Somewhat Muddled Musings

Monday, January 11, 2010

That does it!


That does it. Yesterday, when doing the grocery shopping, I noticed that every single loaf of reasonably priced 100% whole wheat sandwich bread contained HCFS (high fructose corn syrup) which we're really trying to get away from completely. The loaves that did not contain HFCS were running pretty high prices, and our family goes through a lot of loaf bread. SO...I'm now ready to tame my yeast demon and get on the bread making wagon.

My other concern is how long store brought 'healthy' bread can actually last...and that can't be healthy for us. I'll make a confession here. We have a pile on our kitchen countertop that is a monster. Things can get lost in it. 1/4 of a loaf of bread was lost in it while we were on holidays for Christmas this year. It was a 100% whole grain bread from a major manufacturer that had been bought about a week before we left. So this bread was over 3 weeks old...and no sign of mold or mildew or anything looking like it had aged. That worried me...the amount of chemicals and preservatives that are in the ingredients list is one of those things we're really trying to move away from.

My biggest thing has always been proofing yeast - I'm so not getting it. Friends laugh at me (Veda & Karah - I'm talking about you!!) at how something so easy seems to be such a chore for me, but I mess up even the most basic bread roll or pizza dough recipes.

So this is my goal....to tame the yeast monster, conquer it, and put it to good use.

This will be one of my go-to sites because I love the idea of having a starter in the fridge all the time. I'm not sure how it'll translate to our kind of bread use for everyday baking, but it's a path in the right direction for me.

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Any tips or hints? Good whole wheat/whole grain breads for everyday use?

My thought is to pull out the bread machine, let it proof and rise the bread, then pull it to bake in the oven so we can have more 'usual' sandwich/toast shaped bread for our days, and do artisan breads a few times a week for dinner, etc. Thoughts? Help? Steer me in the correct path!

1 comments:

Amanda said...

Let me know when you find the answer because that is also one of my goals this year. I want to learn how to not kill yeast. ;)

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