Why do you bake? What kind of baker are you?

I bake because:

    The bread in the grocery stores is not satisfying in flavor or texture.

    The bread I bake is satisfying.

    I enjoy the process of baking.

    Building a loaf is great therapy.

    It is an inexpensive hobby.

          OOPS!  Just lost power, must shut down.

Ford

I always loved breads, any kind of breads.  I was the "Bread Girl" at home and if I was given a loaf of bread I wouldn't stop eating until it's all gone.

My love for breads was a start.  When I became a college freshman I had a minor in Home Economics and cooking was part of the course.  Then I realized baking actually helped release my stress so I baked whenever I was stressed out.  My roommates usually got a lot of breads, pies, cookies etc around finaly exam time or when I broke up with a guy. 

Now, I just love baking.  The excitment of experiement and discoveries are like presents time on Christmas Day.  Coming to TFL to see what new breads people make and how I can reproduce you all did and how my bread will turn out... it's a game, a challenge, a surprise, a puzzle, and a reward all in one pot.  I still feel like a 7-year-old when I turn on the oven light to watch the oven spring in the first 10 minutes of baking.  When the aroma fills the house and the bread comes out crips on the crust and soft in the crumb and the flavor melts my heart (and everybody else's), it's a promis that never fails. 

Lately, I discovered another reason to bake - sharing my baked goods.  When people want to pay for my breads and kids come to my door and ask if I have anything for them to eat, it's the most satisfying feeling in the whole world.  When they say "You get to someone's heart through the mouth" it's absolutely true.

I bake:

To honor my grandmother and to recall mother-daughter moments

To refine a task for which I might possibly fail

To ensure I may remain humble but to celebrate success

To heal a broken soul and demonstrate love without saying a word

To nourish those I love

To feel the strength of my body, including my heart, grow stronger

What kind of baker am I? I am a stumbling, bumbling Mr. Bean. I am the kind that looks at the 3-loaf column in the recipe when measuring flour, then looks at the 1-loaf column when measuring water.

Why do I bake? It's hard to find good bread near my home. There are a few bakeries in town with a few, good, overpriced breads, but even those often disappoint. The French bread is rarely fresh from the oven, and the "rye" breads, on the rare occasion you see them, are often 10% white rye plus food coloring, or aren't even rye at all (one "highly recommended" shop has three or four kinds of bread labeled 'whole rye' in English, but the original Mandarin label says 'whole wheat'; the latter is correct).

I also enjoy the process of baking, especially now that I'm producing fewer hockey pucks and more edible loaves.

I bake for the enjoyment of experiencing the challenge (therefore I try to avoid baking the same bread more than twice unless I need a unique kind of bread for a special dinner) and because every loaf I bake provides a new learning experience.

So, I suppose you could say, I bake because I enjoy the process.  I enjoy the results too, but not as a consumer.  I probably give away more of the bread I bake that I actually consume myself so it's clear I don't bake for the joy of eating it.

I bake because my family eats. That's how it started at least. I started baking when I was a child, My mother would bake and I was always the kid at school that couldn't afford "Good" (read store bought) bread. Instead I would take sandwiches made on sourdough, and pumpernickel, and rye. It wasn't until I was older that I realized just how good I had it.

Twenty years later and I was a married man with 3 kids. I started baking bread as a way to make a small paycheck stretch, As a way to feed my family just like my mother, and her mother and her mother.

Now, in the present, I think that people have lost the connection to the food they eat. I have a friend that completely freaked out when he discovered that the chicken he bought in the grocery store was once an actual animal!

I have decided that, for the most part, I will make as much of my food myself. No more frozen "TV" dinners, No more "POP TARTS" ect. It can be a lot of work, Making a Sunday spaghetti dinner for the family takes all day but to know that the food my family is eating is healthy and nutritious is reward enough.

Clearly process lured me to baking; now the admiration of my spouse and friends keeps me at it.  I am a sourdough newbie and learning from this forum with an intensity I have not experienced since law school.  I'm producing more than acceptable results and having grand fun doing it.

The thrill of researching and applying new ideas to concrete products. If it wasn't interesting, I wouldn't do it. If it was simply about following a recipe, it would be very dull.

So I bake because I love exploring new theories and techniques. 

I wanted to bake bread ever since I watched the anime: "Yakitate!! Japan" online. Kazuma Azuma's (The main character's) Ja-Pan (pun on the country and Japanese word for bread: Pan) are incredible and some were even on real shelves of Japanese markets for a short time! Have you heard of Yakitate!! Japan? If not, look it up! it's awesome!

