People often
ask me why I make my own bread* and #realbreadweek seemed like the ideal time
to explain what I think the benefits of homemade bread are.
The first is
the taste. I can honestly say that a mass-produced loaf should really be considered
a completely different food stuff. They taste different, the texture is
different, and they make you feel different.
I know that if
I have too much commercially produced ‘bread’ it upsets my stomach and makes
me feel very lethargic. I also find homemade bread is more filling, which is
very useful for anyone who is a carb addict like me.
By making
your own bread you have much more control over what you are eating. Look at the
ingredients on commercial loaves, basically you will see a lot of shit (my technical
term for additives and preservatives) that you don’t need, and your body does
not want.
Ingredients and ideas
There are a
lot of bread recipes you can have fun trying, but the basic four ingredients of
yeast bread are flour, water, yeast and salt. Some will argue for sugar, but I
have made plenty of loaves without any sugar and others which just have a
couple of pinches. Others will say there are seven key ingredients by including
eggs and fat.
I stand by
the four, but that is not to say you should just stick to those. There are so
many sweet and savoury bread recipes to try and if you are feeling brave, you can
go off piste and experiment with flavours.
Optional
extras include the different flours, seeds, herbs, spices, olives, dried fruit,
buttermilk, cheeses, molasses etc, etc, etc.
By Hand or By Machine
These are the two basic options available for making your
own bread.
I love making bread by hand. It is very therapeutic if you’ve
had a bad day or are just in a foul mood.
When you are feeling down it can
sometimes have an adverse effect on cake making, which seems to sink in empathy
for your troubles, whereas dough just says “Bring it on” and “you knead me” – pun intended.
Preparing your dough is also a fantastic work out, which goes
someway to counteracting the carbs.
However, the bread making process can feel like a long one
and be quite messy, which is actually one of the reasons it can also be fun,
but at the right time.
Step forward the bread making machine where you just add the
ingredients (in the right order) and switch it on. You can get machines which
work on a timer so that you can leave it on overnight and wake up to a fresh
loaf.
However, be warned, occasionally it goes wrong, sometimes
because you have done something incorrectly or sometimes for no obvious reason at
all. My classic mistakes have included not putting the blade in the bottom
(which does all the rather important mixing) and forgetting the yeast.
Is #RealBread more expensive
If you are buying real bread made by an artisan baker then
it is going to be more expensive than a shop bought, commercially produced loaf
and this is because it is worth more.
If you are making your own bread, then it can be cheaper.
One thing that will affect the price is the quality of flour you choose, whether
it be a shop’s own brand or maybe you are lucky enough to have a local windmill.
Many artisan, stone ground mills will deliver if you buy in
bulk, which also brings the cost down.
So, in answer to the question why do you make your own bread?
I would say, why don’t you?
