My first whole wheat bread

As many other things, bread-baking became industrialised early in the 20th century.  Then, bread slicing and wrapping machines were invented to facilitate the process and people got used to buying their bread at the grocery store.  Baking our own bread is the easiest and most usefull skill we lost over time.

Always with the objective of being more self-sufficient, I decided to learn the ancient skill of baking bread.  As I always do when I want to learn something new, I got on YouTube and research the subject.  There, I found Heather ''The Kneady Homesteader'' who inspired me and got me started with the process.  Her videos about bread-baking and food canning guide her audience through all the steps with footage.  I started there.

In September 2019, I baked my first bread.  A simple white bread using the stand mixer to knead the dough.  It was the easiest thing I could ever bake.  Since then, I've been baking 4 loafs of bread every week.  I love to eat it with baked beans and my husband uses it to make the most delicious vegan grilled cheeses with our homemade smoked cashew cheese.

It has now been 4 months and let me tell you something : there are still plenty of things I need/want to learn about bread baking.  Lately, my husband has been asking for a more nutricious bread for his breakfasts.  Because he's a mailman and his work requires a lot of walking, his breakfast needs to be hardy and packed with proteins. Well today, I've stepped up my bread game a notch and baked my first whole wheat and grains bread. 

 My goal is to work my bread-baking skills up to Ezeikiel standards. I want to be able to bake a bread with sprouted grains, to make it as nutricious as possible, right in my kitchen.  So I thought the best way to get there was to start at the beginning and just bake a simple whole wheat bread.  I went online, found this recipe https://www.breadworld.com/recipe/Whole-Wheat-Three-Seed-Bread, tweeked it a little bit by switching the seeds with what I had on hand and using grapeseed oil instead of margerine.  I used 2 tbsp of each : sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts and sunflower seeds.  Turned out pretty good for a first attempt!

As well as having a tender and fluffy crumb, the taste test turned out positive.  My husband is going to love this nutricious bread tosted with hummus and sprouted lentils or with natural peanut butter and homemade jam.  It would also be a great bread to pair with a thick soup or potage for lunch.

But as I said earlier, this is just the first step toward a healthy breakfast bread.  The next ingredients I plan on incorporating are oats, chia seeds, quinoa flour and rye flour.  Meanwhile, I will reseach informations about sprouted grains and how to use them in bread-baking.

On my path to making bread, I'm also looking foward to learn more advanced bread-baking techniques.  Of course I'm still following The Kneady Homesteader and right now, she is doing a10 days series of sourdough starter for beginners, where she feeds her starter every day and shows us how her starter is looking every step of the way on YouTube.  So I bought rye flour and I'm ready to jump into sourdough baking!

Mélanie

The Kneady Homesteader YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy1lD60lpac64VnqMusOBtw