Our Daily Bread: The Art of Making Your Own Bread

You can bet that, with three kids and two adults in our family, we eat lots bread each week. After finding it super hard to find good, tasty bread without any preservatives, I’ve gradually started baking our own. At first, it was a little insane because I tried to do too much and even included the kids each time. After some trial and error, though, I learned that I have to bake simple breads and try to do it on the weekends when hubby is home.

These days, I would never consider buying bread again. Good reasons for baking instead of buying bread are that it tastes substantially better than store purchased bread, reduces preservative intake, supplies more nutrition, and costs less. My family absolutely love home baked bread and prefer it to store bought.

I have gotten more confident to try many other different recipes. Even when my husband found himself sensitive to gluten, I just came up with an easy gluten-free bread to bake. The only thing is that, since homemade bread does not contain preservatives, it goes stale very fast, so it needs be consumed within days or placed in freezer. Once you get used to baking and start doing it on a regular basis, I recommend investing in a heavy duty mixer. I received a Kitchen Aid as a wedding gift 16 years ago and still use it. And it’s as good as new.

To be a successful baker, you need to have time, space, a good oven, a few kitchen items and a good recipe. Bread making is easy, and I have found that the simplest recipe makes the best bread.

To make a delicious loaf at home from scratch, you need this equipment:

•  One large mixing bowl
• One spoon
• Measuring cups
• One measuring spoon
• One bread pan
• One hand towel

Here are two of my favorite bread recipes:

High Fiber, No Knead Bread Loaf

This a very tasty bread that is fast to make, so it’s a prefect beginner’s bread.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. flax seeds
• 3 Tbsp. sesame seeds (save some for sprinkling on top)
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 2 cups spelt flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (I used So Delicious coconut yogurt)

Preheat oven to F400

Mix flax seeds, sesame seeds, oats, salt, spelt flour and baking soda in a large bowl. Blend yogurt, grated carrot and maple syrup, and add slowly to the large bowl, blending until you have a sticky batter. Pour into a well greased loaf pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 70 minutes or until center is dry.

White Bread Loaf

This bread is perfect for toasting.

Ingredients:

• ½ package active dry yeast
• 3 cups white spelt flour or all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• Sesame seeds for decoration
• Milk, enough to brush dough

Combine yeast, salt, sugar and flour in a large bowl or mixer. Combine water and oil, and add to flour mixture. Really work the dough well until it lets go of the bowl. Add more flour if dough still feels sticky. Sprinkle some flour on top and cover bowl with a towel. Leave in a warm, draft free place to rise for 30 minutes.

Knead dough for a few minutes on a surface sprinkled with some flour. Shape dough into a loaf and place in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for another 30 minutes. Preheat oven to F 450. Brush the loaf with milk and sprinkle sesame seeds over it. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until loaf is golden brown and seems hollow.

Let it cool off before slicing.