Living on Food Storage: Week two day one

September 9, 2013
I’m learning some interesting things. Most people store lots of grain for long-term “food insurance”. They do this because grain is healthful food with an indefinite shelf life if properly stored. But what good is it?
Grain (particularly wheat) is ground into flour and from there, made into bread.
But baking bread at home can produce mixed results.
I’m motivated to produce something delicious and nutritious, that will reduce any stress we may feel by being enjoyable. I have a trick I highly recommend.
I must confess to my foodie friends that I own no Kitchenaid mixer. I own no Bosch food processor. I don’t want to have to store them. But when I watch “Fusion Grain Cooking” in the mornings on BYU channel, I sorta wish for a mixer that will produce lovely, elastic dough with so little effort.
VIOLA! I can get similar results with a hand mixer. Here’s the recipe:
100% Whole Wheat Bread
6 cups of warm water in large mixing bowl
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 oil
4 teaspoons of salt
3 eggs or 1/3 cup of egg powder, (I tried it with the egg powder and it was good)
mix all well with an electric hand mixer:
 add 6 cups of flour. (I used whole (white) wheat mixed with about 10% ground flax seed)
1/4 cup wheat gluten powder (I use Honeywell brand I bought on Amazon.com)
add 2 tablespoons of active dry yeast. I just opened another 1 lb. vacuum packed package of yeast. I’ve had it in my cupboard for about ten years. It was very active!
This will form a thick batter. Beat it with the mixer for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken even more and become more elastic.
COVER IT AND LET IT RISE FOR about 40 minutes.
BLEND in about 6-7 more cups of the flour to make a soft, elastic, pliable dough. Knead for another ten minutes adding a little oil to the surface or flour if it’s too sticky.
Let it rest on for a few minutes and then cut it into three (large)  or 4 (average) pieces, form into loaves, drop into greased loaf pans and let rise until double.
Bake 350 until golden. . .about 35 minutes.
Dump out of pans right away so they don’t sweat. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing.
I like to slice the bread before I freeze part of it. It’s just more convenient.
Tasty with the soft, chewy texture we have paid big money for in
 restaurants.

I didn’t get the loaves very even in size. . .I was in a hurry! This loaf is slightly underdone, but the smaller ones were perfect. These loaves have very little flax seed in them, so they’re lighter in color.

 

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