Good Clean Bread

Of course I had to buy the book as well. 

Y'all may recall my several months of dietary angst earlier this year during which I finally figured out that dairy was the item in my diet that was causing my GI tract to be cranky. Which means that wheat is not my nemesis as I had previously thought.

Well, now. Hellllooooooo bread!

I've been noshing on various types of breads ever since and my innards have been very happy. But after reading the ingredient lists on commercially made bread, suddenly the rest of me wasn't happy. Even breads on the grocery store shelves that were made from organic ingredients still had things like 'enzymes' and 'dough conditioners' listed.

What is that stuff?! Yuk.

I love bread. Just love it. I used to roll up my sleeves and knock out beautiful golden fragrant home made loaves at the drop of a hat. But ever since Sjogren's fatigue made it's appearance, all the kneading involved in home made bread made it a thing of the past. I couldn't justify expending that amount of energy required to make just a couple of loaves. Then, (Oh joy!) it occurred to me that there were fancy machines out there that did all of the heavy lifting when it came to making my own bread. AND that I could control every ingredient that went into it. Amazon to the rescue: within two days my brand spankin' new machine was sitting on my counter.

This called for a field trip to find good quality bread ingredients. So yesterday I snagged my friend Susan for an outing to the Bob's Read Mill Natural Foods store to shop for organic locally ground flours. What a hoot. I timed our arrival so that we could visit their bakery and restaurant after we made our purchases.

Yum. I can personally recommend the iced banana cookie bars with great enthusiasm.

After a few discussions with the very helpful staff, I decided to purchase a whole wheat white flour and a superfine cake flour. And, once home, couldn't wait to get the first batch of bread going. I'm writing this as I'm smelling the incredible perfume of baking wheat, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and oil.

AND NOTHING ELSE.

Oh my gosh. Success.

You can read more about Bob's Red Mill here.