My wonderfully brilliant copyright professor said something in class last week that I won’t forget.

He said that people develop hobbies like cooking and photography because they present opportunities to produce something tangible.  So many people’s work lives, he continued, are spent working on things that produce nothing (See, e.g., Alanna K., Why I’d Rather Watch True Blood Than Read Copyright Law, 1 J. Law & Procrastination 624, (2009)).

It got me thinking.  When Alex and I worked for our daily college paper, I loved waking up each morning knowing that I could physically pick up the product of my previous day’s work.  We started cooking seriously right after our tenures at the paper ended, and while I always thought that interest served to fill the time void, I hadn’t considered that maybe it fills a more psychological gap as well.  (See Alanna K., Why We Continue to Cook When We Have No Time Again, 1 J. Law & Procrastination 945 (2009)).

More than anything, baking bread gives me a sense of productivity.  It doesn’t require much effort (other than some pulses in the food processor and getting up from our desks every few hours to excitedly poke the rising dough for a bit and ooh over its size), but I feel like we’ve created something magnificent.  Professors: they are usually right.

It’s been a while since we baked bread, so we picked a simple recipe to ease us into it.  This oatmeal walnut bread is fresh, warm, and soft with a crispy finish.  With a slather of nutella, it is heavenly.  We took the recipe from a great book called The Best Bread Ever, and made only a few minor adjustments that are posted below (and a major one: we used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour because it was in the cabinet).  Also, note that the book called for baking the loaves on pizza stones, but we used pyrex baking dishes.  If you have a stone, you are lucky, and should use it.

Ingredients:
(oatmeal)
1/2 cup steel-cut oats (this stuff works)
3/4 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup water

(bread)
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 cup plus 3 tbsp water (the 1 cup should warm water)
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Instructions:
To make oatmeal, combine both oats and water in a pot.  Cover, bring to a boil, then uncover and reduce heat to low.  Stir and cook until water is been absorbed, about 5-8 minutes.  Let cool.  Add flour, salt and yeast to the food processor, then add cooled oatmeal.  With the machine running, pour the 1 cup warm water through the feed tube and process until dough comes together into a visible ball, adding more flour or water if necessary.  Remove the dough from the food processor and knead in walnuts.  Transfer dough to a large ungreased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for about three hours.  Scrape dough onto a floured surface, divide into two equal pieces, and shape into two football-sized loves by folding pieces in half and pinching ends together.  Sprinkle a baking sheet with oatmeal, and place loves on sheet.

One hour before baking, preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Place a pan for water on the bottom rack.  Transfer loaves to pyrex containers, brush loaves with water, and sprinkle with more uncooked oatmeal.  Dust surfaces with flour, and use a knife to make a long slash along the length of each loaf.  Pour 1 cup warm water into the pan to create steam, put the bread in the oven, and turn heat to 450 degrees.  After two minutes, open the oven and quickly add another cup of water to the pan for more steam.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until crust is golden.  Remove loaves, and let cool before serving.