top of the dough with a little more water to prevent the surface from drying out or cover the bowl loosely with a lid or tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Tip the risen dough on to a clean and very lightly floured surface and 'knock back,' punching out the carbon dioxide. This is your chance to get the gluten working.

5. As you knead, stretch and push the dough away from you with your fists, then bring it back together. You will feel the gluten tightening and spring back. Do this for about 3-5 minutes. Then, let your dough rest for a few minutes so the gluten can relax making your dough easier to form into a loaf ready for its final proving.

6. For a single loaf, shape the dough into a long oval or round bread. Keep the joints at the bottom and make sure the top skin has not be over-stretched: loosen it with a little gentle rocking, if there is any sign of tightness or splitting.

7. Place the loaf in the prepared tin seam side down. Spray the top of the loaf with water and/or brush with beaten egg for a shiny finish. Leave the loaf to rise in a warm place for about 40-60 minutes.

8. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

9. When the bread is ready to go into the oven, it will usually have doubled in size. It is better to put your bread in the oven when still---just---on the rise, so that its last burst of rising is stimulated by the heat of the oven. Bake on the middle shelf for about 45 minutes. Turn out and leave to cool on wire racks. 

Note: I had no brown flour so I used all white flour. Also, I used close to 3 cups of flour instead of the sixteen ounces the recipe suggests.

Ten ounces of warm water with sixteen ounces of flour? This was not bread; this was soup. I had to add and add and add flour until the dough was soft but not soupy. This recipe is from Great Britain, so maybe I am confused about the measurements? 

This book deals with problems in baking in a section called Overcoming Attachment: "Do not mind too much when things go wrong and your food gets burnt, doesn't rise, or you accidentally add too much salt. In Buddhist teachings, attachment to anything represents one of the greatest obstacles to the development of your spiritual path...(T)he pitfalls of baking help you to practise the art of severing these attachments."

I baked. I was mindful. I overcame attachment. Perhaps I have traveled a little way on my spiritual path. Not bad for an afternoon of baking.

Be a part of the friendly In My Kitchen (IMK) community by adding your post at Sherry's Pickings each month - everybody welcome!  We'd love to have you visit.  Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related. The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.  

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Image-in-ing, Soul and Mind and So On, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.