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| Fleishmann's Dough |
Lately I have been experimenting with making some everyday
staples from scratch that I would usually buy pre-made. This is part of my ongoing
struggle to really know (and control) what goes in my body. The trickiest experiment
thus far has been baking my own bread. I
got a C in chemistry, and I’m sorry but baking is just chemistry disguised as a
cute little old lady. Plus, I don’t have a bread maker. I have been working with an oven and a pan to
make round loaves. It has been an interesting experience to say the least.
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| The Mix |
On a related note, a couple weeks ago, I wrote a quick
email to Fleishmann’s. This is the company that has been making baking products
like yeast for a million and one years. I let them know how much I enjoy using
their pre-measured packets of active dry yeast, and they sent me a few coupons
for their Simply Homemade boxes of bread mix.
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| Keep that water at 110 to 115! |
To be completely honest, I have made some picture-worthy
loaves that are total mush inside. I have accidentally doubled the amount of salt
in one recipe, and even made a glass baking dish explode in my oven. So, you
might think a Bread Baking for Dummies box
would be just the ticket. I promptly went
to the store and I bought the Country White Mix. Upon my first attempt (you can probably see
where this is headed) to make the idiot-proof bread, I found myself needing to
bake the loaf almost 10 minutes longer than the directions and still found mush
in when I cut it open.
Attempt number two was a bit better. Using my second coupon
and some advice from the Contact Us section on Fleishmann’s website, I picked
up the Italian Herb variety and triple checked my water temperature. Apparently, it had to be pretty spot-on to
activate the yeast. This time, my loaf
still needed an extra eight or nine minutes, but I only found one speck toward
the center that seemed raw. My oven has
a tendency to run hot, so it’s interesting that I still faced this issue.
While the Italian Herb bread went beautifully with my
Italian beef stew, I probably wouldn’t invest $3.99 per box on this product.
Flour, yeast, water and salt probably cost me 30 cents a loaf when I make bread
from scratch.
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| Simply Homemade Fleishmann's Bread |
Oddly enough, what has ended up working best for me is what
I consider to be Frankenstein of bread recipes. When making this recipe, I use
a Sterilite shoe/boot container and keep the dough in my fridge for up to two
weeks. A half batch makes enough for 4-6 loaves, depending on how large of a
loaf is desired. When I’m ready to bake,
I pull a chunk of the dough from the container and allow it to come to room temperature
for 25 minutes, while my oven preheats. Then the dough bakes for about 25
minutes.
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| Homemade Bread from the Monster Mother Dough |
I encourage all to give this monster mother dough a shot. It
is sad the preservatives and additives that can be found in some as simple as a
loaf of store-bought sandwich bread. The more we control what goes in our bodies, the better
off we are!
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