Bob's Red Mill, You Had Me at "Hello"

My Honey-Molasses Multi-flour Bread.



Bread is all mixed up with so much history and folklore. Baking bread, “breaking bread,” tearing into it with your hands, that yeasty smell while dough rises under Grandma’s white tea towel . . .

I love stories when the hero traipses off to seek his fortune carrying nothing but a sack filled with crusty bread and a jug of wine. I could totally do that. Add a stockpile of vegan jerky and I’m all for it.

I never made my own bread before becoming a vegetarian. I always loved to cook, but was never a baker. Anything with pastry or dough or a kneading stage was definitely out of my comfort zone. I know now part of that is that one should really follow a precise recipe to get the best results from baking. That’s not me at all. I’m a “little of this, little of that” kind of cook. Actually, I think it goes deeper. I have a real attitude problem and don’t like being told what to do. Then for my first post-meat Christmas I asked Santa for a bread maker. Soon I realized that even if I “screwed up” and the bread had a big old crater in the middle, it was still delicious.

With the bread maker I’ve become a (sort-of) bread baker. I’m still intimidated to go all “old school” and do the hand kneading and punching down and greasing of loaf pans. But now I love combining different flours and grains and coming up with a new loaf. Sometimes it’s a delicious (but damn ugly) loaf. Sometimes I get lucky, and it looks as good as it tastes.

A Book of Verse

A book of verse, underneath the bough,
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness -
Ah, wilderness were paradise now!

- Omar Khayyam

NOTE: All flours and grains used in the following recipes are from Bob's Red Mill. Their products are wonderful and the sheer variety of grains makes me a happy baker!


One more note: I get my honey from a personal friend who is a caring, educated, ethical bee-keeper in Michigan. His honey is fantastic. If you're in Michigan, you can contact Don Schram via email (don@mibees.com), at his website, Huron City Bee Company, or Facebook. If you'd prefer, veganize these recipes by swapping out the honey for agave nectar. I just recently made the multi-flour loaf with agave in place of honey, and it was wonderful!



My Honey-Molasses Multi-flour Bread
This bread is dense, moist and “rustic.” It rises about half the height of an average loaf. It’s really good toasted for sandwiches.

1¼ cups water (warm for rapid setting)
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons grape seed oil (or canola oil)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cups spelt flour
¼ cup buckwheat flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup flaxseed meal
2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Add the following on the “add in” stage:
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds (or coarsely chopped pumpkin seeds)
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped almonds

Directions:

1. Put the ingredients into your machine in the listed order, up to the seeds and nuts. Make a well for the yeast in the dough so it stays dry as long as possible.

2. Choose setting on bread machine: light crust, 1.5 pound loaf, rapid wheat settings.

3. Add the seeds and nuts at the “add-in” stage of the cycle.
 


My Soft White Bread

1¼ cups warm, unsweetened almond milk
1½ tablespoons honey
1½ tablespoons Earth’s Balance No-Soy spread, cold
1 tablespoon almond or cashew cheese (optional. If you add it the bread will be really soft. If you don’t the loaf will be yummy and soft as it is)
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
3 cups unbleached white flour
1½ teaspoons bread machine yeast

Add the following on the “add in” stage:
¼ cup rolled oats OR wheat germ

Directions:

1. Layer ingredients in order listed in your bread maker

2. Use the white bread setting for a 2 pound loaf. Use the LIGHT crust setting

3. Add the oats or wheat germ during the “add in” stage


My Dense Wheat Germ Bread

1¼ cups warm, unsweetened almond milk
1½ tablespoons honey
1½ tablespoons Earth’s Balance No-Soy spread, cold
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup wheat germ
1½ teaspoons bread machine yeast
½ plus ¼ cup rolled oats

Directions:

1. Layer ingredients in order listed in your bread maker, stopping at the oatmeal

2. Use the white bread setting for a 2 pound loaf. Use the LIGHT crust setting

3. Press start. When your machine reaches the “add in” stage, add the ½ cup of oats

4. When the dough reaches the final rise, sprinkle the ¼ cup of oatmeal on the top


Teff-Amaranth Bread
Stolen from Bob’s Red Mill with a few minor adaptations

1 cup water (room temperature)
¼ cup unsweetened almond milk (room temperature)
1½ tablespoon Earth’s Balance (room temperature)
3 tablespoons turbinado sugar
¾ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons teff whole grain
1 tablespoon amaranth grain
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour, unbleached
¼ cup organic amaranth flour (I used soy flour)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Directions:

1. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature and follow your bread machine cycle instructions. Set machine for a 1½ pound loaf with a LIGHT crust setting

2. Allow bread to cool on rack 15-20 minutes before slicing