Get a recipe for versatile homemade bread HERE! |
"I wish to urge again the importance of self-reliance on the part of every individual Church member and family. None of us knows when a catastrophe might strike. Sickness, injury, unemployment may affect any of us. We have a great welfare program with facilities for such things as grain storage in various areas. It is important that we do this. But the best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. Five or six cans of wheat in the home are better than a bushel in the welfare granary." (President Gordon B. Hinckley)
I want to encourage you to continue your storage and if you haven’t yet started to get started. Everyone starts somewhere.
It's just as important to learn basic skills. I think if you know how to make bread it is one of the biggest helps. It takes a little learning but in our times we can learn so easily on the computer by just typing in how to make bread. YouTube videos shows you how to make so many breads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj7Sfu3IuYs - bread secrets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS2clOSZJ7o - amish white bread, makes two loaves. Get white bread down first then move to grains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJDBqoDqXRo - amish sweet white bread
My favorite tip….one tsp of vital wheat gluten to one cup of flour equals one cup of bread flour.
My tip….I let my bread cool for an hour then I use an electric knife and slice the whole loaf. This is just what I do. I could use a bread knife if no electricity but I like the look of using the electric knife. I pick them up at yard sales. I bag and freeze my sliced bread if I make more than one loaf.
I know you might be saying you already know how. That is great! Are you making it to get your family use to homemade bread? You might be saying, "someday I will." I am here to say someday things seldom come. We need to push ourselves to learn the things we want to learn. The same thing can be said of "I have no time." We need to find the time. Think through what you are doing. Sometimes we are too busy but we are not meant to be that busy all the time. Our bodies and minds need to rest to learn as well.
When we were first married my mother-in-law made bread. My best friend Shirley’s mom made bread. I was going to make bread. So I got a recipe for bread from my mother-in-law as there were no computers back then. I gathered everything I would need. I was working at the time so I needed to pick a day I wasn’t working.
The day was finally there and I had everything. So I set out in the morning to make two loaves of bread. I set it to raise. After the time allotted I divided the dough in two loaves. Of course, had I known that my bread was supposed to have risen I would have known there was a problem. So in the pans went the dough. It did not rise, not even by two hours or three, no different at four hours. I thought perhaps I should put both into one pan and bake so I did. By supper I pulled it out…..it was so heavy. I went to slice it to have with supper and couldn't even cut it. I had baked a brick. So we laughed and buried it out in the backyard. I later learned I had the water too hot and killed the yeast.
I kept trying and that is what it takes. But now you all have mini classes any time you want on your computer. A blessing for sure. Learn all you can and never stop learning!
Years later I was talking to a doctor and she said that if more people made bread we would have less mental disease, that was back in the seventies….something to think about.
I can make bread by hand just as well as any machine in my kitchen.
That was my goal. As time goes on I have gotten fibro then I discovered the machines I have can do it just as good as I can by hand. I learned using bread machines to do everything except baking was just as good and helped me. So when money permitted I got a mixer that could do many loaves at one time.
So what I am trying to say is don’t turn your nose up at machines that can help. You look at thrift stores and you can find them for such a savings but remember that if you cannot get any of the machines you have the skill to make by hand…so no matter where you are you can learn this skill.
Now I just picked bread making as one of the skills that would be good to know. If you are gluten free it is just as important to learn how to make bread using what you can for that and to store the ingredients because one thing is for sure - we all eat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih1XIyg3-f4 - this is fantastic whether or not you are gluten-free. She gives you both recipes this is so handy to have on hand.
There are other skills that help us as well so think what skills you want to learn. Let us know what skill you are working on and how you plan to learn, if it's on the computer or using the library or from a friend, let us know.
If you have a request on a skill, let me know :)
I have fibro also and I use my Kitchenaid to mix up my bread dough. I have burnt out 2 bread machines in the past. ;)
ReplyDeletei had heard that before and so not wanting to blow mine out i got the bosch mixer it was costly but i knew my fibro wasn't going away
DeleteThere is nothing better than homemade bread! I really want to try a bread machine!
ReplyDeletecheck your thrift stores for bread machines it sure makes life easier when done rising i shape put it in a pan rise then bake it is as good as when i do by hand i have picked up several for two and three dollars at yrd sales to have when mine should die
DeleteWe have the same mixer and I love homemade bread.
ReplyDeleteit is a good mixer
DeleteHi Becky,
ReplyDeleteGreat post today. I agree that bread making is very important. I started baking bread at age 58:). I thought....I didn’t want to take the time, we didn’t eat a lot of bread, it was complicated, etc etc. finally, after reading the blog from the Prident Homemaker, if she could make bread with 8 kids she home schools, I didn’t have any excuse as a retiree with one husband :). So I bought a bread machine at goodwill....and three years later, I am still making bread! The bread machines wear out after about a year, but for $4-5 each, I just factor that into my costs. I even bake the bread in them, due to laziness, since I agree the bread seems better baked in the oven. Thank you for you post today, hope others are inspired to try. For sure I had zero bread cooking skills, and the bread machine makes it easy. I cut and freeze the bread slices in freezer ziploc bags, two slices per bag, so we always have homemade bread
thank you for your comment toasted is the best
Deletethe prudent homemaker is a fabulous site full of inspiration all right
DeleteHello Becky!
ReplyDeleteI've just recently found your blog and am reading it from front to back. Very inspirational - thank you. I'm at May 2015 so far! You left a link for the pizza dough recipe you use but the link doesn't work. Could you post the recipe again please?
We live in the west of Ireland and we've had some pretty nasty storms (though nothing like the ones you'd have over there) over the last couple of years. We've been pretty frugal for years now. Hubby has half a dozen oil lamps and has recently bought a generator. Rarely do we buy name brand items or eat out and we cook from scratch. I usually like to stock up with at least 2 weeks worth of groceries in the winter but this year I must have had a premonition as I felt compelled to really ramp it up this year and we would be ok for several months. Plenty of food for us, dogs, chickens and the wild birds.Thank goodness for that intuition - we've been battered by the wind, there was hail sleet, and snow and now it's non stop rain. We love being frugal stop-at-homes and would highly recommend it.
All the best,
Eileen
http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/search?q=pizza this will get you to the pizza if you have trouble just type pizza in my search. we closed and moved most of becky's back to basics to the blog we love this pizza best of all. thank you for your comment ramping it up is a good thing love hearing from you
DeleteI’ve just found your blog and I love it, thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteso glad you found us
Delete