The Art of Zen Living

One of the ways I’ve been living simply is by making my own bread.  Week in, week out, one night a week (while I do other things) I “make me this night my weekly bread”.

As good as my basic Honey Whole Wheat recipe is (re-posted inside), a bit of variety is also good.  Here are a few things I’ve tried and what I thought.

1. Rolled Oats: Yummy.  I just throw a handful into the flour when I’m mixing it in.  Changes the texture in a subtle but pleasing way.
2. Spelt berries (seeds): Uncracked, they’re teeth breakers, but provide a nice nutty flavor.  I suggest cracking them with mortar and pestle, or perhaps placing them in a bag and using a mallet.
3. Millet: Very tasty.  Again, it’s more of a texture change.  Adds a nice, pleasant “pop” sort of crunch.  Again, I added this to the flour before I mixed it in, about a 1/4 cup.  No need to soak or crack it, but be sure it’s washed.
4. Rye Flour: Substitute 1/2 cup of rye for 1/2 cup of the whole wheat.  Gives it a nice, rye undertone.

I have a few other things I want to try over the next few weeks - quinoa, graham flour, cracked and toasted buckwheat to name a few - so I’ll keep you posted.  I’m also going to try some more traditional bread flavorings, cinnamon raisin swirl among them.  Look for that post in the next week of so as well.

See inside for the recipe, and stay tuned for more “Dough!”

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This isn’t your typical “Dough!” entry.  I’d envisioned “Dough!” as being more about bread as food, not bread as dessert.  However, Costco had huge containers of strawberries and mom offered to split them with me, and right then I knew what the next bread article was going to be.

I also dried some in the dehydrator (along with some bananas) to use in my breakfast cereal mix.  I’m getting ahead of myself.  The breakfast cereal is an article for Vegetarian week.

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I was down at my local “scratch and dent” grocery shop, and came across a few packages of organic Buckwheat flour.  It was past it’s “good til” date, but since there were no additives to go bad and the package seemed intact, I decided to take a chance - as you can see, I got a great price on it.  When I opened it up, it still smelled fresh and the batch of buckwheat pancakes I made with it came out great, so I decided to give buckwheat bread a shot.

I used my basic honey whole wheat bread recipe, and started with 2 cups buckwheat flour and a cup and a half of unbleached, unenriched white flour.  I was overboard on the amount of buckwheat flour - it’s very flavorful, but it’s also a very fine texture, which means it doesn’t absorb the wet ingredients very well.  I ended up having to add another cup or more of white flour and another three quarters cup of the buckwheat flour to get it to the right consistency.  Kneading was also an issue because the dough kept getting stickier than it should have been.

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Welcome to the second edition of Dough!  I really enjoy doing these articles, because I get to play with the camera and I get to eat the results.  This week I made what is not a traditional Irish soda bread.  It’s more of an American St. Paddy’s Day Traditional Irish soda cake.  It’s also delightful.

I was going to make an honest to goodness Irish soda bread, but the recipe on the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread’s website had a warning that a fluid cup contains 8 ounces of liquid. A dry ingredient cup contains around 4 ounces by weight. It threw me a bit, and I don’t have a kitchen scale. I think I’ve worked out the conversion, so I’ll try the “real deal” traditional soda bread next time. For now, let’s take a look at what we’re going to be snacking on this Memorial Day Weekend at The Art of Zen Living!

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There’s something very satisfying about making a loaf of bread.  It’s almost as if home made bread is the ultimate in domestic achievement.  You tell someone you’re baking home made bread and their eyes light up.  It’s a very pleasing experience, heavy on the senses - the contrasting colors of the ingredients, the firm but pliant feel of the dough, the heady scent of the yeast as the bread rises, the sound of the whisk in the liquid before you add the flour, and the clank of the spoon against the bowl as you mix the dough, the pounding of the dough being kneaded.  Finally, the wonderful aroma of the bread baking, and the taste of the fresh, still warm bread with butter melting into it.  Yummy!

Somewhere along the line, we’ve been tricked into thinking that bread is hard to make (it isn’t - if I can do it, then believe me YOU can!), that it’s cheaper to buy at the store (not by a long shot - but that’s another post in the frugality category), or just that you don’t have the time to make bread.  Let me walk you through the steps, and you’ll see that it takes very little time and effort, and is extremely rewarding!

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