I’m not posting about my experiences with homemade bread because I’m a bread expert or even remotely know what I’m doing when it comes to making yeast bread from scratch. I’m a novice at best.
I’m posting about making homemade bread because I know there must be a number of my readers who are in the same boat I’m in: intimidated by homemade yeast bread, yet leery of the ingredients in the store-bought variety.
I am just a regular mom, not a professionally trained baker or even a grandma-trained baker. I’m learning as I go and think if I can do it, anyone can.
So let me share my experiences with you and I hope I can inspire you to try some homemade sandwich bread for your family, too.
There are a number of reasons I want to get into a routine of making our sandwich bread. Back in September I was shopping for bread for Meghan’s birthday party. I hoped to cut costs and get some cheaper loaves than I usually buy, so I was standing in the bread section at the grocery store, reading labels, trying to find an acceptable brand that wasn’t too pricey.
Completely randomly and in what must have been an act of fate, an old man approached me and started chatting to me about bread ingredients. He told me about azodicarbonamide, a chemical found in many store-bought breads that is banned in Europe as a food additive because of its link to asthma.
Sure enough, all of the breads I was looking at had this chemical. The more pricey bread I usually purchase did not, so I stuck with that brand. But just knowing that the kind old man had alerted me to an ingredient that I wasn’t aware of the dangers was alarming. I knew there must be more ingredients lurking in store-bought breads that could be harmful.
Another reason I wanted to start making homemade bread is Luke seems to have a dairy sensitivity, and all the bread I normally buy has milk in it. Cutting out dairy is one thing, but I can’t cut out dairy and bread. Come on. This spurred me to really get going.
So I made it one of my New Year’s goals to start making homemade sandwich bread, but I was intimidated and hadn’t found the right recipe. I knew I wanted the bread to be multi-grain without white flour. (Not purely whole wheat as 100% whole wheat bread is very high on the glycemic index.) Yet it needed to be soft, not too heavy, and not bitter. Tall orders.
When I saw Heidi from Food Doodles post a recipe for whole grain sandwich bread, I was inspired to give it a try. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.
I made a few changes to her recipe. First, I wanted to make it dairy-free, so I used almond milk instead of cow’s milk and oil instead of butter. I also used white whole wheat flour instead of the flour from hard wheat her recipe called for.
The results were fantastic. It was everything I was hoping for in taste, texture, and density. And while making homemade sandwich bread isn’t exactly a quick process, it isn’t super difficult. I was needlessly intimidated. Like I said, if I can do this, so can you!
New year’s resolution: master homemade sandwich bread
- Total Time: 355 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves 1x
Description
A beautiful home made bread recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond milk, or milk of choice
- 1 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast, or one package
- 1/4 cup olive oil, or oil of choice
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup 5-grain hot cereal mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten flour
- 7–8 cups white whole wheat flour
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add 1/3 cup of the water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, mix the remaining water, milk, 5-grain cereal mix, 3-4 cups of the flour, and the softened yeast. Once it is mixed, add the gluten flour and mix well. Next, add the oil, honey, and salt. Mix well, and then begin adding the rest of the flour until the dough cannot be easily mixed with a spoon.
- Next you need to knead the dough. I used my brand new stand mixer that I got for Christmas (woo hoo!), but this can also be done by hand. If you are kneading by hand, flour your work surface, turn out the dough, and knead at least 15 minutes. If you are using a stand mixer, knead for 15 minutes on 2. It is ready when the dough is lighter in color, springy, and smooth. It will be tacky to the touch–do not add more flour.
- Add some oil to a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl, turning it over to coat it with the oil. Cover it with a towel and allow it to rise in a warm, draft-free location until it is doubled in size. This can take up to 4 hours depending on how cold your location is.
- At this point, I put the dough in the refrigerator overnight because I learned in a bread-making class that bread tastes best when you do this. It is not necessary, however, and you can simply proceed with the recipe if you prefer.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and knead again to remove all air bubbles and incorporate the oil on the outside of the dough. Cut into two and form into two loaves and place into two buttered or greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise again until the dough is just over the sides of the loaf pans. This should take roughly half the time of the first rise.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Once it is hot, turn it down to 350 degrees and put in the loaves. Bake for 55 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190-200 degrees. Remove from pans and place on cooling racks and cool at least 1-2 hours before slicing.
