More on Baking

Beth has asked about the health benefits we see from eating our own bread, so for her and anyone else who's interested, here are a few more details. How to say this delicately.....the small people who live in our house, and one in particular, have had severe elimination issues which have been helped by eating the whole grain (literally the whole grain gets ground up) that is present in our bread. I believe it has contributed to the good health of all of our colons. :-) In addition to this I have read that the vitamins and minerals present in the wheat berry lose their effectiveness very quickly after grinding and being exposed to air (within 72 hours), so we are getting the most bang possible from the wheat since I am baking immediately after grinding. Baking our own bread also saves us a tremendous amount of money!! Pennies per loaf compared to 2.50-3.50 at the store.

I buy 50# bags of wheat berries from a food co-op for $19 and each bag lasts about 3-4 months depending on how much bread I bake. When I began baking our bread over 3 years ago the only equipment I purchased was my wheat grinder (in the back corner of the picture). I kneaded the dough by hand for over 2 years before buying a mixer because I wanted to be sure it was something I was committed to doing for the long haul before such a costly investment. Then last year we were able to purchase the Bosch mixer pictured above. I love my Bosch mixer!! It kneads 4-5 loaves perfectly for me in 4 minutes. The most time consuming part of baking bread now is the 1 hour rise time. I usually bake 4 loaves at a time (if I make a stuffed sandwich that goes down to 3 loaves) and this lasts about a week and a half, sometimes longer if we don't have toast.

I am not a total health nut. That is something I have aspired to from time to time, but alas, it does not describe me. However, I decided that the foods we eat very frequently should be as healthy as possible, and it just so happens that the child with severe elimination issues lists his favorite food as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So I buy natural peanut butter (peanuts is the only ingredient), jam with no added sugar (I try very hard to avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup in it), and bake our own bread. I have noticed a real difference with this particular child since beginning to bake our own bread, and that makes it all worthwhile! Plus I really do enjoy it! AND, it's absolutely delicious!