Accidental Baking

I baked a lot of bread yesterday.  It was fun, and it smelled great.

But I lacked the foresight I needed to complete my fourth loaf of bread.  That is, I forgot I had given the extra pans I had on hand back to my mother.  Tsk Tsk.

Panic ensued when I punched down the big doughy balloons only to realize there was no where for the final loaf to take shape and bake. 

So, I made accidentally on purpose cinnamon rolls!  TADA!

I had one for breakfast today, the equivalent of two slices of toast.  What a great way to wake up.  Coffee in hand, healthy and delcious cinnamon roll in the other...I'll take that any day. 

I used my usual soaking method with this recipe - basically a way of releasing the nutrition locked up in the whole wheat and making it taste that much better.  While I'm not offering bread and rolls here at Bake Lore anymore, I still enjoy making them for my family.  Perhaps one day when I can get the profit margin a bit healthier, I might consider returnign it t the menue. 

Until then, I will just suggest that you do some research into Sue Gregg's cooking methods.  I use her bread recipe and it's the best I've ever tasted, bar none. 

Why yes!  That is another new cake pedestal.  How kind of you to notice;).

And yes, they are square...because I used my super awesome Fat Daddio square cupcake pan.  For some reason, I love square baked goods.

Do you have a tried and true cinnamon roll recipe in your house?  What do you do to make it healthier for your family?

It Shoooore Was Good!

There are so many reasons why I need a real bakery - and this week the list has grown...a lot.

I have so much baking to do, I'm up soaking bread at midnight and turning the oven on before my coffee is done in the morning.  It's a good thing - my oven might tell you differently.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw it glaring at me when I put the fourth batch of sourdough in the other night.  But I digress. 

My oven's growing resentment is none of our concern!  Today, I have another review to share with you - from my friend who now has her MBA...and the student loans to go with it!  (The cake she ordered and the ensuing sugar high is definitely helping her cope though, I'm sure of it.)

Here's what she had to say about her cake:

Amy made a lemon cake with buttercream icing to help us celebrate me completing grad school.  I told her to decorate it however she wanted, and she came up with a design she knew I'd love and in my favorite colors (pink).  My husband and I couldn't decide which part of the cake we liked best.  He preferred the buttercream icing, whereas I loved the rich lemon flavor in the cake.  Amy did a great job with this cake order, and I'm so glad she was able to play a role in our celebration.

And she also ordered a loaf of my whole wheat bread!  Here's what she had to say about that:

My husband and I aren't huge bread people.  A loaf of bread goes bad well before we can start to make a dent in it, actually.  But, after hearing Amy talk about her bread and baking methods, I was curious enough to buy.  It was wonderful.  I think I liked it more than the cake Amy made for me...which, who likes bread more than cake?!  What I appreciated most was that the bread was moist, even after it had been toasted.  Our loaf is actually almost gone -- after just a few days -- so I'll definitely be needing more again soon.

Top: Whole Wheat (soaked of course!)
Middle: Whole Wheat Sourdough Loaf
Bottom: Whole Wheat Sourdough Baguettes

Wish you could have smelled it!!!

Whole Grains: How to Love Them, Big Finish

It's Tuesday - the day I try to write about things I'm grateful for.  And today, I'm going to combine my gratitude with my final installment of my series on Whole Grains: How to Love Them.

The more I learn about real food and whole grains, the more grateful I am to the Maker for supplying us with such rich and nourishing food.  The more I learn about how to unlock it and really USE it in my own diet, that gratitude just grows.  I am so thankful for bread - especially for sourdough - but I am a lover of breads of all kinds. 

So here's to whole grains and creating the most nourishing bread we can...

This is my short, sweet, totally non-exhaustive list of reasons why the soaking method of preparing whole grains is so, so good for us.

1.  It makes whole grains taste better.  That's right, soaking whole grains in an acid medium - be it lemon juice, vinegar, whey or buttermilk - breaks down not only phytates that can be harmful, it also makes whole wheat flour a lot more tender and delicious.  Sometimes we shy away from whole grains because they taste too...healthy.  But I've found the soaking process can create baked goods that make you forget you're eating so well.  I'm fooling a toddler regularly - and that should speak VOLUMES to the great results of this process.

2.  Nutrition - yes, yes...maybe this is a repeat of something I said in past posts, but it bears repeating.  Soaking whole grains, whether for cookies or cake or waffles, breaks down those harmful phytates and allows our bodies to access all the good things in whole grains.  If you want to know more about phytates and how they can block vitamins and minerals in our bodies, just go catch up on the first few posts in this series...here, here, here and...here.

3. Digestion - the soaking process makes it so much easier on your gut!  I'm not saying this method will suddenly end your fight with chronic bowel problems, but I'm here to tell you, when I'm eating only soaked or sprouted grains, I FEEL better.  And I have a sensitive system - nuff said.  The phytic content of whole grains makes your gut work really, really hard, producing enzymes it shouldn't have to to break down something it can't.  It's a lot of work - and no, it's not a good thing.  It's not about burning more calories in digestion.  It's about keeping your gut in balance and not feeding your body things it can't process. 

