Breads

Straight Breads

• Whole Wheat Bread
• Slow Whole Wheat Bread
• Rye Bread

Sweet Breads

• Banana Oat Bread
• Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Flat Breads

• Banana Oat Pancakes

Favorites My current favorites, which I make at least once every week, are the Slow Whole Wheat Bread, which I shape into loaves, roll, pizza crust, bread sticks and fun shapes, and Banana Oat Pancakes.

Thoughts Sometimes I feel connected to old world bread making techniques, which I imagine as working with simple natural ingredients, with patience, using techniques like grinding, sifting, soaking and wild yeast. I have experimented with sourdough starters, grinding my own flour, and mixing flours. My starting point was 100% whole grain breads. I have found that excellent whole grain breads are possible, with patience and practice, using old world bread making techniques. The experience has been fun. Dough is forgiving. Even early attempts that were dense were tasty.

Tips

• Start bread dough early.
• Use sifted whole wheat flour for dusting the work space and shaping. The sifted whole wheat flour has the same feel as white flour. Unsifted whole wheat flour has more coarse feel than white.
• Practice.
• Patience.

Dead Ends

• Refrigerator soaks. Rather than use large amounts of yeast and slow the rise with refrigeration while soaking, I now use very small amounts of yeast, which doubles naturally while the flour soaks.
• Food processor. More often than not resulted in messy clean up of the food processor.