Recipes for bread

People often say to me that it’s all very well advocating the use of organic, ethical or locally sourced food, but where does it leave people with low incomes.

I always reply along the lines of “the key is to replace those foods that have the worst environmental impacts, have the worst records for chemical residues, or involve the most industrial processes and efficiencies”.

That means focusing a limited budget for organic food on milk, beef, apples, potatoes, corn, soy products, soft fruit and bread.

I’ll concentrate on bread today because, as I’ve written before, industrial breadmaking uses low quality ingredients, uses vast amounts of chemicals to enable the process to be faster, more consistent and more reliable in terms of storage, and wastes vast amounts of energy.

By far the best way to take control of your bread is to make it yourself, using ingredients that you have sourced yourself and leaving out the “improvers” that find their way into industrial bread - even if it is organic in some cases.

So, for people who want to make their own bread, here a few recipes that we use:

Wholemeal sandwich bread (for slicing, baked in a breadmaker)

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp fast acting yeast
• 200g organic, stoneground wholemeal flour
• 100g organic rye flour
• 100g organic strong white flour
• 1 tbsp organic sugar
• 1 tbsp organic milk powder (this can be left out if preferred)
• 1/2 tsp salt (can be upped to 1tsp, but no more)
• 15g organic butter
• 300ml water

Method

1. Put the yeast in the breadmaker’s tin, then add the flours, sugar, milk, salt, butter and water. It’s especially important to put the yeast under the flour if you’re using a timer function, otherwise it will react with the water and sugar before you want.
2. Set the breadmaker to its whole wheat bake programme (ours takes five hours). If you have a timer function, set it so the bread is ready a couple of hours before it needs to be sliced to allow time for it to cool.
3. During the week, we set the breadmaker so that the loaf comes out around 10pm, is wrapped in muslin and allowed to cool overnight for use around 6.30am when I make the packed lunchs.
4. At weekends, we use the timer function so the bread is ready around 7.30am and is cool enough to slice around noon.

Spiced fruit loaf (for slicing, baked in a breadmaker)

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp yeast
• 200g organic strong white flour
• 200g organic stoneground wholemeal flour
• 1tbsp organic sugar
• 1 tbsp organic milk powder (can be left out)
• 1/2 tsp salt (can be up to 1tsp if desired)
• 280ml water
• 75g dried fruit (can be mixed dried fruit, sultanas or raisins)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice

Method

1. Put the yeast in the breadmaker’s tin, then add the flours, sugar, milk, salt, butter and water. It’s especially important to put the yeast under the flour if you’re using a timer function, otherwise it will react with the water and sugar before you want.
2. If your breadmaker has a separate fruit dispenser, place the fruit and spices in this. If not, you’ll have to add it after the initial mixing. (Check your breadmaker’s instructions on when to do this.)
3. Set the breadmaker to its bake raisin programme (ours takes four hours) or similar. If you have a timer function, set it so the bread is ready a couple of hours before it needs to be sliced to allow time for it to cool.

Wholemeal bread (hand-made, baked in the oven)

Ingredients

• 2lb organic, stoneground wholemeal bread flour
• 1lb organic, strong white bread flour
• 1oz salt
• 1oz sugar
• 1.5 oz fresh yeast (or an ounce of dried yeast, activate as per instructions)
• 1.5 pints warm water (about 30C, just below blood temperature)

Method

1. Pour half the flours into a large bowl and whisk into a batter with the warm water.
2. Cream the yeast with two tablespoons of warm water and whisk into the batter. (If using died yeast, whisk the activated yeast into the batter.)
3. Cover the batter with a damp tea towel or muslin and allow to stand for 15-20 minutes.
4. Stir the remaining flour, salt and sugar into the batter, then work into a dough with your fingers.
5. Knead the dough for 10 minutes.
6. Warm and grease four 1lb loaf tins (find good, heavy steel ones) and divide the dough equally between them. Flatten the pieces of dough and roll out so they fit lengthwise in their tins, then press down to work out gaps, cracks and folds.
7. Leave the tins in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
8. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 230C for 45 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn the tins through 90 degrees.
9. Remove the loaves from the oven and turn out onto wire racks to cool. The loaves must be completely cool before being sliced.