I have been making our own bread for six months now and I was led to do so after staying with the besties for a few days. I had a piece (or 8) of Miss Andrea's bread and no store bought loaf could ever compare. I do believe her hubby said that it was "bread crack". Yes... yes it is... Anyway, who better to talk about the choice to start making your own bread than the lady who inspired me to do so... Sooooo without further ado, here's Andrea:
It all started with an offer from my dear (no, really - she's wonderful!) mother-in-law for a hand me down bread machine. At the time, I was 8.5 months pregnant with my second daughter, chasing a two year old and could barely muster the energy to brush my teeth, much less produce a loaf of bread fit for The Little House on the Prairie. I politely declined. Fast forward about a year, and my husband and I start to really dig into what is in our food, who put it there (Monsanto anyone?http://www.naturalnews.com/
I'm now on my second hand me down bread machine and what I love about it, is it is so incredibly EASY. Really, it is. My favorite recipe takes me about 7 minutes (with a 5 year old "helper") to prep and get into the bread machine which works tirelessly for the next 3-4 hours to bake up the most delicious, fluffy and nutritious bread you will ever taste. All the ingredients are easily found in your local grocery store, and baking your own bread is also much CHEAPER than store bought. For an artisan style sandwich bread, you'll be shelling out about $4/loaf at the grocery store. I can make one at home for around $1.25, and it's completely chemical and preservative free. And really, you can't beat a kitchen that smells like a bakery for the rest of the day.
Here is my favorite basic sandwich bread recipe. Note that all bread machines are a little different and you may have to experiment a little bit until you get the perfect ratio of wet/dry ingredients.
1/3 cup honey (Or I use a sugar alternative - sucanat cut with honey)
1 1/3 cup water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (go with coconut - you won't regret it)
3 tbsp dry milk
3 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp gluten
2 tbsp ground flax seed (or whole flax seed for an awesome crunchy texture. Just know the whole seed won't be absorbed by your digestive system and you'll be missing the nutritional benefits)
2 tsp yeast
If you're not sure you can stick with it and therefore don't want to spring for a new bread maker, I would encourage you to send out a plea on Facebook to borrow one. You may be surprised to find a grandmother, aunt, friend or neighbor has one they're not using anymore and willing to lend out. Once you fall in love with making your own bread, consider also grinding your own fresh flour. (Don't look at me like that.) Did you know that flour can lose the majority of its vitamin content in the first 72 hours after milling? I can only imagine how long some of the flour has been on the shelf in the stores. It only adds about 2 minutes to the prep time, you pay for your flour mill in about one year by purchasing grain in bulk from your local co-op. The fresh flour makes the bread incredibly soft with more fiber and naturally occurring vitamins.
It all started with an offer from my dear (no, really - she's wonderful!) mother-in-law for a hand me down bread machine. At the time, I was 8.5 months pregnant with my second daughter, chasing a two year old and could barely muster the energy to brush my teeth, much less produce a loaf of bread fit for The Little House on the Prairie. I politely declined. Fast forward about a year, and my husband and I start to really dig into what is in our food, who put it there (Monsanto anyone?http://www.naturalnews.com/
I'm now on my second hand me down bread machine and what I love about it, is it is so incredibly EASY. Really, it is. My favorite recipe takes me about 7 minutes (with a 5 year old "helper") to prep and get into the bread machine which works tirelessly for the next 3-4 hours to bake up the most delicious, fluffy and nutritious bread you will ever taste. All the ingredients are easily found in your local grocery store, and baking your own bread is also much CHEAPER than store bought. For an artisan style sandwich bread, you'll be shelling out about $4/loaf at the grocery store. I can make one at home for around $1.25, and it's completely chemical and preservative free. And really, you can't beat a kitchen that smells like a bakery for the rest of the day.
Here is my favorite basic sandwich bread recipe. Note that all bread machines are a little different and you may have to experiment a little bit until you get the perfect ratio of wet/dry ingredients.
1/3 cup honey (Or I use a sugar alternative - sucanat cut with honey)
1 1/3 cup water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (go with coconut - you won't regret it)
3 tbsp dry milk
3 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp gluten
2 tbsp ground flax seed (or whole flax seed for an awesome crunchy texture. Just know the whole seed won't be absorbed by your digestive system and you'll be missing the nutritional benefits)
2 tsp yeast
If you're not sure you can stick with it and therefore don't want to spring for a new bread maker, I would encourage you to send out a plea on Facebook to borrow one. You may be surprised to find a grandmother, aunt, friend or neighbor has one they're not using anymore and willing to lend out. Once you fall in love with making your own bread, consider also grinding your own fresh flour. (Don't look at me like that.) Did you know that flour can lose the majority of its vitamin content in the first 72 hours after milling? I can only imagine how long some of the flour has been on the shelf in the stores. It only adds about 2 minutes to the prep time, you pay for your flour mill in about one year by purchasing grain in bulk from your local co-op. The fresh flour makes the bread incredibly soft with more fiber and naturally occurring vitamins.
So first off, I would encourage you to at least try to make your own bread. Like Andrea, I have a bread machine, plop all my ingredients in and press a button. Once a week, 10 minutes, really, is all I do. I started off with Andrea's recipe and then tried a few different ones and have settled on a mix of her recipe and an oatmeal loaf! It has been really fun to experiment and I've had a few mishaps along the way. I remember at one point, I texted Andrea a picture of the bread machine kneading TWO dough balls. It was pretty hilarious.
Like Andrea said, you might have to find to right mixture of ingredients for your particular machine. I began with her recipe and then went from there to find what worked best for us. I tried letting the bread machine do the kneading, then baking in the oven, more water, less water, more salt, no salt, stone ground wheat, white whole wheat, adding gluten, taking out gluten. While all were decently good, they were too dense or too crumbly and didn't last very long. Well, I finally found the combo that works for us... and the angels sing... seeeeeee you get TWO tried and true bread recipes with this post! Here is mine:
2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
1 1/2 cup bread flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 packet of yeast
One note to keep in mind, homemade bread is made to be eaten pretty much right away. It does not have the preservatives that store-bought bread does, hence, after 4 or 5 days it's sorta blah.
So.... there's Bread Part Dos.
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