I love bread. When I first went vegetarian at age 12, my mom called me a carbatarian because all I ate was bread and potatoes. This love story is complicated by the fact that my mom was diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago, so I’m always a little scared that someday I wont be able to eat bread.
A few months ago, I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet for a month to see I noticed any changes. Thankfully I didn’t. I celebrated by ordering two bread baking books, Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart and Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. I had visions of baking up beautiful crusty loaves and sandwich breads, filling my house with that wonderful fresh bread smell and wowing people at potlucks and parties. Things have not exactly turned out like I imagined.
Being the health nut that I am, I jumped right to the 100% whole grain recipes in both books. I haven’t had much luck. The bread has been edible, but only barely. I finally gave up and took a break from bread making.
When I went to Sault Ste Marie for Thanksgiving with Dave‘s family in October, his mom gave us an old bread maker that they never use. I thought my bread problems were solved, but none of the recipes in the manual were vegan or all that healthy, they all called for milk powder and lots of shortening and sugar.
I tried the basic 100% whole wheat recipe using Earth Balance for the shortening and soy milk powder for the milk powder. The results were pretty good, much better than my feeble attempts. I thought I had finally figured out this whole bread things. It shouldn’t be too hard to just get rid of some of the fat and soy milk powder. Right?
So, for my next attempt, I tried this recipe for a whole grain spelt loaf. I’m not sure why, but this didn’t work. The loaf was completely flat.
Needless to say, I’m getting frustrated with bread. I’m not sure if I want to give up or make it my life’s goal to conquer bread making.
Sad bread
Happy bread
But really, the point of this post is to remind us that failures are inevitable. Especially when we’re trying to make things from scratch for the first time. It’s not easy and it takes practice and persistence. Alright, I’ve talked myself out of giving up on bread.
Any bread tips or disaster stories to share?
Katie