- Prep Time: 300 minutes
- Cook Time: 55
- Category: Bread
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 170
- Sugar: 4.2g
- Sodium: 441mg
- Fat: 4.6g
- Carbohydrates: 29g
- Protein: 5.9g
Thanks for inspiring me and the great recipe, Heidi. I’m looking forward to making this bread again and again as not only do I love it, but it’s also husband and toddler approved.
Getting back on a regular posting schedule is going to take some time as I adjust to life with two little ones. They are definitely keeping me busy.
Thanks to everyone for hanging in there in the meantime!
Question: Do you make homemade sandwich bread? If you have a favorite recipe, please feel free to leave it in the comment section (or a link)!
That’s a very admirable New Year’s resolution with two kids! I just recently tried making homemade bread and am still trying to figure out how to prolong it’s life since it gets stale quickly. Do you have any suggestions? Maybe I just need to eat it faster! I’ve thought about slicing it and then freezing it. Usually the first day is great, the second is OK, but by the third it needs to be toasted before eating which wouldn’t be doable if you’re packing a sandwich for lunch for a little one. I certainly don’t want to be stuck making new loaves of bread every other day!
My issue is I can’t keep up because we eat it too fast! I’ve been thinking I need to make a double batch and freeze some so I don’t have to be making it so often. I think slicing it and freezing would work fine. I will let you know how it works when I give it a try. Let me know if you try it first. 🙂
Bread is definitely one of those things that seems scary to make. Although I guess its scarier about not knowing what some of the stuff is in the kinds you get at the store! I get ours from the bakery and don’t remember any funky ingredients, but now I’m goign to have to double check.
I will have to give this recipe a try. I too hate buying store bought bread but love sandwiches. I try to get the healthiest that I can get. I am also intimidaed by making my own.
Love the pic, those to are so adorable!!
I alternate between making my own bread with a similar recipe in my breadmaker (found at thrift stor for 7 bucks) and buying ezekial (sp?) brand 7 grain organic sprouted bread- it has no dairy and no ingredients that my own bread doesnt have. its in the frozen section i know whole foods carries it (we dont have one but you might!). Its a pretty common brand in natural food sections or nat food stores.
i cant imagine making bread with a newborn and older sibling!
although a breadmaker you just dump the ingredients in and 3 hours later you have bread it also does pizza dough!
I need to find a thrift store bread maker–what a deal! I have tried the Ezekial bread. We like it, but it’s so expensive for such small pieces. My husband needs like 3 sandwiches with that kind to fill him up! 🙂
I discovered your site searching for images of a family dinner on Google. I attached one I found that happened to be from this blog and gave the credit and link to your blog…do you mind? If not, I will remove the image asap.
Congratulations on your new bundle of joy. The pictures in an earlier post are gorgeous…what a happy mum you must be! xxx
No, I don’t mind. I just checked out your blog and love it! 🙂
Thanks so much. I’m enjoying your blog tremendously!
What a great resolution. Bread making does not need to be intimidating, and I’m happy to see how successful you were! A family favorite at our house: http://www.redstaryeast.com/our-best-recipes/favorites/whole-wheat-honey-bread -Linda @RSY
Thanks for the link–the recipe looks great!
Aw, man I miss bread. If you come up with a few-ingredient, no-weird-stuff gluten-free version (you know, in all your spare time) please let me know! 🙂 How you were able to do this version, I do not know, but nice job! Such a great photo of the kiddos–they look a lot alike.
I’ll get right on it. 🙂
Oh that last picture is just precious – what beautiful babes you have made 🙂
Also, beautiful (or maybe just delicious) bread! Great minds must think alike as I have been making a whole wheat pizza crust from here http://deliciouslyorganic.net/whole-wheat-pizza-crust-recipe/
Yummo, looking forward to dinner tonight… P iiiiiiiii zzzzzzz a!
Thank you! 🙂 I haven’t made homemade pizza in a while–I think I need to put it on the meal plan for next week. It’s not the same without cheese, but I do like vegan pizza, too. 🙂
I can’t believe you are making bread with a newborn in the house! That’s amazing!
