Fresh Bread, Daily!

Quote du Jour

   How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?

                                                                                             ~ Julia Child 

Follow your nose!
Last Sunday, a dear friend hosted a pot luck luncheon at her home. As we entered her home, we were greeted by the yeasty, warm and wonderful fragrance of her freshly made bread. 

Simply delicious

When she shared the 4-ingredient recipe...flour, salt, water and yeast...I was reminded how very simple delicious bread is...really. Four ingredients? You can't get much simpler!

Nutrition labels on bread are confusing 
The meaning for “whole grain” or "whole wheat" has become fuzzy, and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, the organization that recently classified pizza as a vegetable) seems a bit confused about this, too. 

So, I've opted to stop buying manufactured bread. To control ingredients and tweak flavors to suit family tastes, I make my own. And I use a bread machine because it’s so easy.

Make it easy...on yourself
To cook and eat a whole foods plant-based diet 24/7, I've figured out some strategies to make this work for us. For our daily bread, using a bread machine, I make a habit of loading up the pan with the ingredients for our choice of bread, before I leave the house. I determine when we want to eat dinner, then set the bread machine's timer to have the bread ready at that time. When we get home, we're welcomed by the fragrance of baking bread. Oh yum!

This little piggy went to market...

Keep the dough in your wallet...

Now that it’s a habit, I bake a fresh loaf nearly every day. Any stale bread can be used to make bread pudding or bread crumbs. To make bread crumbs, whirl any left over stale bread in a food processor, put in a covered jar and freeze. 

...buy ingredients in bulk 

Purchase bread making ingredients at warehouse stores. Buying in bulk means you need to shop less often, too.

Yeast 

• For less than $4, you get enough yeast to make dozens of loaves
• Store yeast in a covered glass container in the refrigerator

Flour 

• Buy 50 lb bags of flour at warehouse stores
• Keep a large container for flour in your kitchen 
• Store the rest in a covered plastic bucket

Now you're cooking!

Recipe Notes: If you haven't had cornbread made with yeast, you're in for a treat. The Cornbread with Yeast recipe below is especially delicious with beans, soup or toasted then covered with plant-based Sloppy Joe. For variation, substitute blue corn meal for yellow cornmeal. 

(Although blue cornmeal is really purple...at least the way my eyes see color...just sayin'. If it's purple, why not call it purple?) 

Kneading by hand? See instructions below the recipe below. 

If using a bread machine, this bread takes 2 hours, 50 minutes to make
Cornbread with Yeast 

One 2 lb. loaf
     1 1/2 cups water 
     2 Tbsps vegetable oil

     1/3 cup sugar 

     2 tsps salt 

     1 cup yellow cornmeal (try blue cornmeal) 

     3 1/2 cups bread flour 

     2 tsps active dry yeast

Using a bread machine

1. Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer 
2. Decide when bread should be ready, set the timer 
3. Select Basic bread cycle 
4. Press Start

Kneading by hand...

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of the water. Add the oil, sugar, salt, cornmeal, 1-1/2 cups of the bread flour and remaining water. Stir. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour
3. Punch dough down; shape into a loaf. Place in a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 35-40 minutes
4. Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Turn loaf out of the pan to a wire rack to cool 

   

   Oh yum!