Old Fashioned Bread Baking To Increase Sustenance & Lower Food Costs

Bread is one of the most basic foods to sustain and nourish life. It also has a great symbolic and metaphorical meaning in the Bible. It is mentioned almost five hundred times, and indirectly at least that many times again. It is part of the universally known and frequently repeated Lord’s prayer.

Of all things we eat, bread is a staple. It is especially so for those of us who were born and bred on prairie farms. I do recall the baking of fresh bread as a warm and nourishing bit of nostalgia. Even the smell is good for us. Plus, we don’t want drafts when we are baking bread, so it makes for a warm and cozy day.

For those who cannot tolerate wheat, or think it is best to get grains out of the diet, it might be a matter of putting together ingredients that you can tolerate. Wheat got a bad rap with all the gluten free propaganda in recent years.

We have probably all learned that not all breads are created equal. Artisan loaves are at a premium, often close to $6.00 a loaf. In many cases, the price tag seems to replace the leaven. You now get smaller loaves, and less bread, yet the price continues to rise.

I used to bake bread years ago, and for some reason stopped. I guess I equated it to a full day of staying home, and/or did not have the confidence to make a really good bread. I don’t know why I stopped, but since I started again, it has been rewarding.

I was envisioning people in ancient times baking bread, kneading the dough, flipping it over and kneading it more, then putting it in a big outdoor stone oven. Because of the kneading, you do get a feel for the bread you are baking. You also know what you are putting into the bread.

It was the hunt for a good nutritious loaf of bread that made me start thinking about routinely baking bread and putting what I like into it.

At night I often listen to audio books, and history channels. This too, made me start thinking about the whole process of making bread. Since I spend a significant amount of time online, editing, photo-editing, etc. anything that is a diversion, creates a healthy break.

Since commercial bread baking is a capitalistic project, they want to create the most long lasting product, for the least amount of money. If you do it yourself, you can make an excellent loaf of nutritious bread for less than $2.00 a loaf.

Another thing I have noticed, is that for me, certain breads caused an inflammatory type autoimmune response. Therefore, I became wary of certain brands and opted for fresh baked artisan loaves instead.

The idea of baking bread the old fashioned way appeals to me, and creates exercise for the hands and shoulders as an added bonus. I suppose if a person did it every day, you might get strong hands, but for those of us who are sort of like weekend warriors when it comes to bread baking, we probably won’t get enough kneading in to make a big difference.

At first, to get my feet wet again with the whole project, I started out with a basic white bread recipe, to see how the yeast worked, and to try and make it foolproof for starters. I wanted to find a good baseline recipe to test, and then start adapting, to try and create the perfect loaf. It probably will never be perfect, but will be much closer to what I like. It also ends up being much fresher, more nutritious, and cheaper than what you can buy in the grocery stores.

Even after making a basic white loaf from scratch, I did not get the inflammatory response that some breads seem to cause. The absolute worst (for reasons unknown) was the freezer bread. My advice is to avoid it.

The freezer bread is an option I tried once, and then threw the rest out. It is definitely not the way to go, to make bread baking more convenient. The dough comes in an opaque bag, with four or five small frozen white loaves. The bread rose and looked okay. But it had no flavour, and an equally bland, flat tasting texture. After that brief  experiment, I would not opt for frozen dough of any sort. I had headaches, sore eyes, joint pain – you name it.

So far, on the concept of baking bread from scratch the old-fashioned way, I have stuck with using a “homestyle white” flour for 50% of the recipe. Otherwise you could end up with a brick if you are not careful about the density. I remember a time back on the farm, when my sister made some buns that even the dog could not chew. We used them to play baseball as proof of hardness, as a joke to tease her about her cooking skills. You could bat one of those buns into the field.

For the other 50% of the recipe, I have substituted whole wheat flour, ground flax, hemp seeds, and sunflower seeds. When you start adding the weightier nutrients, you have to add a bit more moisture. I added a bit of extra water and oil to the yeast mixture.

Other flours that I might try in the future are almond, oat, coconut, and quinoa. But for now, the latest recipe turned out great. I made a batch of cinnamon buns with raisins and walnuts, and they also turned out just great. When proofing the yeast, and for the flour mixture, I substituted cane sugar for plain white sugar. Other options are molasses, honey, or brown sugar, which I did try once, but tiny lumps of it did not blend that well, when stirring by hand.

There is a whole new world out there when it comes to baking bread. For instance, I did not know that your kitchen becomes cultured too. I guess the yeast spores become part of the environment. What was odd to me is that the first couple of times, I could smell yeast days after baking the bread, and wondered why. But this last time, even though the recipe was doubled, thus using two packages of yeast instead of one, the yeast smell is no longer noticeable. So I guess maybe the air got proofed too?

You can add a whole range of nuts, seeds, fruit, herbs, cheeses, and even buy things like Red Mill or other multi-grain cereals to add. They can be ground to whatever consistency you like. You also learn the names for the various different shapes you can make. Who knew that a short oval loaf is called a batard?

The other interesting change I made is to try baking in enamel coated cast iron. I have a vintage DRU Holland set with variable sized pots, as well as a covered frying pan. I used the round frying pan to make the cinnamon buns, and a small dutch oven to make a round loaf. They cooked evenly, and turned out even better than expected.

Anyway, as a method to nourish both body and soul, protect the pocketbook, when combined with finding a nutritious tailor-made or custom-made recipe – baking it yourself, is a worthwhile experience. For example, I detest caraway seeds, and would never put them in a loaf of bread.

As far as having to stay home all day long, the first rise takes at least two hours, so you can go out if you want to. After increasing the density with different add-ons, just like you need to add a bit more moisture to compensate, you can also add an extra bit of time for the first rising.

The best part is that you don’t need to have many ingredients on hand, to be able to bake bread. Basically you need to keep a supply of flour and yeast. Who doesn’t have water, sugar, salt and oil in their kitchen?

As an amateur and novice, but with a bit of bread making memory – it’s actually pretty easy!