By Cindy Nabb

We bake bread here at the Nabb house.  We bake lots of bread.  Every week at least twice we bake four loaves of bread of which we make sandwiches, toast, spread with butter and jam or just eat.  I thought I’d share with you how we make bread and why we don’t just buy it from the store.  

I started baking bread about eight years ago.  I made bread for fun using white or wheat flour that I bought from the store.  I used my bread machine to mix the bread.  I would then take it out of the bread machine and bake it in the oven.  My husband loved coming home to a dinner with fresh baked bread.  I was still buying bread but the bar had been raised, no longer were we satisfied eating white wonder bread.  So, I learned, I asked, I read books, finding different recipes and finding the best methods to bake bread.  

When baby number three was born, much to my husbands chagrin, I laid down my bread pans for quite some time and only got them out for special occasions.   I picked them back up again when a dear sister in Christ shared with me her bread making abilities.  She came over and showed me how to make bread, gave me her recipe, gave me a wheat grinder and a 50 pound bag of wheat berries.  She told me that if I was going to bake bread that using fresh wheat was so much better for us than store-bought flour.  I didn’t really know why, but trusted her educated opinion.  

I later learned the why’s of freshly ground flour.  Wheat that has been freshly ground is truly a whole grain.  Nothing has been removed or separated or added back.  When wheat is ground it loses it’s nutritive value  quickly.  After 24 hours, it loses about 45% of it’s nutrition and after 72 hours it is virtually void of nutrition.  Flour companies extract the wheat germ because of it’s high rancidity potential.  The wheat germ is the powerhouse of the wheat berry.  It contains vitamin B and Vitamin E which are  great for our skin and heart.  The bran is also removed from store-bought flours.  Bran is the basic fiber of the wheat berry and having a diet high in fiber, as we all know, is a good way to prevent cancer.  Enriched white flour that you buy at the store is just that, the government decided some time ago that flour companies needed to add back in some good stuff after they made it “shelf stable”.  The good stuff they put back in is 3 synthetic vitamins and 1 mineral.  

If you don’t own a wheat grinder check with your local health food store, sometimes they have a grinder on premises along with wheat berries that you can grind fresh there.  The benefits to your families health is worth the extra effort.

Here is my everyday bread recipe.

This recipe is used as basis for cinnamon bread, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, herb bread and rolls.

• Preheat oven to 375
• 2 1/4 c warm water (hot to the touch)
• 1/4 c milled flax seed (milled in a coffee grinder)
• 1/4 c canola oil
• 1/4 c honey
• 1/4 c molasses
• 2 t sea salt
• 2 T Kal’s Nutritional Yeast Flakes
• 2 1/2 T vital gluten
• 5 c fresh ground wheat flour (more flour is needed later)
• 1 T 2t Saf-Yeast Instant Yeast
   

Layer ingredients in your stand mixer or Bosch mixer, add more flour until dough pulls away from bowl, approximately 1 1/2 c.  Add back up to 2 T warm water.  Knead in mixer for 5-7 minutes at speed 2 for a Bosch or medium speed in a stand mixer.   Dough should be soft and sticky.  Turn out onto well oiled board, divide into pans and let rise 30 minutes in a warm place.  Bake at 350 for 26-35 minutes depending on the size of your pan and your oven.  Bread should sound hollow when done.   

Makes 4-1lb loaves

Tags: baking, bread, healthy eating, wheat