Bread baking

Several weeks ago, I read some disturbing news: as a result of a surplus of paper, the food industry has begun to add the wood pulp to our food, especially in breads.  It goes in under the guise of "cellulose fiber."  Cellulose fiber is non-digestible, and frankly, if I can't walk up to a tree and eat it without having to add tons of chemicals to it, then I shouldn't put it in my body.  What's even more disturbing is that every loaf of bread that I normally buy, mainly because I considered it to be healthy (100% whole grain, no high fructose corn syrup, low in calories), contained cellulose as a key ingredient.  It was the 2nd ingredient listed on my favorite brand, Arnold's Light Bakery's 100% whole wheat bread.  Talk about taking the wind out of your sails.

As a result, I've decided to make my own bread.  I mean, why are there so gosh darn many ingredients in bread anyway?!  Really, you need only 4 ingredients: yeast, flour, water, salt.  Then you can add a sweetner for flavor and color, spices, and a fat (milk, butter, oil) for taste and texture.  I have had a love/hate relationship with making bread and have made many mistakes, many.  Mainly, I was adding the yeast to the liquid in my bread machine, instead of making a well in the flour with my finger and then putting the yeast in that hole.  Once I figured that out, I have produced some yummy looking and tasting bread.  Oh, and don't leave it in the pan too long after its done cooking because then it gets wet and soggy-no good!

Don't cut 30 seconds after cooking because it will tear!  We just couldn't resist though. hee hee

See?  Super yummy!

Only problem is that I now need to stop making the "unhealthy" white bread, and switch to whole grain or sprouted flours.  I start my experimentation today.  We will see what happens!  Here are a couple of recipes that turned out really well, that my family loved!  Add the ingredients to all of the recipes to a bread machine in the order listed, and select the basic loaf setting.

Country White Bread
1 cup warm milk
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast

Potato Bread
1 3/8 cups water
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/4 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup instant potato flakes
2 Tbsp milk
1 3/4 tsp active dry yeast

Banana Yeasted Bread

• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• 2 tablespoon butter, room temperature
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 medium-sized bananas, cut into chunks, about 3/4 cup