The smell of homemade bread is intoxicating for me! A fresh slice from the oven with a little butter on the top is like a taste of heaven! Especially when this bread comes from your very own oven and is made from quality ingredients, no additives, and soaked for the highest nutritional benefit! Who can ask for better? The question is not whether it will save you money to make your own bread (which I am sure it will all the same), but rather you will know exactly what is being put into your bread! It is all about quality and freshness! Making homemade bread was one of my jobs growing up where it was rather of a burden than a joy to complete, but now that I am married and raising a family, I have come to realize the real value of developing this art!
Read a few benefits here.
Helpful Hints on Successful Bread Making
- When possible, use fresh home-milled flour. This will have the highest nutritional content, and the best baking characteristics for higher rising loaves. If this is not possible, store good quality flour in your freezer, but bring it to room temperature before using for the best results.
- Use high quality yeast such as SAF Instant Dry Yeast. This is available in quantity at Costco for a good price. Store in the freezer. It will last 2 years or more. If your yeast does not proof, then it is too old!
- Remember to proof your yeast! Add your yeast to warm water (between 100-115 degrees) with 1 tsp of honey. This will prepare it for action!
- Remember that less flour is best! You should only add just enough flour until the beaters in your mixing bowl are scraping the sides of the bowl clean. If you add too much flour, your bread will be crumbly. Dough should still be slightly sticky before kneading.
- Develop the gluten thoroughly. When dough is properly kneaded it will be smooth and elastic. A quick test for sufficient kneading is to take a golfball-sized portion of dough; stretch it between the thumb and index finger of both hands to determine if the gluten is fully developed. The dough should stretch out thin and not tear readily.
- Make sure to give your dough two risings! The additional rising will develop flavor, gluten framework and make more fluffy loaves. It is optional, if you are in a hurry.
- Only let rise till doubled before baking! This is the mistake I make too often. 30 minutes is a good length of time. If they rise too long the structure of the loaf will become weak and it will sink or fall completely during baking.
Homemade Bread - Lindsay’s Way
Makes 4 loaves
I make this recipe once a month, and freeze them, and we are set!
4 7/8 cup water
1 ½ Tbls. Salt
¾ cup oil (I use olive oil)
1 ½ cups honey
3 Tbls. Molasses
8-9 cups whole wheat flour or combination (I always throw in some kamut, barley, etc., but I mainly use hard white winter grain)
1 cup gluten flour
4 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast (UPDATE: I have found that 3 Tbsp works just as well, and a friend uses 4 1/2 tsp by mistake and it worked too!)
3 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup flax seeds
1/3 cup raw millet
sunflower seeds, if desired
Combine yeast, 1 tsp of honey, and water. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes or so, until fully proofed. Combine the yeast mixture with the remaining ingredients in your mixer. Only add as much flour until it starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the gluten is fully developed. Remove to a greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit until doubled, about 30 minutes. Punch down and divide into 3-4 loaves (3 larger or 4 smaller). Roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle and roll up into a loaf (this makes the perfectly shaped loaves). Place in greased bread bans and rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes (the best place is the oven! Just turn it on low 150 degrees and let it rise again). Turn the oven on to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. Bread is done when it is fully browned on all sides! Remove from oven, rest in pans for 10 minutes before removing from pans.
Benefits of Soaking Your Grains
If you want to add the benefits of soaking the grains to this recipe, my soaking method is as follows:
Soak together for 12-24 hours: (these are just portions of the quantities listed above)
1 cup kefir or cultured buttermilk
3 1/2 cups of water
8-9 cups of ground flour
2 cups oats
1/2 cup raw millet
After it has soaked I active the yeast with the remaining 1/2 cup of water, and honey. Then I add the remaining ingredients (the remaining quantities). Simple!
Further Resources
A few excellent articles and tips on making your own homemade bread! Urban Homemaker has an abundance of resources on this topic!
Bread Baking Problems & Solutions
Tips for the Best Bread
Check out more at Kitchen Tip Tuesday!
January 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I have a question about your bread recipe. We enjoy millet but I had no idea I could use it in bread. What a fabulous idea. Please explain how you use it. Do you cook it, mill it or just use it raw? Thanks for your help. God Bless & I enjoy your blog; your baby is beautiful!
Susan
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Lindsay replied on January 15th, 2008:
Susan,
There is no need to cook it in advance. I just throw it in for the added nutrition and the crunch it supplies. It works just fine as it is.
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January 15th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Thanks for commenting on my blog again, Lindsey! I am intrigued by your healthy cooking–I would love to do more myself, but I live in a small southern town where there are few nearby resources for whole grains, etc. Thanks for the inspiration!
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January 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
yum!
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January 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
This made me laugh because I made dough in my bread machine today, and it didn’t turn out! Maybe hand made is just better sometimes. I’ve been reading your blog for a few days, and I really enjoy what you have to say. I have just started a similar blog and was wondering if you would mind if I link back to you. I think women can learn a lot from you!
Take care!
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January 15th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Hi Lindsay,
I just tagged you on my blog to be a part of the “wish list meme” you don’t have to participate but you’re tagged all the same! *wink*
I LOVE homemade bread. I just got a machine to do the work for me, but I think I like the texture better when you take more control over the rising and cooking time. But…I do love the hassle free-ness of the machine.
I think I’ll try using some different grains in mine next time.
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Lindsay replied on January 15th, 2008:
Melissa & Steph,
I formally had a bread machine that did the work for me as well…but I grew tired of it failing on me. Very dry texture and never seem to rise properly. Hope you have good success! I love my Bosch mixer now.
