{"id":351,"date":"2020-07-15T02:13:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T02:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bettertimesinfo.org\/?page_id=351"},"modified":"2020-07-22T00:43:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T00:43:13","slug":"making-your-own-bread","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bettertimesinfo.org\/making-your-own-bread\/","title":{"rendered":"MAKING YOUR OWN BREAD"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight… it is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.\u2013  M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating<\/em><\/p>\n

Five Reason to Bake your own Bread<\/a> | How to Make and Maintain Sourdough<\/a> | How to Bake Bread in a crockpot<\/a> | Quick Breads <\/a><\/p>\n

Many people think baking your own bread is somehow complicated.<\/strong> But people invented bread baking a long time ago. So, how difficult can it really be? It takes less of the cook’s time than \u2013<\/p>\n

\u2013 getting into the car,<\/p>\n

\u2013 driving across town to a grocery store,<\/p>\n

— finding a parking place,<\/p>\n

\u2013 hiking across a forty acre parking lot,<\/p>\n

\u2013 finding the bread section \u2013 always located as far as possible from the front doors,<\/p>\n

— standing in line to pay.<\/p>\n

\u2013 All this work so you can buy a cheap loaf of inferior bread.<\/p>\n

There are about ten million different recipes for bread.<\/strong> My focus is on the basics. One of the fun things about baking bread is that even if you make a mistake, the result is so much better tasting than anything you buy at the grocery store that everyone will think you are a genius. Bread making may not be the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It isn’t making nuclear bombs and destroying the rain forests either.<\/p>\n

If you learn how to make bread, you will be popular forever with friends, family, and housemates.<\/strong> You will never lack for an inexpensive gift that will be treasured and savored without exception.<\/p>\n

When it comes to making bread, it doesn\u2019t matter how much or how little of a kitchen you have.<\/p>\n

While we mostly think of baking bread in an oven, bread can be baked on top of a stove, on a hot plate, a griddle, or in a crockpot. Even if you live in a dormitory room with no kitchen, you can make your own flat bread and cook it on a hot plate or electric skillet. You can bake a loaf of bread in a crockpot! (You\u2019ll have lots of friends when you do this. They will all want to help you eat the bread.)<\/p>\n

And make it you should, there can be no doubt about that. Once you\u2019ve done it a few times, it is so simple you\u2019ll wonder why everyone doesn\u2019t make their own bread.<\/p>\n

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Here are five reasons you should bake your own bread:<\/span><\/p>

Taste\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 there is nothing quite like the taste of freshly baked bread, still warm.<\/p>

Food safety<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 when you read the list of ingredients of an ordinary typical loaf of white bread sold in a supermarket, you\u2019ll need a degree in chemistry to understand what\u2019s happening in your food. Consider this list of ingredients for a loaf of store-bought whole-wheat bread. Besides ordinary non-scary things like flour, water, oil, salt, and yeast, we have:<\/p>

\u2013 mono and diglycerides,
\u2013 exthoxylated mono and diglycerides,
\u2013 sodium stearoyl lactylate,
\u2013 calcium iodate,
\u2013 calcium dioxide,
\u2013 datem,
\u2013 calcium sulfate,
\u2013 ammonium sulfate,
\u2013 dicalcium phosphate,
\u2013 diammonium phosphate,
\u2013 calcium propionate.<\/p>

And then there is the dreaded high fructose corn syrup. Blecch. . .<\/p>

Better for the environment,\u00a0<\/span>starting with \u201cnot wrapped in plastic\u201d and going on to \u201cwheat bought directly from a farmer,\u201d if you can manage that. That\u2019s easier than you think in most areas.<\/p>

Makes you popular with friends, roommates, and spouses.<\/span>\u00a0If you can bake bread, you will be a popular person when mealtime comes around.<\/p>

Home baking is frugal.\u00a0<\/span>A decent one-pound loaf of bread can easily cost you three dollars or more at a supermarket. A cheap loaf of balloon bread, will cost you at least $1.50. Certified organic wheat flour, bought directly from a farmer, or even at a grocery store, is around sixty cents\/pound. That\u2019s the primary cost of a loaf of home-baked bread. Multiply that out over a year, and see how much money you can save.<\/p>

