Baking Bread

Several people have asked me how I bake our bread, so I thought I would devote a post to that subject.

After receiving a bread machine from my in-laws the Christmas that I was pregnant with our oldest, I immediately began using it to bake all our bread. My husband and I loved the flavor, texture, and the smell of the bread while it was baking! The downside was that it took 4 1/2 hours per loaf, but since we only needed one or two loaves per week, it wasn't too bad. A couple of children later, I couldn't keep up. I was constantly baking. And then I switched to whole wheat flour and I could almost smell the poor bread machine motor beginning to burn up from the effort. We completely ruined our "paddle".

So I put my beloved bread machine away and we ate store bought bread for a time while I researched bread-from-scratch recipes and did some soul searching to make sure this was a road I was committed to travel. Ultimately, I became convinced of the health benefits of freshly ground whole wheat flour, so we purchased this wheat grinder and a few pounds of wheat berries and I started grinding my own wheat to make flour and then mixing and kneading bread dough by hand (when we purchased ours it was right around $200, I see that it has gone up in price since then).



With my grain mill I could grind wheat into flour, mix it into bread dough immediately for the best health benefits, then knead and bake 4 or 5 loaves at once. It took me about 20 minutes to knead by hand, but I could have 4 or 5 loaves in about 3 hours total, as opposed to one loaf in 4 1/2 hours in my bread machine. We loved this bread even more! It is soft, delicious whole wheat bread, especially when fresh. Not heavy at all. I baked bread this way, kneading by hand, for another 2 or 3 years while saving money for a Bosch mixer.


I love my Bosch mixer! It is designed for daily use and for mixing whole wheat bread dough. In other words, it has a very powerful motor. I can use it for mixing just about any kind of dough or batter (including cookies), and I have the option of purchasing special attachments such as the one that makes cereal flakes! (the mixer pictured in the link is an updated model of the one I own). This mixer takes the place of my hand kneading, so it cuts the total time even further. In this picture the dough is nearing the end of its mixing time and pretty much fills the whole bowl.


The recipe I use usually yields 4 loaves, but this time I used part of the dough to make a stuffed sandwich so I only got 3 loaves of bread. Here it is starting its one hour rise time.


After rising for an hour, I bake at 350 for 30 minutes. And voila! Yummy homemade bread!


I let mine cool completely and then cut immediately into slices, wrap in saran wrap and specially sized bread bags, and freeze for use during the week. If I slice, wrap and freeze right away, later when we thaw a loaf it tastes just-made-fresh! I have learned through trial and error that double wrapping is important if I plan to freeze the loaves. This bread is wonderful sandwich and toast bread! I use the same recipe to make hamburger buns, but change it a little to make pizza crust.

Once the equipment is paid for, this is not only healthy bread but very inexpensive bread too! A 50# bag of wheat berries costs $27.50. From this I can bake 80 loaves of bread. Factoring in the other ingredients makes homemade bread slightly more than 34 cents per loaf, but still much cheaper than its store bought cousins! This is a tremendous savings for us right now, during my husband's unemployment. On many occasions I have found myself giving thanks for the bag of wheat berries in our basement!

For an interesting article on the fiber benefits of freshly ground whole grain flour, go here. And here is another one on the wheat germ properties of bread made from freshly ground flour, which can help ward off the common cold (maybe I haven't been eating enough bread the last couple weeks!).