It’s the perfect bread to partner with soups such as chili, cioppino and clam chowder, as well as most seafood dishes. But the thing is, you could make your individual version of sourdough bread right inside your very own kitchen. It’s not as hard as it sounds. You’ll only need two ingredients, flour & water. Unbleached bread flour is recommended for starting bakers but you also try using flours made of whole-wheat & rye. You could also use organically grown flour if you want.

You’ll also be needing a clear glass jar big enough to hold in all the mixture. Here are the directions to creating your very own sourdough starter:

First Day: Cleanse jar thoroughly. Put 1 c of your choice flour & 1 c of water into your jar then stir the mixture. Use a plastic or wooden spoon for this. Don’t attempt using your metal spoon. Find any damp clean towel then use this to cover your jar. Store jar in any warm place. Ideal temperature is somewhere around 70 – 80 deg. Fahrenheit.

Second Day: All you need to do is to take care that your jar is still securely in its place. Bubbles may appear inside your jar, but don’t worry about this.

Third Day: Open your jar & observe that there might be a bit of a sour smell. Don’t be alarmed. This is normal. Now throw away 1/2 of your mixture. Add 1/2 c of lukewarm water and 1/2 c of the flour to your mixture then stir it well. Next, cover your container again then return it to its original location.

Fourth to Seventh Day: Do the third step in Days 4 to 7. Throw away 1/2 of your mixture and add fresh water and flour to your jar again.

By the seventh day, the container should be already filled with bubbles. The expansion in its volume indicates that your starter can now be used. You could now use this mixture for baking your very own sourdough bread, or store it for future use

To get you started, you need the following materials:

One big bowl that can fit 32 cups of mixture

One big airtight container w/ seal

Two pieces of freezer/Ziploc bags, in big gallon sizes

Food dehydrator

Food processor/blender

You’ll also need spices to create your very own crumbs.

Be sure to stock up on the following:

Garlic powder/salt

Basil Green onions (dried), chopped

Oregano Black pepper

Parsley Seasoned salt Dill Rosemary

You could actually add any spice you want. Some really good flavors you could make include lemon-sage crumbs, Parmesan-Oregano crumbs, Almond and Garam Masala crumbs and Coconut-Lime crumbs. Use your freezer/Ziploc bags to keep all the bread leftovers you can get. Fill them up and put them inside your refrigerator. After getting 2 bags full of leftover bread, then you can proceed to producing your crumbs. Take the bags out from the refrigerator and let them thaw in room temp. for about 2 hrs.

Then open the bags & put your leftovers inside the food dehydrator. Slice the big pcs. into small ones so you’ll not have trouble fitting them inside the dehydrator. Set unit at low temperature and let bread pieces become dry completely (6 to 8 hrs). To avoid waiting, you can do this step the night prior so that next morning after waking up the crumbs will already be dehydrated completely. Take the bread from out of the dehydrator then put them inside the food processor.

Blend or chop the bread pieces. Make sure that all bread pieces turn into very fine crumbs before turning off your food processor. Now add the herbs and spices to the processor. You can add 1 tbsp of each for just the right amount of seasoning. Cover food processor again and blend the mixture. Mix these for about 30 seconds. After that, store the fine crumbs inside an airtight container and keep them where it is cool and dry. Use these homemade crumbs as coatings for chicken, fish, meatballs and meatloaf.

Ingredients:

1 package of active dry yeast

2.5 – 3 c of flour (all-purpose)

1/4 c of water (warm)

1 tsp of salt

1/2 c of milk; warmed

2 tbsps of sugar

1/4 c of butter-flavored Shortening (Crisco brand)

1 egg

How to Cook:

1. Combine water and yeast inside a big bowl. Add in 1.5 c of flour, milk, salt, sugar, shortening and egg to this mixture. Beat using your electric mixer at low settings for about 3 mins. Stir in remainder of your flour for a softer dough.

2. Get a board and sprinkle it with enough flour. Put your dough on it and knead for about five minutes. Make sure that dough becomes smooth & elastic enough. While kneading your dough, continue adding flour onto your board from time to time so that it will make your kneading easier. Shape your dough into 1 big ball and put it inside a greased glass bowl. Turn your dough over and cover it using any clean towel. Let dough double in its size (1 hr.).

3. Take your dough from the bowl, punch it down then form in any shape you like. If you’re planning to prepare dinner rolls, then don’t knead your dough. If you’re just making your basic bread loaf: Shape your dough accordingly and place inside a greased loaf pan measuring 9X5X3. Cover the pan & let dough double in its size. Bake inside your oven at about 375 deg. F until it becomes light brown (30-45 mins).

