Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So far, I've only made Avocado Bread and my two or so passes have turned out pretty good. The only down side was that I substituted nutmeg for all spice which rather made them dessert breads, so it really wasn't a downside at all.
Eventually, I will try my hand at French Bread. My basic motivation is because it can be done with ingredients that are easily kept in massive quantity around the house. Further, I think I am programmed "to be like that".
The other night, I had a sort of nightmare that I was on a ghost ship, the SS Waratah (but it was like the Queen Mary) and upon finding the stocks of flour and cooking oil, I knew at least we wouldn't starve (relating in my dream the true story of a Russian trawler crew ship wrecked at a polar station years ago).
Eventually, I should get an outdoor BBQ grill as a back up to the gas oven because in an electrical loss, the controls to the oven won't work. Eventually, I should make a bread oven, but these are down the line and one is easier than the other. It's a system of progression where the grill is a backup to the internal oven and can do a lot but may not be as efficient in the use of wood (which the ranch has plenty of) as the bread oven. Then, since the wood isn't endless, a further backup system of a solar electric oven (one grid already on the ranch for pumping water) or even a solar ray oven ..... in theory.
As far as straight out of the oven and doused with butter....to each their own.
I make soap. If you wear gloves and don't breathe in the initial fumes that are created when the lye and water combine (takes about 30 seconds to dissipate), then lye isn't real dangerous. I started making soap because I'm allergic to coconut oil, and it's really hard to find coconut free soap.
I made a parmesan and sun dried tomato bread recently....OH, with butter, right out of the oven...
Now you got me Jonesin' for bread and butter. Bread is good. Butter is good, but warm bread & butter is great. A case of 2+2 is 6.
Just last week I got it in my head I would plant a patch of wheat, harvest it, winnow it, grind my own flour and bake my own bread....Then I took note of the price of flour in the store (I never paid attention before) ...fuggedabowdit. ...self-sufficiency ain't that satisfying
My Dw makes soap. She uses lye. I am not sure what the OP feels
presents some 'danger' [ie, "you risk serious skin, lung & eye damage"]. I must have missed that part of it. We have been using lye soap in our homes for 30+ years. I do not know of anyone who has seen any 'danger' from using soap.
btw, my Dw is extremely allergic to most commercial soap and dyes.
I use this basic technique - stumbled on to it on YouTube - using various gluten flours such as whole wheat, spelt and rye, sometimes mixing them with non-gluten flours such as teff, oat and millet.
Ingredients are simply water, yeast, flour, and salt. Later sometimes flavor with olive oil, never butter.
Perfected it to the point where I don't dirty hands, counter tops, or even baking pans covered with parchment paper.
Recently adapted a recipe to make oat flour raisin cookies, soft baked.
Can someone refer to a study showing that cost of doing it yourself, including use of oven, is greater than store-bought bread?
Do any such studies include trade-off between nutritional gain of doing it yourself versus all those crappy ingredients included in store-bought products?
Just the other day, I ate about a cup of flour worth of spelt bread with vegetables in the morning and did not feel hungry again the entire day.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
