Mothering Forum banner
1 - 10 of 10 Posts

· Registered
Joined
·
1,555 Posts
Discussion Starter · #1 ·
I love the idea of making my own bread. I haven't found any recipes that truly thrill me though. I love the idea of sourdough, but I haven't come across anything whole wheat.

Here's what I would love:
100% whole wheat
low sugar or low honey
vegan (except maybe a bit of honey)
sourdough is a bonus
Any extras are fine: flax seeds or ground flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, oats...

Does my dream bread exist?

I see some people on the frugal board saying that they make their own bread. Is it really that much cheaper?

Thanks!
Aven
 

· Registered
Joined
·
858 Posts
You dreamed it, therefore it exists...

To make a sourdough starter, mix 1 C. flour and 3/4 C. water together, put in a glass container or ceramic bow, and let sit for a week. It will get bubbly and get hooch on the top. You can mix it back in. There are much more complicated ways to make it but this one is the easiest and works for me.

Most recently, during a cob workshop, the vegan sourdough I made was:

Start the starter the night before: 2T starter, 1 C. flour, 3/4 C. water.
In the morning, remove 2T starter for next time.

To what is left in the bowl, add a couple cups of water, a drizzle of olive oil (1/4 C ?), a drizzle (1/4 C.?) of aquave, and about 2 teaspoons salt. Mix in a couple cups of flour or enough for the consistency of pancake batter. Let sit until bubbly again or, with out the sponge rise, add more flour to make a dough. Knead until smooth.

Let rise until double.

Shape.

Let rise until almost double. When close, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Once the oven is preheated, reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake loaves until done, about 45 to 60 minutes dependent on the size of your loaves.

Let cool at least 20 minutes before cutting if at all possible because the bread is still baking as it is cool. This is something that does not happen often in our house.

I have had lovely success with whole wheat but I like fresh ground best. If you are going to add flax, add ground flax seeds. Oat meal works well and adds lovely texture if it is precooked and cooled. Mashed potatoes add egg like consistency, similar to oats.

I find bread baking is much cheaper then bread buying.

Two cookbooks to consider:

Laurel Kitchen's Bread Book by Laurel Roberston and others

The Tassarja Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown

Bread is very forgiving so do not be intimidated. Get in there and go for it. And I promise, your "mistakes" will get eaten, if only when they are 20 minutes out of the oven!

Have fun!
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,555 Posts
Discussion Starter · #4 ·
I'm guessing that what I know of as 'agave' is the same thing as ladywolf's aquave. It's some kind of cactus syrup or something, very easy on the blood sugar levels. It can be found at Whole Foods, but they're terribly expensive. I think someone on MDC said they found it on Amazon for a good price. I would get it through my Coop.

Ladywolf, your style for directions sound like mine.. "a couple" this, "a couple" that... I have no problem offering those sorts of recipes to someone else, but I have a hard time with it when it's being given to me
!

Sometimes bread making seems like such a particular science, and sometimes it seems forgiving... it's always hard to know whether or not my bread will be in a finicky mood or a forgiving mood.
:

Thanks for the book recommendations.

Is ww starter harder (more finicky) to do? If so, I don't think I'd be opposed to doing a white starter, as long as the rest of the flour was ww.

I have ww bread flour available, and ww pastry flour. (I actually don't have any plain ww flour.) I'm guessing that the ww bread flour would be good to use, but I rarely see any recipes using it. If I substitute ww bread flour into a recipe, is there anything I need to do to compensate for that substitution?

I think I'd really like to get into the habit of making bread on a regular basis.

Thanks for your help,
Aven
 

· Registered
Joined
·
858 Posts
My bit of this, a tad of that comes from baking since I was eight.... Since that has been over 30 years, you have to forgive me. Also, bread is really that way because how much flour you will need will actually depend on the freshness of the flour, humidity, ....

I do not find that whole wheat starter is any more finicky then white. I would use the whole wheat bread flour. I also would see if you can get fresh ground and store it in the refrigerator. There is nothing you need to change, just go light in the use of flour for knead. You might wish to use water.

I make bread at least once a week so it is entirely doable to do it on a regular basis. People do not believe that I do not use a bread machine. I like the texture and the flexibilty making bread the old fashion way gives me.

Have fun. PM me if you need to. I just do not get on very often.

elizabeyta
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,555 Posts
Discussion Starter · #7 ·
whole wheat (non-sourdough) is also good.

ladywolf, I know part of my problem is that I'm moderately inexperienced. I don't know what the dough should look like, or feel like, how stretchy it should be. Even if I had a specific recipe, I mightn't be lucky, as you said, the humidity, etc., plays a big role.

I've tried to do sourdough starter before. It was brewing well, but I didn't know that it had worked well, so I left it too long and it starved. I tried a second time, and it never fermented.

Is summer a bad time to be trying my luck? Do you store your starter in the fridge for a week at a time? Once a week baking seems about what I'd like to do.

Thanks again,
Aven
 

· Registered
Joined
·
354 Posts
I love the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and the Moosewood Cookbook, or actually I think the bread stuff is in the second one, the Enchanted Broccoli FOrest. All these cookbooks are great for things other than bread too, but the step by step int he LK and the EBF are great. Both have recipes for sourdough I think.
 
1 - 10 of 10 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top