4.  Disease prevention - I've said before, a little phytic acid is a good thing!  But it goes a long way.  It blocks mineral absorbtion, and so the nutrition you think you're getting - to prevent cancer or nine million other ugly modern diseases - is just not getting through.  Soaking (and sprouting) ups your absorbtion of iron, niacin, zinc...a TON.  And those are the tools your body uses to keep you healthy and prevent disease.

Those are the big four reasons in my book.  I'm sure there are more...I know there are more...but for me, this little list keeps me coming back to my kitchen to soak, rise and bake. 

I hope maybe you'll try some Bake Lore bread sometime!  There are so many reasons to love it!



Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Whole Grains: How to Love Them, Part Trois

Welcome to lesson three in my little series, Whole Grains: How to Love them!

To recap...

1.  There was an introductory post, about phytic acid.

2.  The next post gave you a snapshot of what phytic acid does in plants and whole grains.

3.  The latest post told you a little about what phytic acid does once it enters our digestive tract.

And today, I'm closing in on the finish with a few ideas on how to limit our consumption of phytic acid.

This is all stuff that was pretty common practice before the industrialization of baking and food.  I think there are pros and cons to large scale food production...but if you wanna talk about that, we can have coffee sometime.  For now, let's just remember that phytic acid is a naturally occuring enzyme inhibitor in whole grains, nuts, legumes and some veggies - a substance that is beneficial in small amounts but harmful in mass quantities.

When you buy a regular loaf of whole grain bread - unless it's real sourdough - you are buying it with its full phytic content intact.  Modern and commercial baking just takes the wheat berry, grinds it to flour and bakes it. 

Not moi.

I add another step.

I take that ground up goodness (aka flour) and soak it in some kind of acid medium for about 8-12 hours.  The acid and natually occuring lactobactria go to work on all those hard to process phytates and break them down.  So at the end of the process, I will have bread that is much more easily digested and has nutrition my body can access and use.

This is pretty much the way sourdough bread is made.  It just takes a lot longer.  You get the starter going for a few days, let it soak up the wild yeast and GOOD bacteria floating around in the air, and all that will break down phytates in whole grains very effectively.  And it tastes awesome. 

Did I mention I make great sourdough? 

So, that's the soaking method.  It's effective and, in my opinion, way easier than sprouting...which is another top notch way to neutralize phytic acid.

When you sprout a wheat berry, you are beginning the germination process.  That is nature's way of eliminating much of the harmful phytates for our sensitive tummies.  Sprouted flour is SUPER perishable...ie not something you can keep in a jar on your counter.  Ew.  It has to be in the fridge or the freezer...and frankly after my little ServSafe exam the other day, sprouts represent a foodborne illness risk I'm not willing to take on.  Others can try hatching those puppies on the kitchen counter, but until I've got a fool proof, non-hazardous method for that operation, I'll leave it to them.

You can buy sprouted bread commercially, by the way.  Ever see Eziekiel Bread? 

Sprouted Whole Grain Bread by Food for Life

It's in the freezer section for a reason - very perishable.  But it's handy to keep on hand if you're off your baking routine or I can't deliver one week:).  I think it's a little dry and crumbly...but I digress.   

So, if you're up for doing it right, sprouting a great way to get rid of phytates. 

But I'm a soaker. 

I love the final product, and I am building a base of customers who feel the same way. 

Stay tuned for the final installment in the series.  I'll give you a few of the many, many benefits of the soaking process.

Buns of Bread

I love a good cake.   But, let's face it, it's not exactly an "every day food" as some nutritionalists so annoyingly point out. 

Cake is mostly empty calories (unless you're going for my extremely awesome whole grain coffee cake!).  In order to splurge on celebratory sweets, we sadly must attend to the real food of life, and eat well MOST of the time.

One of my passions is nourishing food.  Shocked are you?  Why would one so in love with sugar be so keen on keeping it out of the every day diet? 

Lots of reasons...maybe an entire blog's worth of reasons...but today, I'm just here to fill you in on a secret I'd like to let out of the bag:  I make an AWESOME loaf of bread.  (It ain't braggin' if you can do it, right???)

Soaked Whole Wheat Bread

My whole wheat bread goes through a two-step process, similar to what Sue Gregg teaches, a lady whom I love and admire.  Whole grains, soaked overnight to make the goodness in the grain accessible to our bodies and easier to digest, plus the good old fashioned triple rise...and you get some great results!

Just like the cakes, you can buy bread from me.  And pizza crusts, pancakes, morning cookies...and now...hamburger buns. 


Soaked Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

These turned out so soft and melt-in-your-mouth yummy.  One loaf of bread = 7 hamburger buns, according to my recipe...Oh, these are definitely on the price list now.  Definitely!!

The big idea is to have a bakery with a dual focus - Cake Lore, your go-to designer cake maker...and Bake Lore, the only place you buy bread and buns that you don't make yourself:).  We'll see how that pans out. 

Right now, there's a slice of bread with my name on it...mmmmmmmmmm.