The below chapter has been excerpted from A Beginner's Guide to Baking Bread ebook by Marilyn Moll. Click Here to purchase this ebook for $9.95. This ebook Includes:
* How to Select Ingredients * Selecting a Grain Mill * Selecting A Mixer * Step-by-Step Mixing Instructions * How to Develop the Gluten * Tips for the Best Bread * Lots of Bread and Roll Recipes * Troubleshooting Guide * The Two-Stage Process Item #6059 $9.95
Chapter Two Benefits Of Bread Baking by Marilyn Moll
If you are reading this book, then it’s a fair assumption that something has motivated you to bake your own breads. Let me introduce you to a few of the benefits of baking with basic ingredients. The satisfaction of making something that is economical, nutritious, and taps into our creative side is truly heart warming and encouraging to us as moms.
I had been baking our family’s whole grain baked goods for a few years when my oldest daughter, at the time about 5 years old, asked my husband, Duane, who was filling in for a friend’s newspaper route, if she could help on the route. He told Laura that he would take her out to breakfast if she wanted to get up early (4 am!) and accompany him on the route. After the route was completed that morning, Laura ordered pancakes at the restaurant. After taking a couple bites, she said, “Daddy, this tastes funny. I can’t eat it.” White flour pancakes were no longer appetizing to her; she wanted the real thing - mom’s whole grain pancakes!
There are two ways to react to this restaurant vignette; disappointment at the wasted breakfast, or pleasure, fulfillment and contentment that your efforts to provide nourishing foods resulted in a young daughter who naturally preferred the superior whole grain taste. If you’ve tried to bake your own bread before and met with less than desirable results, or have a family that was not receptive to the new tastes, take heart! It can be accomplished gradually with patience and determination.
Superior Nutrition Did you know that whole grain wheat has 26 naturally occurring vitamins and minerals, along with quality fiber, wheat germ, and oil? Unfortunately the refining process removes these powerful nutritional ingredients. White refined flour has four B-vitamins added back in which are not even in the original proportions. That's It! Consuming white flour products is like being robbed of necessary vitamins and minerals.
Your body needs nutrient dense foods for good health. The term “nutrient dense” refers to foods that naturally contain a high spectrum of vitamins, and minerals. Other than calories, refined flour baked goods contain little nutritional value. Many of us have grown accustomed to spending our family’s precious grocery dollars on items that do not satisfy the body nutritionally, or that are largely manufactured and processed foods made of inferior ingredients at significant cost because that is the way we were raised and taught (or sometimes not even taught) by our mothers.
I, too, have been guilty of buying junk foods as a treat, and convenience foods at a whim, or because my children would beg for nutritionally deficient cheesey curls or chips. My heart’s desire is to spend precious grocery dollars on nutritionally superior foods and learn to make them a delicious alternative. And it’s not that hard. My husband, who grew up loving white bread with peanut butter and jelly, now thinks it’s disgusting. It’s a matter of what you become accustomed to eating. Taste buds that have been accustomed to tasteless foods gradually accommodate the change to more flavorful whole foods.
Taking responsibility for your family’s health by cooking most of your meals from basic whole food ingredients seems like a huge undertaking to modern homemakers who have been raised on the convenience of over-processed commercial breads, cereals, crackers, muffins, rolls, etc. Our goal is to take this nutritional adventure one step at a time always remembering that gradual change is permanent change; quick changes generally are neither lasting nor effective.
Economy Recently, I calculated the cost of making Marilyn’s Famous Whole Wheat Bread. My cost came in at under one dollar, at the time of this writing, for a 1 1/2 pound loaf of whole grain goodness. Depending on the cost of your ingredients you will be able to make superior tasting bread for a similar cost because you will be eliminating the cost of the plastic disposable packaging, the bakery’s overhead for producing the bread, the transportation costs to ship the bread from the bakery to the store, the bakery manager's salary, and other costs of purchasing ready-made breads.
Depending on the size of your family and how many loaves of bread your’s consumes each week, you can calculate the annual savings. For example, in my family, we consume four loaves of sandwich bread a week. Commercial equivalent bread costs $4.25 in my area and below are the savings you can realize by making your own bread.
If I make cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, homemade pancakes, waffles, biscuits etc., I can increase the savings. Several years back, a customer told me that she quit baking her homemade bread for awhile, and that is when her son had an appendicitis attack. She believes it was related to returning to a white bread diet. The emergency surgery and hospital bills were covered by insurance, but their portion of the bill would have more than paid for a brand new mill and mixer.
The point I’m making, is that when we take responsibility for our family’s health, medical bills can diminish dramatically. Another customer contacted me recently and reported that making nutritional changes in her family’s diet during a one year time period had cut their medical expenses in half that year compared to the previous year. This resulted in savings of over a thousand dollars for her family in medical and pharmacy bills. Our family has not needed to see a doctor for other than emergencies (a broken arm, a bike accident) or sports and camp physicals for many years.
Satisfaction A mother who is busy at home cooking and baking from scratch for her family will enjoy the fruit of her labors not only financially and nutritionally but also in terms of better health. Her children will arise and call her blessed. Her husband will also. She will enjoy the intrinsic rewards of knowing that she has been a wise steward of her family’s resources and provided well for her family. The purpose of this book is to teach you, step-by-step, how to learn to bake delicious and nutritious foods from scratch. As you succeed with your efforts you will be rewarded with the best tasting baked goods available. Can you just smell the spicy cinnamon rolls coming out of the oven right now?
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A Kernel Of Wheat A Diagram of a kernel of wheat is depicted here. The bran layers contain B-Vitamins and fiber and account for about 15% of the grain by weight. The germ...
