There is something about these holidays that makes me feel nostalgic.  My husband and I used to go to one of his relatives during the holidays.  Often when we were there during the visit, his relative would gift us with Easter Bread.  This went on for a number of years, and one day I asked if it was possible to get the recipe?  When my husband was a boy, his grandparents owned a restaurant, I believe this recipe came from their restaurant..it makes eight loaves of Easter Bread!

I have had this recipe for many years.  Once in a while, I look at the recipe, I see how much it yields and that is about as far as I get!  This has gone on for many years.  This year, my husband and I were talking about the Easter Bread 🍞 and the amount it makes and how much we would like to have it.  During our discussion “What If…” came up, two words in the English language that can be the start of a great idea!  Sometimes it just takes a moment to pause and think about the infinite possibilities!  What if I quartered the recipe?  

Uh-oh! I can do math, I can function as an adult balancing my checkbook.  Yet, I have always had an aversion to math, there is this “Oh God, its MATH!” thing.  Somehow I always end up needing it, and using it in some way!  Remember in school when you would think, “When am I ever going to use this?”  Why is this such an issue?  If I was cooking a roast or a casserole, it would be as simple as changing a few things.  So why is baking so different?  In my opinion, cooking is more about feeling, emotion, and “the ❤️ ” cooking recipes can be varied with ease.  Baking is all science and math.  In baking, the ingredients have to go into the recipe like a science experiment in a certain order for the product to turn out successfully.  Leave an ingredient out by mistake, like baking soda, or not enough flour, could change the outcome of the baked product.  In baking, ingredients can be altered, but if for example honey will be substituted for sugar, the amount of honey will be different than sugar.  Have you ever doubled a recipe?  There’s that math again…cannot get away from it!

For this recipe I needed to take each ingredient and divide by four.  One evening, I took my calculator and went through each ingredient.  Next I looked at the recipe I was given.  I did not get past the massive quantities I needed, so it felt like I was looking at this bread recipe for the first time!  The recipe was a little vague.  When a person makes something often, they are so used to what they need to do, sometimes a step or possibly “you may need to add extra flour to the dough” gets left out.

Today, I took all day to take my time and make this bread.  There is something so therapeutic about making bread.  I forgot that, until today when I was kneading the dough.  Each step took longer than I anticipated, and the entire time I was not sure it would turn out.  About half way through I was feeling I had wasted my time, and yet…I successfully made two loaves of Easter Bread!

 

I am so grateful for having received this treasured family recipe. It is not easy to try something new, something unfamiliar, something that is totally uncomfortable.  Its unchartered territory, not sure how its going to turn out.  “What if I can’t do it, what if I fail, what if I waste all the ingredients…there goes What if again!”  The words “What if” can conjure up all the obstacles in my path or…

What if I change the way I am looking at this…and that fresh perspective allows me to imagine the possibilities.  It really is up to me!  This Easter Bread is my #growthmindset dish for Easter!!!

Happy Easter!