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How to make and maintain sourdough.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

The Simplest Method for Baking Bread<\/span><\/p>

The simplest and quickest method for baking bread is, in general, known as the \u201cNo-Knead Method.\u201d It is popularized in the \u201cArtisan Bread in 5 Minutes\u201d book. This method saves time because you make more dough than you need for one loaf with this method and keep it in a covered bowl in your refrigerator. You can have fresh-baked bread every day without having to make dough every day.<\/span><\/p>

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT HANDLING DOUGH:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Before handling dough, put cooking oil on your hands. This makes the dough-handling process much easier. Replenish the oil as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.<\/span><\/p>

Miscellaneous Dough Mixing Note:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Always add wet ingredients to dry. Don\u2019t add dry ingredients to wet.<\/span><\/p>

Ingredients<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

\u2013 3 cups water (just a little above body temperature, warm like a baby\u2019s bottle),<\/span><\/p>

\u2013 1-1\/2 tablespoons yeast,<\/span><\/p>

\u2013 1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)<\/span><\/p>

\u2013 6-1\/2 cups of whole wheat flour. Or white flour. Or half whole wheat, half white.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Important note about flour:<\/strong><\/span>
If your family typically does not eat whole wheat breads, then don’t start your bread baking career with 100% whole wheat flour.\u00a0 If white bread is what they are used to, use 100% white flour.\u00a0 As your household gets “hooked” on home-made breads, you can start adding some whole wheat flour into your recipe.\u00a0 Start with 1\/4 whole wheat flour and 3\/4 white flour. Later, go half and half, then 3\/4 and 1\/4 and finally 100% whole wheat. When you get more than half and half whole wheat, add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the water.\u00a0 Why? Well, I always think that 100% whole wheat bread does better with a sour liquid.<\/span><\/p>

Always refrigerate whole wheat flour, because unlike white flour, it has wonderful nutritious and tasty ingredients that can go bad over time. That’s why using fresh whole wheat flour is important. Look for a “mill date” on the package. Even better, grind your own!<\/span><\/p>

Back to the instructions. . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

This will make enough dough for about 4 one-pound loaves of bread.<\/span><\/p>

Mix all the ingredients, let rise at least 2 hours in a covered bowl. You can use it for bread-making any time after 2 hours, but it will be easier to shape if it sits in the refrigerator for at least three hours, and it will be best if it has rested in the refrigerator for at least 18 hours.\u00a0 So make your dough a day ahead of when you want to bake it.<\/span><\/p>

Make the dough in a covered container that you can put in the fridge. This should not be an air-tight container, as the dough will give off a small amount of gas as it sits. If it is an air-tight container, when you put it in the refrigerator, cover it loosely \u2013 just set the lid on, without clicking it in place to produce the air-tight environment. It will give off small amounts of gas as it sits in the refrigerator and you don\u2019t want your container to explode.<\/span><\/p>

You can keep dough in this way in the refrigerator for as along as a week.\u00a0\u00a0Use it as you need it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

To make\u00a0skillet flat breads<\/strong>\u00a0from this dough:<\/span><\/p>

Pinch off pieces of dough, about the size of a golf ball, and roll them flat with a rolling pin, or pat them flat in your hands, pulling and stretching them a bit.<\/span><\/p>

The dough is a little sticky so I sprinkle the rolling pin and surface with extra flour and dust the ball of dough with flour.<\/span><\/p>

Cook on a flat cast iron skillet, with just a bit of oil, on each side until done, medium-high heat, about 2 minutes each side.<\/span><\/p>

To make a\u00a0round loaf\u00a0<\/strong>with this dough:<\/span><\/p>

Sprinkle a flat cookie sheet (no sides) or a flat cutting board or a baker\u2019s peel (if you have one) with some cornmeal. Don\u2019t be stingy with the cornmeal. The cornmeal keeps the dough from sticking to the pan.<\/span><\/p>

Dust your dough with some flour, then cut off a one pound piece. This is a piece of dough about the size of a grapefruit. Use a serrated knife.<\/span><\/p>

