Has this ever happened to you? While baking some cinnamon raisin bread
recently, the aroma of the finished loaves evoked a powerful childhood
memory. When I was a little kid, my mom would send me to our
neighborhood bakery. On this particular day, the mission was to
purchase a loaf of sandwich bread and a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread.
I loved to go to the bakery to smell the aroma and to watch the bread
slicing machine. The added treat this day was the cinnamon raisin
bread, one of my favorites. On the way home, I stopped, opened the bag,
and carefully removed two center slices of the cinnamon raisin bread.
Then, I gobbled them up. Ah, pure joy! I never admitted my "crime."
Well, boys and girls, that was about 60 years ago and I can remember it
like it was yesterday. The creative process, coupled with the aroma and
taste, is the magic of baking bread, isn't it. Bob the Tarheel Baker