This produces one loaf. If you’re making herbed cheese bread: On top of your ingredients for basic bread dough, you need to add one to two teaspoons of dill weed or basil (dried) & 1.5 cup of grated cheese (Cheddar). Mix these ingredients into your dough, knead & shape to a circular shape. Next, place dough inside a 1-qt. round, well-greased casserole deep dish. Then, turn your dough over and make an X mark at the very middle of your dough’s top portion using your knife. Cover dough then allow it to rise just until it doubles its size.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and bake the dough for 40 – 45 mins. If you’re making dinner rolls: Slice dough equally into 20 pieces then knead into small balls. Next, place dough pieces inside a greased 13X9X2 loaf pan and cover using any clean towel. When your dough is already double its size, bake inside your preheated oven, at around 400 deg. F. Put Crisco on top of your rolls before placing it inside the oven. Keep rolls inside your oven so as to keep them warm for about 7-10 mins before serving

Let me tell you that there is nothing like smelling the succulent aroma of good bread you actually baked yourself. Admittedly, it takes lots of practice before you’d be able to produce the perfect loaf of bread. On your first few baking ventures, you will end up with loaves so hard that you can’t eat them anymore. Trial & error is something that you would need to go through when trying to create your very own homemade bread. Also, you must also learn baking the traditional way, even if your kitchen is stocked with all the modern tools that you would need.

For instance, you should learn kneading your dough with your hands and not rely on electric mixers every time. If you really want to get into baking, you should know some basic stuff, like flour and yeast. There are lots of these flour types available in today’s market, but the very best one that you should use still is your basic bread flour. Its high gluten content produces great results when it comes to taste and texture. Use bread flour on your first few attempts when you’re baking. When you’re already getting the hang of it, that’s when you’re ready to experiment using other types of flour during baking, you could use whole-wheat flour for healthier variety of breads. Yeast is really a very fickle baking ingredient.

This organism likes sugar and warmed water. Water that is very cold or very hot will end up killing your yeast. So in order to control yeast, you’ll need to put in salt into your baking mixture. Without salt, your yeast will get out of control then eat up everything. Starters are very important for novice bakers. This is especially true if you want to make good sourdough breads. The taste and texture of sourdough bread relies heavily on yeast quality. This is why sourdough bread in San Francisco tastes better than those made in other places. The reason behind it is that the natural yeast present in San Francisco’s air is really ideal for making sourdough. Weather also plays a considerable part in producing quality bread. It basically dictates the amount of flour that you’ll need. Dry weather means that you should use lesser amounts of flour and humid conditions require additional flour

Wooden boxes are said to be better when maintaining the freshness of your bread products but there’s also a downside to using them. Wood can trap the moisture from the surrounding air, which can cause condensation inside your box in turn hastening the formation of mold inside your wooden box.

Putting bread inside your refrigerator or freezer is a very popular method, but there are also downsides to it as well. It’s true that refrigerating will delay the formation of molding on your bread, though you must be careful not to let even a small amount of moisture from getting trapped in your box. This can accelerate mold formation instead of delaying it. Another concern about keeping your breads freshness is when bread starts to get stale. You really cannot stop bread from going stale, no matter what storage method you use. Gluten proteins present in your bread knits back again after baking. This makes the composition of your bread a lot tougher. Breads can become stale even refrigerated because low temperatures can actually make bread become stale faster. When breads are kept in low temperatures, starch fraction of the wheat flour undergoes some changes, which involves retro gradation or crystallization.

The good thing is that the crystallization of starch will reverse by putting bread over gentle heat, which softens it. Another way of delaying the staling of breads is using additives on it. Examples of such additives include methylcellulose or glycerol monostearate. Using prop ionic acid or other types of antimicrobial additives can partly inhibit the molding process.

Here are some tips that you can follow if you want to make your bread’s freshness last long:

1. Do not wrap freshly-baked bread as soon as you get it out from your oven. You should let bread cool first before you store it. Trapped heat inside your wrapper can produce condensation, which can make your bread soggy.

2. Wrap bread with foil then place it inside any airtight Ziploc/plastic container bag before you store it inside your freezer.

When you are ready to eat it, thaw your bread at room temp. and heat it inside your oven for ten minutes.

DIABETICS CARROT BREAD

4 eggs

1 3/4 cups Splenda Granular

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups shredded carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two 9-inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, Splenda and sugar.  Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until the mixture thickens.  Gradually add in the oil and water; beat until well combined.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; gradually add to the egg mixture.  Stir just until moistened.  Fold in the carrots.  If batter seems too dry, add a tablespoon of water (moisture will depend on how wet or dry the carrots are).  Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 COCONUT TEA BREAD

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup Equal Sugar-Lite

1 1/3 cups unsweetened flaked coconut

1 tbsp grated orange OR lemon rind

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into large mixing bowl.  Stir in Equal, coconut and fruit rind.  Beat egg in a medium mixing bowl; stir in milk and vanilla.  Stir milk mixture into dry mixture and mix just until mixed well and moistened.  Do Not beat.  Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with vegetable oil spray.  Pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

To see for yourself what I’m talking about, go get a loaf of bread that you’ve bought from the store, now read the ingredient list and google all of the really long words that don’t sound like natural ingredients. You will be shocked at what you discover.