Form the dough into a ball. Gently stretch it and wrap it under itself. If you look at the bottom, it will look like four folds. These flatten out during the rest of the process.<\/span><\/p>

Put your ball of dough on your cutting board\/cookie sheet\/peel. Let it sit about 40 minutes.<\/span><\/p>

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees for 20 minutes of preheating. If you have a baking stone, or an unglazed quarry tile (the \u201cunglazed\u201d part is really important), put it in the oven. Put an empty pan with sides on a lower shelf in the oven.<\/span><\/p>

If you don\u2019t have a baking stone, the next best pan is cast iron.<\/span><\/p>

If you don\u2019t have cast iron, use a regular cookie sheet.\u00a0\u00a0With the cookie sheet, it will help to put the dough on parchment paper, which most grocery stores sell.\u00a0\u00a0Preheat the cast iron and the cookie sheet in accordance with the instructions for the baking stone.<\/span><\/p>

At the end of 20 minutes oven preheating, sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, and using your serrated knife, slash the dough about 1\/4 inch deep across the top. You can make a cross, or a tic-tac-toe pattern, or several parallel cuts.<\/span><\/p>

Open the oven, and in a quick forward jerking movement, slide the dough onto the stone (or into the pan) and pour a cup of water in the empty pan on the lower rack.\u00a0\u00a0Close\u00a0\u00a0the oven door quickly to trap the steam inside. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is dark and firm. Remove the bread from the stone (or pan) and place on a wire rack to cool. Allow it to cool before slicing because the baking continues inside the loaf. If you cut it too quickly, it will remain doughy inside. Waiting for the loaf to cool is the hardest part of baking.<\/span><\/p>

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How to bake bread in a crockpot \u2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

To make hot rolls with this dough:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a golf ball.<\/span><\/p>

Place on a baking sheet and let sit for about 30-45 minutes.<\/span><\/p>

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes until golden brown and done.<\/span><\/p>

Additional resources for this method of baking bread are:<\/span><\/p>

http:\/\/www.motherearthnews.com\/Real-Food\/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The website for the authors of the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes\/Day is\u00a0http:\/\/www.artisanbreadinfive.com\/. It has lots of FAQs, a blog, online discussion, and recipes.<\/span><\/p>

One of my favorite bread sites is Breadtopia \u2013\u00a0http:\/\/www.breadtopia.com\/\u00a0\u00a0\u2013 a rich site with deep wisdom on baking which also has video tutorials.<\/span><\/p>

Frugal HINT:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Buy yeast at a bakery supply store or large warehouse store. It is much cheaper in bulk than the little packets sold in grocery stores. (Those packets run a buck or so for about 3 tablespoon fulls, and a 4 ounce bottle is five bucks or more. But you can buy 2 pounds of yeast for five dollars or less. Store it in an airtight jar. An even more frugal strategy is to make sour dough breads, then you don’t have to buy yeast!\u00a0 If you are in the OKC area, Midwest Bakers Supply at 2716 NW 10th has what you need for your yeast. It has just about everything else you need regarding baking too, at rational prices.<\/span><\/p>

Your Basic Very tasty Bread Recipe<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

This is my original recipe for baking bread.\u00a0 I baked bread with it for 20 years and did just fine.\u00a0 Then I learned the Artisanal Bread recipe, described above, and switched.\u00a0 This method takes a bit more of the cook’s time, but it is time well spent, as kneading dough is very restful. I swear it lowers my blood pressure.<\/span><\/p>

This kind of bread takes more time than the “Quick Breads” like corn bread, because it has to “rise”, but the actual involvement of the cook is about 15-20 minutes, max. Bread is liquid, flour, oil, and yeast. The various possible combinations of these ingredients, plus additional ingredients for flavor,\u00a0 produce the various kinds of breads. Once you understand the Your Basic Very Tasty Bread recipe, which is based on my own grandmother’s recipe, feel free to experiment.<\/span><\/p>

Begin by measuring into a large mixing bowl 1 cup of warm water<\/strong>\u00a0— and the emphasis here is warm, not hot, about the temperature of a baby’s bottle.<\/span><\/p>