I have been struggling over the past year to become a better bread-baker. I am trying to follow my mom’s lead, and until this past weekend, I was beginning to think I hadn’t inherited her gene for taming and transforming yeast. My breads always turned out leaden, never rising quite high enough.

My family sat down to dinner together every night, and many of those meals included homemade bread in some form. Two of our family favorites were my mom’s soft white bread, swirled with cinnamon and sugar, and her oatmeal bread. I was always partial to the oatmeal bread, because although it was soft, it also had substance, and held up well to a good toasting, and topping of butter and plenty of jam.