For example, the ingredient “monoglycerides,” found in almost every store bought bread, is actually hydrogenated oil/fat otherwise known as trans fat. Hydrogenated oil is oil saturated with hydrogen at a high temperature. This creates tight bonds with the hydrogen which allows it to remain semisolid at room temperature and increases shelf life drastically by delaying rancidity. What allows it to be solid is how tightly the molecules of the fat bond to each other. In your blood stream this means the fat clumps to itself much easier and clogs your veins much easier.

This is why hydrogenated oils and trans fats have been labeled “the silent killer” because they dramatically increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The bread manufacturers try to be sneaky and put monoglycerides in the list of ingredients in place of hydrogenated oils to fool you. You could look at the nutrition panel on the same loaf of bread with the ingredient monoglycerides and under trans fats it will list zero grams. This is because under FDA regulations if the serving contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, the package is free to say it has zero.

But lets say you eat four slices of bread (with each serving containing 0.4 grams of trans fat) then you just consumed 1.6 grams of trans fat, despite the fact that the nutrition panel on your bread claims that it has zero grams of trans fat per serving.

You can’t trust store bought bread, it’s that simple. The bread manufacturing companies do what they can to save money in production of the bread but in the long run it costs you your health. The only solution that I’ve found is to bake your own bread. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds, it’s actually very easy once you learn how.

My favorite bread to bake is whole wheat bread because it’s so heart healthy and you get so many vitamins and minerals from it. If the whole wheat bread is made correctly you also get a really amazing tasting bread that can put store bought imitations to shame. I call them imitations because a lot of bread manufacturers actually use white flour to make “whole wheat” bread and then color it with caramel to make it look authentic. So again check ingredients on your bread. If the bread has unbleached enriched flour as the first ingredient you could actually be buying white bread disguised as whole wheat bread, look for caramel coloring in the ingredients list as well to prove this.

Other ingredients to watch out for:

Calcium sulfate: This is also known as plaster of Paris, this additive is used as a dough conditioner and firming agent. As it absorbs moisture and hardens quickly, one caution is that it can cause intestinal obstruction. It is banned in some countries.

Calcium propionate: This additive is used as a mold inhibitor but may be linked to migraines.

So do yourself a favor and start baking your own bread. It’s probably one of the greatest health choices you can make.

Why?

I think the number one reason everyone should bake their own bread is that it redeems you from years of bad health and medical bills. How so?

HOMEMADE BREAD IS HEALTHIER

It is much healthier to bake your own bread instead of buying bread that contains chemical additives, hydrogenated oils, unhealthy preservatives, and fattening sweeteners.

If you buy white bread you’re also getting bread that is nutritionless, but don’t be fooled, store bought whole wheat bread is just as bad for you.

A lot of times the whole wheat bread sold in stores isn’t really made out of “whole meal” but is just white bread that is colored (using caramel) to make it appear like it’s whole grain and healthy.

Store bought whole wheat bread also contains the same emulsifiers, and chemical by products that are in store bought white bread.

When you bake your own bread you never have to worry about these “hidden dangers” or chemicals in bread.

Instead you can control every ingredient that goes into your bread, and you’ll know exactly how it is processed and created.

There are many other great incentives for baking homemade whole wheat bread, and I’ll go into each one below.

HOMEMADE BREAD TASTES BETTER THAN STORE BOUGHT

Absolutely no argument here. Everyone I’ve met agrees that the taste of homemade bread far surpasses that of store bought bread, (some have even said they could taste the chemicals in the store bought bread and really hated it).

Taste is a biggie for a lot of people, and since everyone wants to eat tasty meals, you can’t go wrong by baking your own bread.

HOMEMADE BREAD SAVES YOU MONEY

It’s much cheaper to buy all the ingredients for making bread separately, than buying them already made into bread. You can easily save $30 or $40 dollars a month, by baking your own bread. This might not sound like much but over time, believe me, it adds up.

This is especially true if you buy as many of your bread ingredients as you can, in the bulk department of a supermarket.

An entire bag of whole wheat flour (enough to make 4 to 6 loaves) could cost $4.00 or less. This is just one example of how cheap baking your own bread is.

HOMEMADE BREAD IS LOWER IN FAT THIS = WEIGHT LOSS

My favorite reason for baking bread, is that, if you bake the right kind of bread (like whole wheat bread) it can be a great way to help you lose pounds or maintain a healthy weight.

I’m sure you’ve heard the myth before that bread is really fattening, it’s a myth at least for homemade whole wheat bread.

Store bought bread really is fattening because of all the extras that large scale manufacturers stuff their bread with.

Manufacturers do this to give their bread longer shelf life and to make the bread look more appealing so they’ll get more customers to buy their bread.

These big corporate CEO’s could care less if their bread causes you to pack on pounds. You’ve got to remember, after all, that they’re only in it for the money.

But if you bake your own whole wheat bread you’ll have a truly wholesome bread that will help you to achieve the healthy body and goal weight you desire.

Don’t think you can bake your own whole wheat bread? Don’t know where to start? I’ll teach you how to bake your very own bread with no hassle, in simple steps. Visit my Easy Bread Baking website for more details.