Money-Wise Monday - home baked bread.

   Few years back I became very conscious of reading labels on the food that I bought. The more I read the more I disliked what I was learning. For ages I have been buying store-bought bread (you know, the one packed in plastic bags with words like Healthy, Whole grain, and Nutri-something or other) and never once looked at the ingredients list on the package. When Girly Monkey was born and we found out that she had a dairy allergy, I became very diligent about reading the ingredient lists and seeing for myself what we were eating. To my shock, bread was no longer made with flour, salt, and water (maybe yeast sometimes or butter and eggs for breads like Challah). Now the ingredient list read like something from a science class at the local high school.


   I was confused by what I was reading. When did bread become a mixture of ingredients like "high-fructose corn syrup", "calcium propionate", "mono and diglicerides", "azodicarbonamide", and "sodium stearoyl-2 lactylate". I was grossed out to say the least. I had little reason to be ingesting foods containing ingredients like these, and I was definitely not going to be feeding them to my children. See, I am very concerned about what goes into my kids bodies since their brains and organs are still developing and they need proper nutrition to help them grow big and strong. Ingredients like these might be considered "generally safe" with tens of years of testing done on them but they can't beat the safety of natural products designed by mother nature in use by humans and other animals for thousands of years. And since I am raising little human beings and not lab rats, then I better not do any unnecessary experimentation on the bodies of my Monkeys.

   I knew an organic farmer a while back. She is a brilliant lady, very passionate about food and how it's produced. Her store only ever carried organic fruits and veggies because she did not like the idea of cross-contamination of her organic produce with conventional ones. I loved going there, because her farm store would have all organic and healthy foods and I didn't have to worry about some other shopper mistakenly placing conventional parsley into the bin with organic. Unfortunately, she closed down her store a while back and now I have no choice but shop from markets and stores.

   But getting back to that wonderful farmer, one day, while having a lovely conversation with the said lady I mentioned that I was very passionate about feeding my kids well since they were still growing and developing. She looked at me and smiled and said that people are so concerned with buying cheap food because they worry about spending more on food  and having less for "fun" stuff, but eventually this kind of eating will lower the immunity in their bodies and they will get sick. What she said next made perfect sense to me. She said that these people who were so afraid to spend a bit more on nutritious foods to feed their bodies will have to spend money on medications; one way or another you will pay for it, either more expensive, nutritious food or medications later on.

   So I was on a search for bread that was made the way I wanted it to be made, the old fashioned way by combining simple, natural ingredients. The search took me out of supermarkets and into artisan bakery shops. I found what I was looking for but it came at a steep price of 6 dollars a loaf! It had to be a temporary solution since I could not afford to pay these prices for long. So I started searching on the internet about making my own bread. I tried many different bread recipes, but they lacked the crispy crust and moist interior that I loved and remembered from my childhood  (we lived above bakery and had fresh bread every morning!). Then I came across this New York times recipe for no knead bread. I decided to try it by following the instructions to a "t". I have to admit that I was very suspicious of not kneading the bread and still having it turn out edible.

  The next day my bread was ready to be baked and I waited patiently for it. When it finally came out of the oven it was perfect. I tapped the crust and it had a beautiful hollow sound to it. The crust was just what I have been craving. And the insides were reminiscent of fancy bakery breads. It was everything I was looking for except one thing ... it was still made from white flour and not whole wheat. By this time I was only using whole wheat flour for cooking and baking in our house, and I have eliminated white flour from our diet.

   But whenever there is a great recipe, there is a great recipe to be altered to your needs. I do that often. The first time I try to follow the recipe exactly and then I alter it to my needs. So I substituted organic whole wheat flour for white flour in the recipe. .The first bread was OK, but not as fantastic as the one I made with the original recipe. So I kept on modifying the recipe until I got one that worked and tasted awesome. So here it is. I am sharing it with you so you too can ditch the packaged grocery store "bread" and taste something that's not only "good" but also good for you.

Whole wheat no-knead bread 

(adapted from original NYT No-Knead Bread)

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Ingredients:

• 4 cups minus 1 tbsp of organic whole wheat pastry flour (my favorite for lighter bread), or organic stone-ground whole wheat flour 
• 1 tbsp gluten (found in natural baking isle)
• 1/2 cup assorted grains (oats, quinoa, flax, sesame, etc)
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp of dry yeast or 1/4 cup of sourdough starter
• 2 cups of room temperature filtered water
• cornmeal, oats, or flour for dusting

Instructions
Step 1
In a glass or stoneware bowl mix flour, gluten, seeds (if using), sea salt, and yeast. Use a fork and combine well.

Step 2
Add water to flour mixture and mix roughly (with your hand or with a fork) until just combined. The dough will be very 'shaggy" looking.

Step 3
Cover the dough with plastic wrap  and let sit at room temperature for 14-18 hours.

Step 4
After allotted time, flour work surface and take out the bread dough. stretch it out a bit (like for a pizza) on the work surface and fold from left and right to the middle. Turn the dough 90° and fold each side into the middle again.

Step 5
Sprinkle a clean tea towel with cornmeal, oats, or flour and transfer the dough onto the towel with the folded parts facing up. Cover with another tea towel. Let rise for 2 hours

Step 6
1/2 hour before the bread is finished rising, place an oven-save corning ware, or stone ware, or cast iron dish (with a lid) into the oven. Preheat the oven (with the dish in it) for 30 minutes at 450°F.

Step 7
When the dough is finished rising for 2 hours, carefully take out the baking dish and it's lid from the oven. BE CAREFUL, THE DISH WILL BE VERY HOT! Uncover the bread dough and slowly slide your hand under the bottom towel with dough. Quickly flip the towel letting the dough fall into the preheated dish. With and oven mitt shake the dish to distribute the dough evenly.

Step 8
Score the top of the dough with a very sharp knife or with kitchen scissors. Put the lid back on and return the dish to the oven.

Step 9
Bake covered for 30 minutes, and then remove the lid and bake for additional 5-20 minutes (depending on how crunchy you want the crust to be. Take out from oven and cool on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes. Enjoy!