I bought a bread machine a year ago, and it is the best thing ever! I quickly got into making sourdough and haven't looked back since. Apparently sourdough has all sorts of health benefits, including being really good for stabilising blood sugar, and I certainly feel much better on it. There was a study where sourdough made with white flour was far better for blood sugar than yeasted bread made with wholemeal flour. Also I think there may be probiotic action going on? I have one slice for breakfast, and occasionally another slice later in the day, so I'm not eating a huge amount of it.
Anyway, this is a bread for the bread enthusiasts. What do you put in your bread? Do you find it a good way to smuggle in particularly healthy foods?
I tend to use brown flour as a base, and sometimes replace up to a quarter of that (if you include the sourdough starter) with sesame seeds, oats, rye flour, kamut flour or wholemeal flour. If I'm using wholemeal flour, actually I think that's more than a quarter, but I also put in a fair chunk of barley flour to make it moister. These don't rise quite as well, but they're still pretty good. Oats and barley are meant to be great for blood sugar, I believe.
Right now I am experimenting with putting in half a teaspoon of chia seeds, soaked in a tablespoon of boiling water, as that's meant to help make the bread moist. I've just fed the starter with half brown flour and half rye flour too, as it appreciates that from time to time.
In terms of additions, I did try various sweet things like dried fruit, but found it a bit too limiting in terms of what you could do with the bread later. (Saffron bread is divine, mind you, with a lovely brioche-like texture, and that's only sweetened with a bit more sugar/syrup than usual. But I wouldn't personally eat it with houmous.) So usually I add in nuts or seeds. Walnuts are yummy and give the bread a lovely mauve colour. Brazil nuts don't really excite me, but if you want to get selenium, a brazil nut a day (in fact, half a brazil nut a day, I think) is enough, so you don't need many in the bread. Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, briefly dry-roasted, are fantastic in bread, I'm going through a big phase of those. That'll be nice quantities of vitamin E, I think? And some extra minerals?
For the oil and sugar, I'm currently using olive oil and date syrup. They probably don't really make any difference to how healthy it is, the quantity you end up using.
The lovely thing about making bread with a bread machine is that it's minimal effort, I'm usually well enough to manage it, and you get fantastic results. Great effort-to-reward ratio there. And the smell when it's cooking is lovely! I got hooked as soon as I started, it's just so much better than horrible supermarket bread.
Has anyone else played with heirloom flours, like the kamut I mentioned?
I'm not actually gluten-free, but out of curiosity, has anyone managed to make a decent gluten-free loaf?
Anyway, this is a bread for the bread enthusiasts. What do you put in your bread? Do you find it a good way to smuggle in particularly healthy foods?
I tend to use brown flour as a base, and sometimes replace up to a quarter of that (if you include the sourdough starter) with sesame seeds, oats, rye flour, kamut flour or wholemeal flour. If I'm using wholemeal flour, actually I think that's more than a quarter, but I also put in a fair chunk of barley flour to make it moister. These don't rise quite as well, but they're still pretty good. Oats and barley are meant to be great for blood sugar, I believe.
Right now I am experimenting with putting in half a teaspoon of chia seeds, soaked in a tablespoon of boiling water, as that's meant to help make the bread moist. I've just fed the starter with half brown flour and half rye flour too, as it appreciates that from time to time.
In terms of additions, I did try various sweet things like dried fruit, but found it a bit too limiting in terms of what you could do with the bread later. (Saffron bread is divine, mind you, with a lovely brioche-like texture, and that's only sweetened with a bit more sugar/syrup than usual. But I wouldn't personally eat it with houmous.) So usually I add in nuts or seeds. Walnuts are yummy and give the bread a lovely mauve colour. Brazil nuts don't really excite me, but if you want to get selenium, a brazil nut a day (in fact, half a brazil nut a day, I think) is enough, so you don't need many in the bread. Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, briefly dry-roasted, are fantastic in bread, I'm going through a big phase of those. That'll be nice quantities of vitamin E, I think? And some extra minerals?
For the oil and sugar, I'm currently using olive oil and date syrup. They probably don't really make any difference to how healthy it is, the quantity you end up using.
The lovely thing about making bread with a bread machine is that it's minimal effort, I'm usually well enough to manage it, and you get fantastic results. Great effort-to-reward ratio there. And the smell when it's cooking is lovely! I got hooked as soon as I started, it's just so much better than horrible supermarket bread.
Has anyone else played with heirloom flours, like the kamut I mentioned?
I'm not actually gluten-free, but out of curiosity, has anyone managed to make a decent gluten-free loaf?