Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Everyone knows that the first step to a kitchen straight out of a Nancy Meyers movie is a gleaming, jewel-toned KitchenAid mixer.

Like many, I succumbed to the homesteading siren song of bread-baking during quarantine. But instead of seeking existential solace in no-knead sourdough loaves, I made my family’s challah recipe — an ...