Emily D. says "let's get quizzical"

Miss Fabulous Emily D asks what is Vital Wheat Gluten and powdered honey (btw it's just what is sounds like, powdered honey or honey in a powdered form...) and what is Dough enhancer. I will tell you the text book answer and tell you what my MIL Queen of Yeast..err... no wait... the Queen Breadmaker (sounds better) says. First of all, what isn't Vital Wheat Gluten? It isn't an herb or a flower, I know it's not a nut or spice. I do know it isn't a whole lot of things it isn't an intrument of distruction or a musical one either. The possibilies are endless, I could keep going and going. But that would be just showing off and I'm the modest type. So, I guess it could be a type of tool, tools aide in making a project or process become easier, it provides a leverage. So onto the text book answer from our friends wikipedia says that vital wheat gluten is...

a food made from the gluten of wheat. It is made by washing wheat flour dough
with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as a gummy mass, which is subject to further processing. Wheat gluten is used by bakers to increase the chewyness of breads.

Dough enhancer. hmm let's see. Wikipedia says.... No page with that title exists.
Okay, so let's go to the next better reference....k that just sounds weird, how about an even better reference. (there we go) <3>

vital wheat gluten and dough enhancer help the bread stay together so it

doesn't crumble when you cut it or toast it. It also makes it so the toaster

doesn't start on fire from all the bread droppings. (sounds like she's had experience.)

As for the powdered honey, yup you sure can subsitute sugar or regular honey for it. I put powdered because it makes the mix so you can make it ahead of time and just add water. It's pretty handy that way.

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.