My home country, the Philippines, has it's own national bread: Pan De Sal (Salty bread). The Tagalog word for bread is TINAPAY, so Filipino+Tinapay=Filipay! I wanted to make that since I got interested in baking! I currently have 33 THEORIES, not creations, in my book. When I go to college, I'm going to try some of my theories out! If some succeed, I'll mark them down! If not, I'll scrap it. What do you think? Does emulating Yakitate!! Japan for the Philippines' sake sound like a good idea for bakers? Please respond!

I bake, therefore I am.

Because I like to bake, it gives my creative side a bit of exercise--and I don't have to find a spot on the wall to hang my creations. It's a link to my grandmother, one of my earliest memories of her is a steamy winter kitchen and big fat loaves of bread.  My family likes 'real' bread and so do a the people who actually get out of bed early on our monthly local market day so they don't miss out! I get a real buzz when I see how much people appreciate the bread.

I have been baking since I was eleven years old. I really don't remember why I started to bake only that I have always been good at it and seemed to have a natural born knack for it. Now I bake to please my customers- and make a little "dough" on the side.

I'm not sure who I identify with more-process or outcome-identify with generations before-economical-satisfying-intellectual stim-etc-etc

I bake for all those reasons. I guess I felt I needed a new hobby, last fall, and decided I wanted to become expert on bread. HA! I am humbled.

So my journey has been wonderful-humbling,reaffirming and delicious. I bake our daily bread for breakfast/lunch and have enjoyed the intricacies of sourdough. I started SD because I wanted to make bread like my grandmother-without the commercial yeast , and see what that was like.They learned to live with a lot of failure in life! If the yeast failed-they didn't have a store to rescue them (well, maybe my great-grandma didn't). They dealt with it-make do or move on. That may be a large part of character-building experience that is missing in this era. Sadly,it could be that people ar re-discovering it.

I'm one of the diminishing few who work and cook. We plan simple and quick meals and use the freezer. Lunches are homemade. I've just started into making yogurt-boy is it easy!

Breadmaking has given me more than a hobby-it's much more satisfying.And once again The Fresh Loaf has proven the power of community-thank you for this simple query.

I love to create - first it was making my own pasta, then sewing, then photography - now bread and deserts (mostly bread).  My family loves how they get to enjoy the benefits of my pursuits of baking.  I love it because of the nurturing it requires from start to finish - the studying, the property changes we witness in the dough.  

I also think part if it is from a deep seated survival instinct - when you read the various world history accounts - bread and grain was the energy of our past.  My fear of the state of the world makes me want to be able to be self-sufficient.  My next quest is a back yard wood burning oven.

Cheers - and thank you for the question...and all of your responses.

Anna

I learned to bake bread when I was a teenager - a neighbor showed me how to make my first loaf. At first, it was because I loved bread - everyone in my family did. Then later, when I became a mom, money was tight (always was/is), so it was both to save money - and to make great bread and pizza (which was our favorite meal).

Now, my children are grown. I share my home with one of my adult sons - who loves my baking & cooking, but is seriously trying to lose weight... being just near mom means expected additional poundage. I bake because I love the process, it's a challenge to try new techniques - and because, at one point, it became really easy for me. I also enjoy the wow factor - it's disappointing that I have fewer people to bake for... I need ideas on how I could sell a few loaves here & there..

I'm all about the results.

I moved about a year ago and couldn't find decent bread anywhere. I pulled out a french bread recipie from Bittman's "How to cook everything" and while it worked the first time and was easy, it wasn't exciting. So I picked up "The Bread Bible" and "The Breadbaker's Apprentice" and went to town. Less than a year later, my wife and I are selling about 70 loaves a week at a farmer's market.

[edit] hm. this is directed towards another comment, my mistake [edit]

I hate to admit it, but that is also how my baking life took off. I started off with a culinary arts class in secondary school, but after watching a few of those episodes, my interest really took off. 

haha, but its a better thing to get hooked on then most things on tv!

I'm a new minted bread builder.Only started learning about this stuff a short time ago.I really enjoy the process of baking bread and it still sorta seems like a magic trick the way these simple ingredients can turn into something so good to eat.As much as I enjoy "building" the bread however,I like the "eating" part most.It's much like a strong motorcycle engine.Fun to build,but "funner" to ride.