“#37 The whiter the bread the quicker you’ll be dead. ..As far as the body is concerned, white flour is not much different than sugar-it’s little more than a shot of glucose.”-Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual Michael Pollan
My friend Eileen is a master bread maker. I am serious. She makes the best home made bread ever. I hardly ever make this recipe because Eileen’s turns out so much better. Instead I just hope that she will have pity on me and give me a loaf when I come over to visit (but not right now, Eileen because I am on a diet, remember? That banana bread made with duck eggs you gave me the other day just about blew me out of the water).
I digress.
Eileen’s bread-yum. You should try this recipe. It probably won’t turn out as good as if Eileen had actually made it. But it will still be delicious.
Eileen doesn’t think white flour is as evil as I do. In fact she thinks it is wrong to call food “evil”. If you feel the same way as I do however, you can make adjustments to how much wheat vs. white you use in this recipe. I have a 2 cups of white flour rule. I never use more than 2 cups of white flour (and usually not any) in any recipe.
Maybe that is why mine doesn’t turn out as good as Eileen’s? Nope, it isn’t the flour. It is Eileen.
But since you probably have never had Eileen’s bread you will never know the difference. My advice? Try this recipe with mostly wheat and a little bit of white. And for the love of all that is good, whenever using white flour, please make sure it is unbleached. That reduces its evil properties:)
And seriously, even though I up the wheat flour in this recipe, it still tastes pretty darn good.
Just not as good as Eileen’s.
Eileen’s Recipe:
5 1/2 cup hot water
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 Tbl salt
3 Tbl yeast
2 eggs
8 cups wheat flour
7-8 cups white flour
Combine water, oil, honey, and salt well. Sprinkle yeast over and stir. Let stand until foamy and bubbly. Add wheat flour and eggs. Knead in as much white flour as it takes to be smooth and shiny and not sticky. Knead 5 minutes more. Shape into 6 loaves, let raise 30 minutes.
Bake at 375 10 minutes, then at 325 for 27-30 minutes.
2 Comments
I hate to break it to you, but it may be the white flour. My bread recipe has wheat and white and it is pretty darn good.
Thank you for the raves, you are too nice. Some time I will write a post for you all about my philosophy about food!
I thought you might like to know, I have started adding 2 cups of rolled oats to this bread when I put in the wheat flour. I use about 7 cups of wheat and about 5 cups of white. Also, I got a great tip from a bread making class. Put in flour until the dough just almost comes away from the side of the mixing bowl, not until it cleans the sides of the bowl. (This is tricky, because once it cleans the sides of the bowl, you have added too much, but if you stop too soon, it is almost too sticky to work with. It just takes experience. Also, I don’t know how to judge the right stage if you are mixing by hand.)
And, I have to say, for baking duck eggs really are the best!