I have been baking bread in some for or another since my teens. As a child my food allergies made it necessary for my parents to make our bread to avoid the cottonseed oil that inhabited all purchased bread back in the 60′s and 70′s. I fondly remember my parents’ Sunday afternoon ritual of making bread together. They would grind the wheat, mix by hand and then laboriously knead the huge batch of bread. Dad would kneel on the floor with the large bowl of dough in front of him, he would work the dough pushing down, flipping, pushing down some more until it was just right. Mom would clean up while dad kneaded. All the while they would visit about bread, kids, and what they had planned for the upcoming week. These are some of my fondest memories…
Over the course of my married life I have dabbled with making bread. I would go in spurts, baking regularly and then falling back on store bought bread which was less time consuming and much less messy. As time has gone on I have come to realize the importance of real food. Food that is not baked days or weeks before purchasing. Food that is not made with ingredients that I can’t pronounce. Food that is fresh and made from scratch in my own kitchen…
About a year ago I challenged myself to make our own bread…all of it. No purchased bagels, hamburger buns, rolls…nothing that I have not made myself. Now with 5 kids, 4 of whom are of the male persuasion, this is a larger than life challenge. We go through 12 loaves of whole wheat bread, 2 large pans of sticky buns, 3 or 4 loaves of banana bread, and 4 pizza crusts each week . I make this every week in two different baking sessions.
This holiday season it will have been a year since I challenged myself. We have not purchased regular bread but I have to admit to purchasing hamburger and hot dog buns when we have has large gatherings at the cabin. Making buns for 50 people has been beyond what I seem capable of. Other than that we have been ‘store bought free’.
Keeping my pantry well stocked with different whole grains for grinding is a time-saving key. I love to experiment so I have many different organic grains ready in 25 and 50# quantities on the floor of my pantry ready to be put to use in new recipes. I have hard red and hard white wheats, rye, oat groats, cracked wheat, and corn all ready to be freshly ground. I also keep a large quantities of oil, vital wheat gluten, yeast, salt and honey.
Although I make much of this by hand I do use my Bosch bread mixer for my whole wheat bread that we use for sandwiches and toast. I adore the memory of my parents kneading by hand but you won’t catch me on the floor with a big bowl of dough…if for no other reason than my floor is not nearly as clean as my mother’s was!
I also use an electric wheat grinder. I have seriously thought of purchasing a hand grinder but haven’t been able to justify spending the money even knowing how much the kids would get a kick out of it!
Come back next week and I will share a few of my very favorite recipes and cookbooks as well as tips for involving the kids in the whole messy but oh so yummy bread baking adventure!
Kim can also be found raising organic fruits, veggies, critters, kids and a camel over at the inadvertent farmer
Ever try millet? It makes wonderful bread. There are so many grains and people get so stuck on wheat. My daughter cannot eat wheat so we have used many different types of flour, with millet being a favorite. There is rice (brown and white), many kinds of bean flour (chickpea, navy bean), potato, tapioca, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, teff, sorghum.
Many work better mixed together or mixed with wheat.
I just posted about this below! I make an entirely millet flatbread, as well as one out of sorghum. Like your daughter, millet is a hands-down favorite of mine. I can’t have any gluten, so the barley, etc. are out, but experimenting with buckwheat has been a lot of fun. I’ve almost learned how to make buckwheat/corn muffins
What a nice post, Kim. How loving of your parents! Where did you get your wheat grinder/mill? I have been thinking about buying one.
What a gift from your parents! I’m about to start baking all our bread so I look forward to your recipes!
My mother was a stay-at-home Mom until I was in my teens. She would make bread dough that would be ready for turning into loaves just when my sisters and I (and any of our friends) came home from school. We were allowed to make whatever shape we wanted and even turn them into cinnamon buns. She had a fine selection of tiny pans. That was SO MUCH fun that we all turned into bread makers. I am now retired and live alone but I still make all my bread ( and bagels and pitas and tortillas) Nowadays I often make the dough once a week and keep it in my ‘fridge in a bucket with a lid and just take out enough dough to make a small loaf when needed. Talk about sour dough!
I’m looking forward to the recipes next week. Enjoyed this post immensely!
What type of grinder do you use and where do you purchase your grains? I’m so interested in grinding my own flour, but don’t know where to begin. Beautiful post, BTW! Thanks for taking the time to share with us!
This is perfect timing. I’ve just bought a book about bread making and I’ve got whole wheat rolls in the oven now. I’m really looking forward to your recipes. I don’t have plans to grind my own flour. I still a beginner!
Thanks for promising recipes – I was going to comment on that
I am just about ready to start a bread challenge myself – sandwich bread. That’s our most common bread product, so I figure it’s a good place to start. I’ve been collecting pans at thrift stores, have been laying in the ingredients, and evaluating the schedule to fit in the time. I’m particularly excited about this sustainability project because my partner really enjoys breadmaking; it was his cooking responsibility of choice at our co-op at university.
I would love to hear some testimonials from folks using hand cranked grain mills in their kitchen. I’m sure the $1,200 Daimant grain mill from Lehman’s is nice, but what do you all find works without costing more than the blue book on my car :p. Anyone using rollers for rolled oats ar wheat flakes??
Kris
I too bake all of my own bread. I bake bake bake all winter and fill our freezer for summer eating. I have been getting into grinding my own wheat more and more and just found a local source. I enjoy making bread more than anything else, and since there are only 2 of us I often make more than we need so I give away loaves to friends & family (if I lived close I’d help you out with your breadmaking).
I have been experimenting more and more lately with sourdough breads. I love the idea of keeping the starter on the counter and making bread without any commerical products at all. Yeast is really cheap (I used to buy it in bulk). I’m even getting into making biscuits, pancakes and muffins with sourdough.
Home baked bread is so comforting and delicious. No doubt your kids will relish these memories just like you do! I applaud you for taking an active role is feeding your children well. I get sick of hearing people say they don’t have time to make homemade things because they have a family. People like you prove it can be done if the desire is there. Keep up the good work!
I’ve made all of my own bread for the past year and a half or so, and while growing up my mother also made all our bread (we ate flatbread). I’m newly gluten-intolerant, but I’m trying to learn how to make new breads as quickly as possible. Interestingly, what seems most appealing is not gluten-free versions of “regular” grain bread, but bread that is *naturally* meant to be gluten-free. As you mentioned, I want to have that feeling of basic ingredients and simplicity, not a bunch of preservatives and compensatory products that imitate something else.
So far, I’ve found flatbread made entirely out of either millet or sorghum flour and hot water, as well as brown rice dosa (thin savory crepes). It is infinitely more satisfying than looking for imidations of what I used to make.
Hey Kim,
In a post on your personal blog you reference a book, “5 minute bread” (http://sweetgrace.typepad.com/the_inadvertent_farmer/2009/09/sunday-supper-vegan-pizza-from-the-garden.html). Can you share a bit about the book, what you like about it, and how what you learned there fits into your bread baking challenge. We like to make bread, but it takes a whole day of baking, and that doesn’t fit with the rest of life as often as we would like. Finding ways to make great bread and use less time would be great.
[...] October 17, 2009 by inadvertentfarmer As promised part two to my personal bread challenge (if you are looking for part 1 it can be found here.) [...]