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January 15th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Lindsay-
I was wondering what you use to grind your wheat? I’ve looked around a bit and it seems grinders are pretty spendy.
Thanks! I sure do enjoy your blog.
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Lindsay replied on January 15th, 2008:
Carrie,
I use a Nutrimill purchased from Pleasant Hill Grain. It is a wonderful grinder and PHG is an excellent company. I isn’t the cheapest machine ($250), but it is well worth the investment. I use it for grinding fresh flour for all my baking needs! I never buy flour anymore.
Thanks everyone for your sweet comments!
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January 15th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Thanks for the tips. We make all of our own homemade bread. I LOVE how you described it - like a taste of Heaven!!
Blessings,
~Martie
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January 16th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Do you soak the grains, or the milled flour? I am confused.
But it sounds like a yummy recipe! I’d love to try it
Thanks for sharing.
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Lindsay replied on January 16th, 2008:
Sorry for the confusion. You soak the ground flour not the grain. I made the clarification in the recipe.
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January 17th, 2008 at 7:11 am
fantastic post! can’t wait to try this after i get home from spain! blessings! lylah
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February 5th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Lindsay,you have inspired me to begin making bread for my family! You said that you never buy flour anymore…Do you ever use white flour? If you do, what kind of “light” grain do you use? If not, how do you keep your recipes from being too heavy?
Thanks for the inspiration, wonderful blog!
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Lindsay replied on February 5th, 2008:
Jennifer,
I grind my own grains to make it as fresh as possible, so I buy them in their whole state. I do not use white flour as it really has no nutrients in it (because it is overly processed to remove the good part of the grain, bran and germ, to make it light).
For bread, I use a combination of several grains, typically mostly hard white wheat (or hard red wheat), and soft spring wheat (which is also known as whole wheat pastry flour). I will add barley, and other grains in small quantities for extra nutrients. My recipe makes a really moist bread, and not heavy at all. Hard white wheat has a high gluten content which is great from bread, providing elasticity.
For other baking (muffins, biscuits, etc), I typically stick to the soft spring wheat (whole wheat pastry) as it does not have a high gluten content, making a more light final product! I also add a little of other grains (about 1/4 cup) to increase nutritional value.
Hope that helps!
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February 5th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Thank you so much! Just what I needed to know!
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February 10th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Hi Lindsay…I’m really enjoying your site! I’m getting ready to try your bread recipe. Having never used kefir before, I’m wondering if I am supposed to stick it in the fridge while it soaks with the other grains? Also, the kefir I bought is in “milk” form…is that the right kind? Thanks for your help!
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Lindsay replied on February 11th, 2008:
Katie, go for it! I am excited to hear you try it out. Store bought kefir will be more like the texture of yogurt. If you make your own, it is more solid. You will want to leave the kefir and flour on your counter top to soak. The benefit of soaking is accumulating the natural bacteria from the air. So let it sit for 12-24 hours and then add the rest of your ingredients! Let me know how it goes.
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June 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Hi Lindsay. I just stumbled onto your site recently and am really encouraged/exhorted to continue bringing His Kingdom to our home in the areas of nutrition/frugality/general homemaking. I tried the bread recipe last night and ran into a few difficulties. I soaked the flour (whole wheat store bought), but used whey instead of kefir. I also mixed and kneaded by hand because the batch was too large for my mixer. The problem I ran into was that the dough kept getting very sticky. Is it supposed to stick to EVERYTHING when you are kneading it? I ended up using at least 10 cups of flour and had to bake it for twice as long to get rid of the doughiness. Any suggestions? It was still some of the best tasting bread I have ever had!
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Lindsay replied on June 5th, 2008:
Valerie, so glad to hear that you enjoyed the bread!
First off, whey is going to be more liquidy than kefir, as I normally use (my kefir is a yogurt texture), thus you will naturally need more flour.
When soaking, try adding all the flour required in the recipe, plus a little more to get a moist texture. When you add the remaining ingredients you might just have to add more flour until it is only slightly sticky, as you are kneading. I would just recommend adding more flour and apply some oil to your hands to prevent sticking. It should not stick too much. You want to be able to roll it out to make loaves as mentioned above in the recipe.
10 cups of flour is pretty normal for me while using kefir, as I have found you usually have to add a bit more after soaking, so you may try 11-12 cups with whey. You are going for just slightly sticky! More flour will allow for the shorter baking time.
Hope that helps!
Blessings,
Lindsay
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June 16th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Lindsay- The second batch of bread came out much better! At hubbie’s request I added cinnamon and raisins on top of the flattened dough before rolling one of the loaves. The cinnamon raisin loaf is wonderful with breakfast, or sometimes I’ll have a piece w/ butter for dessert. Yum! We feel very blessed to have found your site. THank you!
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July 6th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Hi Lindsay,
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful bread. I was wondering if you have tried any recipes without gluten? Trying to make all of my own breads also, especially breads without gluten. For this recipie would a gluten free wheat work, also excluding the gluten flour?
Much thanks in advance!
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Lindsay replied on July 6th, 2008:
I have not explored using this recipe with any gluten free grain. Gluten enables it to rise properly, so I have not a clue as to how to go about replacing the flour. I would probably try a recipe specifically designed for such, as in this yummy looking millet oatmeal bread. It just ends up being more expensive, as you have to replacing gluten with items like xanthan gum and tapioca flour. Have fun!
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