I have only bought maybe three loaves of bread in the past year and a half. But there’s no way I would have been able to stick with making bread part of my schedule without using a bread machine. All the benefit of making bread without any weird preservatives, etc but much less work/time involved. For special occasions, I’ll mix the dough in the machine and then shape and bake in the oven so it looks pretty. This is our daily bread: http://munchkinfood.blogspot.com/2011/02/staple-recipe-5050-bread.html
Plus, you can make bread on the hottest days of August without turning on the oven!
I’m inspired that you’ve bought so few loaves of bread! I may have to have a bread machine be my next kitchen gadget. We’ll see how long I can keep up my bread making routine. So far, so good, but I know life can easily get in the way.
I can’t believe you are making bread with a newborn in the house! That’s amazing!
I have only bought maybe three loaves of bread in the past year and a half. But there’s no way I would have been able to stick with making bread part of my schedule without using a bread machine. All the benefit of making bread without any weird preservatives, etc but much less work/time involved. For special occasions, I’ll mix the dough in the machine and then shape and bake in the oven so it looks pretty. This is our daily bread: http://munchkinfood.blogspot.com/2011/02/staple-recipe-5050-bread.html
Plus, you can make bread on the hottest days of August without turning on the oven!
Great resolution – one I not brave enough to make! I am sure home-made bread is awesome!
Awwww cute kiddos :). Way to take on the homemade break challenge!! I definitely love making homemade bread, just don’t get around to it as often as I’d like.
Here’s my favorite, and pretty simple if you have a standing mixer, recipe for whole wheat bread: http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/02/homemade-bread-and-veggie-burger-heaven/
Thanks for the link–I’m excited to try your “super soft” recipe! It looks incredible. 🙂
BTW, Super cute picture of Meghan and Luke. He looks so much bigger, already! It’s amazing how fast they grow, huh? I didn’t have time to comment last night on the picture and wanted to tell you how cute they are, course, you already know that. I hope Luke works through his dairy issues soon.
Thank you! 🙂
I tip my hat to you, you mommy of TWO! You made the time to make something spectacular for your family 🙂 I am creeped out by store bought bread too! I forgot about a loaf once, for about two weeks or even longer, in my pantry. I didn’t have mold on it, it didn’t get stale- nothing happened to it and it was OLD! I did not want to put that into my body again! This sounds like a much better solution. 🙂
….Luke has a problem with dairy 🙁 What a bummer. I hope you can work through that easily if it continues to be an issue.
Yes, it’s crazy how long that store bought bread will last. FOREVER. Not good.
Yay! I’m so glad you liked it! Yours looks great! I’m very impressed that you managed to get that done with a newborn, you are amazing 😀 I might be wrong, but I think white whole wheat has a lower gluten content than regular whole wheat so you may be able to add a little more gluten flour to help it rise a little higher if you want. I’m going to have to try mixing it the night before and leaving it in the fridge – I’ve heard that it tastes better too, but haven’t tried it yet.
Your pic of Luke and Meghan is so cute 😀
Thanks again for the recipe! I’ve made it twice now and it’s working out great.
WOW can’t believe you have a 2 week old and made homemade bread. Your rock!! I agree how its hard to find a healthy one at the store. WHolefoods makes a good one that has only a few ingredients. BTW Luke is such a cutie!
Oh my gosh!! It’s only been 2 weeks since we’ve seen him and Luke has changed so much!! He looks so adorable. That is such a great picture of Meghan and Luke , oh and the bread looks fantastic can’t wait to try it.
That bread looks great! I really hate buying bread but haven’t found a recipe I’m in love with yet to replace it. I wonder if Whole Food’s brand of bread has that ingredient in it. I’m going to have to check!
Here it is Maryea, I found it for you:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/homemade-whole-grain-bread-recipe.html
Thank you so much for taking the time to find the link! I just checked it out and I’m really intrigued by that recipe. I’m definitely going to give it a try!
Maryea,
There is a fabulous recipe that can be adapted in different ways in Feeding the Whole family: whole foods recipes for babies, young children, and their parents by Cynthia Lair. Her website is http://www.cookusinterruptus.com. I don’t know if it’s on there or not, though. Let me do some searching and see if I can find the recipe for you. It’s super easy, too.