The LeBaron Bunch, kinda like The Brady Bunch only BeTTeR

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. but the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."
George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Make your bread and eat it too.





I was just on a blog http://www.safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/ a very good blog about preparedness. Preparedness is one of the things I have wanted to write about on here. I took a fabulous class about incorporating your food storage into your daily menu and it was sooo informative. It made bread making appear to be so simple that I actually dared attempt to make bread for the first time ever last summer. It turned out really good. I did find out that hard red wheat makes really heavy, dense bread that doesn't rise. I thought it was because I was a novice breadmaker and didn't have skills, but found out it was really the red wheat. I really like red wheat for pancakes though, good texture and nutty taste. So the hard white wheat is what you really want to make your bread with. There I just saved you some time and money, learn from my mistake.
On a side note I used to think the really good moms ground their own wheat and made wheat bread, what someone would prolly call a KooL-aiD MoM. Well I found out I was the one making it hard because really it's all about putting in the time and having the right ingredients, it's really not too bad.
This is a pic of some very yummy bread that I just made. I ran out of ground wheat so I subbed the rest with 1 cup of wht flour and the last of my flax seed and about 1/4 cup each of cooked millet and oatmeal. I liked crunching on the whole flax seed but I think it mostly passes through your body and ends up whole in the toilet bowl. So I think the MiLLeD flax is the way to go. Hey, I made a rhyme. It turned out very scrumptious. The millet and flax added a great crunchy texture. So for the recipe.
Just a note---> in the class I learned that you can substitute ground up white beans cup for cup in place of shortening, butter, or oil in a recipe. I do it all the time to make bread. It works perfectly. My teacher Tere Foster put this recipe together. She did everything powdered so all you had to do was add water. It's great.

10 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour
1/2 c. ground white beans
3/4 c powdered honey
2 T salt
1 T dough enhancer
1 T vital wheat gluten
a pinch of ascorbic acid
2 T SAF instant yeast (she says no other will do!)

So add about 4 1/2 cups very hot water to the dry mix. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes on high. Turn out onto floured surface. Oil hands and shape into buns, loaves, subs, pizza dough, soft pretzels, or one large loaf, etc. Baked or unbaked, the dough freezes very well and can be thawed as needed.

With my bread I used about 7 cups freshly ground wheat flour, 1 cup wht. flour, 1/4 c each cooked millet and oatmeal and flax seeds, like I mentioned before. Sooo good.

10 comments:

Stephanie Lee said...

Oh my goodness, does this look scrumptious or WHAT?!?!? :) I love the new recipe and glad to know I'm not the only one to add "leftover" cooked grains in my bread. Leftover oatmea (gag me with a wooden spoon!!) disappears smashingly in bread...as does any leftover hot cereal. Broccoli...WOULD...if it weren't for the dead-give-away green tint it makes. Sweet potatoes are awesome too! :) I LOVE the bean substitute idea!! Are these dry white beans ground up into a meal/flour? I MUST know!!! :)

Wish I could bake bread WITH you!! :)

Stephanie Lee said...

BTW, what album is the song "Please do not go" by the Violent Femmes on? I can't find it on iTunes and I WANT IT!!! :) It's, like, the fourth song on your playlist widget thingy....

good times... :)

MaMa eNCHaNTeD said...

Oh dear dear friend that I call cousin, and a sister would work too. I would looove to bake a batch of bread with you, if only we lived closer. You grind up the white beans like you would wheat so it becomes a powder. So is the proper term milled? As for the song it is from the "Hallowed Ground" album. There are more songs down at the bottom from V Femes. The one song that I haven't been able to find is "The Country Death Song" it must have it soon.

Oh and I just had a great idea, Hi we have all kinds of artisans in the family why not include a day at the reunion and learn from you, and Arlene's spinning and does she knit? and that one blk cousin, your bro in law, his name has left me for now, he works with glass. That would be awesome, but maybe it's just me. I think others would like it too.

Brett and Marianne said...

Great job...what else did you learn. I need to start using all that food storage!

saskia said...

"I used to think the really good moms ground their own wheat and made wheat bread"

Wow, you mean I'm a good mom, I've been grinding my own wheat and making my own bread for years. Not that I eat the bread,but everyone else does (you have 72 hours after grinding your wheat to keep all the nutrition, ground wheat in the store is waste.) I don't have white flour in my house, and I haven't had a problem using red wheat for my bread, that is usually what I use. And my daughter makes the bread sometimes to when I am busy, her bread went to state. Anyway, it's much cheaper, but it is a lot of work! And yeah, flax needs to be soaked or fresh ground to give you the goodness.

Ms. Fish said...

I would really like to trust you on how good this bread is, but I think I will just have to sample yours to be really sure :)

You are like the furniture botox and domestic queen.

MaMa eNCHaNTeD said...

Haha, You all make me laugh. I am by no means a domestic queen, I'm just proud of myself for having actually made breqad. I don't know all the answers, I am soooooo unexperienced. I have had no trouble with this recipe, although, I am certain there are many many more wonderful, and even better recipies out there. send me your recipies and I'll put them on here too, for my reference and whoever else might come on here.

Emily said...

Honestly I have been afraid of making bread forever. I DO make quick breads, but who doesn't. I have been wanting to learn to make bread but the few times I tried it was rather sad. . . .So, I would love to try this recipe, but I have some questions about ingredients that I am unfamiliar with. ( powdered honey-what the heck? I didn't even know such a thing was possible! dough enhancer? vital wheat gluten? ) Please advise. :)

saskia said...

Emily, you can probably find dough enhancer and gluten at a kitchen store... they help with the texture and help it to rise... don't worry about using powdered honey, regular is fine, or use sugar if you don't have that. Bread isn't hard to make, but it does take some practice. If you are making wheat bread, grind your wheat fresh, it'll make all the difference in the taste. My daughter makes homemade wheat bread all the time, her bread even went to state, seee.... easy

Erin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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