I've been talking a lot with a friend about our effort to go healthier and eat less processed foods. Included in that battle just might be bread. Now, I have very bad luck with bread: even in a machine it doesn't seem to come together like it should. Yeast in general hates me. But in Food Matters Mark Bittman supplies a whole-grain bread recipe that is supposed to be positively practically-no-work. We'll see how it goes. What my friend and I have been discussing is the flours and grains and things for such a bread. And we've bandied the idea about that perhaps we should invest in home flour-mills and grind our own grains and make our own flours. Did the sound affect that sounds like a record scraping stopped just play for you? "Say what?"
Here are a couple of things on my mind: one is that whole-grain flour can be pretty expensive. At least in this part of the country, I don't know about elsewhere. It seems pretty stupid, living right in the middle of the Grain Belt and whole grain flours and things are still considered luxury or novelty items. The organic and whole grain sections of the grocery stores are pitiful and the natural and health food stores are small and expensive. But what about buying grain in bulk and grinding your own? It's possible. It's possibly cheaper than buying regular flour at the grocery store (possibly); this needs more checking out.
But my question is: how far am I going to go for this health-food craze? How much am I able to handle? I admit: I like convenience food. I like convenience. It would not be very convenient to grind my own flour, keep it in storage, use it up before it goes bad so as not to waste anything, find the space to keep bulk grain... Not to mention then make my own bread, which could flop again and again. (Maybe someday I'll figure it out.) I've also thought of making my own yogurt (that I'm not so intimidated by as we made it in Africa from time to time). How much time and energy am I able and willing to put into eating healthy?
If there's anyone out there reading who's done this kind of thing, doing this kind of thing, interested in doing this kind of thing, please, weigh in! Expertise and experience are always welcome, as are ideas. I'm intimidated by this because I am still trying to figure out how to care for a kiddo and get the house clean. And now I'm thinking about adding making bread and yogurt (definitely not cheese, I'm afraid I'd lose my appetite for it) and who knows what else? I have time before I get to start this: I don't feel that trashing my mom's kitchen in my quest for health is appropriate. And I know I'll start out slow (though the temptation is to start out gung-ho). But it's tempting. Even romantic sounding. Which means, I need a reality check.
Do you have a bread machine? I do and I have had problems with getting bread to turn out in it too, until I learned that bread machines all work differently and the recipes that came with the bread machine are the ones to use. (other recipes may not turn out since they are formulated for other machines - weird I know!) Also, make sure the water is between 120-130 degrees F. And also, keep the yeast in the back of the fridge and when you need to use it, measure it out and wait a minute for it to warm up to room temp. before putting it in the bread machine. Also make a small valley for the yeast in the flour. (but don't cover the yeast up with the flour.) (also, you probably know this, but always add the ingredients in the order listed in the recipe).(it only took me 3 years to learn all this and put it together...ha!)
ReplyDeletethat's neat that you are delving into making bread :)!!
I do have a bread machine; it was a garage sale find, so I do not have the book for it. I have actually made bread several times in the machine and know to make the well, etc. It's just that it never rises as high or as rounded as it does for other people. (I did not think, though, to let yeast warm to room temp, though that definitely makes sense.) Actually, what I'm thinking about doing does not actually involve the bread machine. But I want to try it in the machine, if I can. I used to make bread for awhile to save costs, but it didn't last; I'm not sure Nick liked it. So we'll see if he'll like this. But I told him I want to cut back on preservatives, and bread is definitely a culprit of that.
ReplyDeleteDon't buy bulk grain ;>) There's a lot you can do with a mix of white flour, whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour and oat flour (which you can make with quick oats or old fashioned oats in the food processor).
ReplyDeleteI haven't used a bread machine, but here's one thing to try with the yeast: dissolve it in warm (but not hot) water with a nice teaspoon or two of honey or sugar. Let it set for 10 minutes or so -- if it gets frothy, you know you have good yeast.
If you mix your dough together before bed, you can let it rise overnight in the fridge. Then take it out it the morning, let it come to room temperature and finish out the rest of the process.
You can be the bread boss, Stacey.
Thanks, Susanne. :) I'll have to try that. I'll post when I actually get up the guts to dive in and make me some bread. Maybe I should try that this next week.
ReplyDelete