CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Breast cancer survivor Kathy Summers and her grandson Gideon, 1 1/2, make whole-wheat bread together in the kitchen of her Kailua home. Summers wrote a book focusing on bread-making as a form of therapy for women with breast cancer.
Cancer survivor Kathy Summers offers
bread-making as a method of healing
Making bread is both a way of life and therapy for a Kailua woman who had a mastectomy last year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Kathy Summers, mother of nine children and grandmother of 17, has made bread by hand almost every day for 36 years.
Four years ago she wrote the book "Handmade Breads: From Start to Finish in Just Two Hours." She was in the middle of rewriting it with new information and recipes when she learned she had cancer.
One of the first things she did after the surgery Jan. 6, 2003, was to put her hands in flour again, she said. "My son said, 'You just don't love to bake bread, you're addicted.'"
As she resumed bread-making, she realized "how the use of my attention, my hands, arms and body were very therapeutic to my healing," she said. "I felt called upon by God to write the book a little differently."
A new version emerged: "Healing With Handmade Bread, From Start to Finish in Just Two Hours."
On a recent morning while mixing wheat bread, Summers said she felt "what a gift it would be if women with breast cancer learned the art of making handmade bread."
So in addition to recipes and tips for making all kinds of breads and rolls, her book includes tips and entries from her "breast cancer journal."
She believes making bread by hand stimulates physical, mental and spiritual healing while filling the house with an inviting aroma and producing something delicious to eat.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
"Just as homemade bread is enjoyed by almost everyone, most people have either had cancer themselves or been close to someone else who has." --Kathy Summers, Breast cancer survivor who has made bread by hand almost every day for 36 years
"It's not a substitute for the great exercises they give you, but it's something that works well that you can do ... and you're doing something for your family and others, as well," she said.
Summers had two lumpectomies, which she said revealed markers of potential cancer prior to her surgery. A radiologist found malignant microcalcifications in the milk duct area in a mammogram in December 2002.
The big challenge was choosing from treatment options, she said. She opted for a mastectomy. She describes days of pain and discouragement during recovery and days when she felt energetic enough to go to a grandson's basketball game. She sees her breast surgeon every three months, and said she's doing fine now.
Although she relates her experience to help others with breast cancer, she said the book is for everyone. "Just as homemade bread is enjoyed by almost everyone, most people have either had cancer themselves or been close to someone else who has."
A graduate of Brigham Young University in art education, Summers said she had never cooked before marrying her husband, Keith, at age 21.
"My husband said, 'Make everything from scratch.' He had a lot of ideas," she said.
At first, "I made terrible things," she said. "Little by little, I learned. ... My husband went to school a very long time. We had so many children; we were so very, very poor. One thing we always had was fresh bread."
When the kids were little, she put the bowl on the floor so they could help mix flour. They sat on the counter to join her in kneading the dough. "They are mostly made of handmade bread," she said.
Her six daughters all bake bread except when they're home and "Mom bakes it," said Rosie, 24. Her daughters-in-law and practically all their friends bake, Summers said, laughing. "We have inflicted this system on everybody we know."
She said her husband, an anesthesiologist, didn't go to medical school until they had six children, and by the time he graduated there were nine. "He was an oddball at graduation."
He has worked mostly at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, where Summers has taken her therapy dogs and performed as a clown for sick children every week for 13 years.
She is a certified healing-touch practitioner and a volunteer with BosomBuddies of Hawaii, a program that has helped her and other women diagnosed with breast cancer. Her baking techniques are simple, fast and almost foolproof, she said.
"You can't always be precise, but it's as close to being precise as possible for someone learning," she said.
She encourages bread-makers to be inventive and creative. Variations of "beloved recipes" invented by her and her children are presented, as well as traditional favorites and many whole-grain recipes.
She loves making different types of French breads and tries to bake "on the healthy side," using olive oil and other nutritious ingredients.
Besides a wide array of recipes for breads, rolls, muffins, pretzels, bread sticks and other goodies, she provides information on bread-making equipment and techniques, how to use recipes and how to fix things that go wrong.
The $15.95 book will be available in Down to Earth stores; the Executive Chef; the Compleat Kitchen stores; at Queen's Hospital's Pain Management Office; from the publisher, iUniverse.com; Amazon.com; and from the author, 263-4570.
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"As you stay focused on making the bread, your mind will quiet. Enjoy the peacefulness."Kathy Summers' Whole-Wheat Bread
2 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup light olive oil
3 cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 to 3 cups bread flourGrease the pans with solid white vegetable shortening. For rolls, cover baking sheet with a piece of baking parchment or grease the sheet.
Pour 2 1/4 cups warm water into large mixing bowl. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons yeast over water. Stir until yeast dissolves.
Add 1/3 cup honey and 1/3 cup light olive oil to yeast mixture. Stir until well blended.
Sift through flour with a fork before measuring. Spoon the flour into the measuring cup; level with straight side of a knife.
Add 3 cups whole-wheat flour and 2 teaspoons salt to the yeast mixture. Stir until mixture is thick and smooth.
Gradually add 2 cups bread flour, stirring with a spoon. The dough will stick together and pull away from sides and bottom of the bowl. If it doesn't, add a little more flour until it does. The dough forms a lump.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Measure 1 more cup bread flour. Use only what is necessary to knead and shape dough. Lightly dust work surface with flour. Place dough on the work surface. Lightly dust dough with flour and begin to knead.
As you knead, continue to lightly dust the work surface and dough with flour so dough doesn't get sticky. Knead dough for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
If you are making loaves, cut the dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Let balls sit on work surface 5 minutes before forming loaves. If you are making rolls, cut dough into 12 to 16 pieces. Let them rest on work surface for 5 minutes before shaping further.
Keep the work surface and dough lightly floured. Shape the dough into 2 loaves or 12 to 16 rolls. Place the dough in the loaf pans, seam side down, or place rolls on the baking sheet.
Let the loaves or rolls rise until almost double in size. Usually, this takes 10 to 15 minutes. Place the loaves or rolls in the oven.
Bake the loaves for 30 to 40 minutes or until nicely browned on the top, sides and bottom. Bake the rolls 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Check the loaves or rolls halfway through baking time. Rotate pans or pan in middle of baking time for more even baking.
When loaves are finished baking, immediately take them out of pans and cool them on a wire rack. The loaves need to cool for 20 minutes before slicing them. If making rolls, use a pancake turner to take them off baking sheet and place them on cooling rack. They can be eaten warm.
When the bread is cool, slice it on a bread board with a serrated knife, using a sawing motion so you do not squash the bread.
Yield: Two 9-by-5-inch loaves or 12 large or 16 medium rolls.
"Give thanks. Eat some. Share some."
