For those of you who don't know, I LOVE homemade whole wheat bread and rarely (as in 2-3 times per year) buy any storebought bread. I even buy wheat in 50lb bags and grind my own flour.
"Why bother?" I used to like store bread just fine, until I lived in Prague for two years. There, the only good bread available was baked fresh daily and delivered to the local stores. One could cut it, bag it, and buy half or quarter of a loaf for pennies. It was a dense, hearty, flavorful, rye bread. At first I didn't care for it much, but it quickly grew on me. It was wonderful toasted with cream cheese and jam for breakfast. It made great ham and cheese sandwiches. It was such a shock to come back to the US and find NOTHING that could compare with that bread. So, when Curt and I married and I had my own kitchen, I started baking and searching for the perfect bread recipe. We bought a bread machine, but I could not get a good 100% whole wheat loaf to be moist enough. It always ended up crumbly and dry and only good for french toast and stuffing. What I didn't know was that the whole wheat flour we buy at the store has already gone rancid!!!! When I first tasted bread (thanks to Kathy O'Donnell) made from freshly ground grain, I knew I had found my solution. Thanks to a husband who loves tools, we soon bought a grain mill and I was in business! I found a good, reliable recipe and started baking bread.
Over the past 6 years I have learned more about nutrition and baking and have further improved the recipe to make a bread that has better keeping quality, tastes better, and is easier to digest. Since I've had numerous friends learn to bake bread and many of them call with questions from time to time, I've decided to write down the complete process (pictures included) for their (and your) reference.
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4 comments:
Where is "Prage?"
You know, 2 of my goals in life were to get married and bake bread. Well, I'm married. Off and on I've thought that I should get in gear and start making bread like I wanted to but I have the same solid whole wheat loaves. I'm going to have to search around to see if there's somewhere I could buy freshly ground wheat. I'm sure Roman wouldn't let me get a machine and even if he did there's no place to put it. That and he wouldn't benefit b/c I can't break him of him nutritionless white bread habit try as I might. Maybe if it's fresh baked...
Prague :-) I fixed it.
Sara, You'll have to try the recipe that includes some white flour that I'll give you. It will be better than store bought, if not as healthy as the other recipe. It's what I started out doing and we got hooked on homemade bread. Maybe Roman will too? What did it for Curt and for another friend's husband was actually tasting the bread made from freshly ground grain. What a difference!
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