For years I baked with a recipe that had this listed in the ingredients, but it also said (optional). I almost never put in (optional) ingredients. For the most part, this is because I’m pretty cheap. If I can get away with making a recipe cheaper, why wouldn’t I? Aren’t these ingredients put in by companies trying to take away my money? Isn’t it a plot to keep me poor the rest of my life? Did the person creating this recipe sell out to these companies, getting a commission every time I used an (optional) ingredient?

Ok. Maybe that’s going a little far. No one sold out to anyone by creating dough enhancers. Of course, you’re going to be able to make bread turn out wonderfully even if you never use it. But there are some major bonuses the enhancer brings to the table.

Have you ever noticed how bread you buy from the store keeps for a very long time on your counter? Store-bought bread can easily last two, three, or even four weeks without molding. Looking at the ingredient list, you’ll see why! Most of the ingredients are actually preservatives. I’m willing to bet there’s at least one ingredient that you can’t even pronounce! These have to be used in order to keep the bread tasting bakery-fresh even though they’ve been at the store quite a while before you even buy them!

These preservatives do work. The down side is having those preservatives inside of YOU! Not what I’d like to be digesting. But look at the other option – the bread you bake at home will probably not last more than 4 or 5 days on the counter. Many times a loaf of homemade bread won’t last long enough to go bad on your counter – it’s hard to eat only one slice. But if this is your everyday bread, you need an option to help it last longer!

There are about three different homemade dough enhancer recipes out there. However, all three contain the same core ingredients: lecithin, vitamin C powder and powdered ginger. The vitamin C and powdered ginger, both wonderful natural preservatives, help tremendously in the shelf life of your bread. The lecithin will help a little with this, but it also has a couple other amazing benefits. Lecithin creates a much lighter loaf, and will help ensure your bread doesn’t fall during the baking process.

I usually make my dough enhancer at home, using a triple or even quadrupled batch and keep it in the pantry until I need it. After all, it IS preservatives. It’s going to take a lot for it to go bad! I’ve kept this on the shelf for two years before without any noticeable change in quality. Just keep it tightly sealed – I have mine in quart size canning jars. A 4x batch will fill two jars.

The following is my favorite recipe for dough enhancer – the simpler version of the recipe contains only vitamin C, ginger and lecithin. I’ve found it doesn’t help the bread as much as I would like. The most complex recipe is too much for me – I just don’t think all the ingredients are worth the time to hunt them down and keep them on hand. The following is a great balance of the two – enough ingredients to help out the bread while not containing so many ingredients as to be a hassle.

In the following recipe, dry milk adds texture to the bread, wheat gluten and pectin aids in the structure of the loaf. If you’ve ever had a loaf of bread fall, you know how disheartening that can be! Dough enhancer will definitely give you an added bit of security against this.

Dough enhancer (single batch)

1 C dry milk
2 C wheat gluten
2 tsp powdered ginger
4 T pectin (used in making jam or jelly – can be found in the canning section at your grocery store, in small boxes. Don’t use the type for freezer jam.)
4 T gelatin (plain gelatin is available in small packets)
4 T lecithin (can be found at most health food/vitamin stores)
1 T ascorbic acid crystals (vitamin C powder – this can be found in the canning section at your grocery store, usually labeled as Fruit Fresh)

Mix ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight container. To use, mix 1 T per loaf of bread or use what the recipe calls for.

So after years of running away from this wonderful helper, I’ve become a true believer. Try it! If you don’t want to go to the fuss of making this yourself, buy some at a health food store. If you like it, make up a big batch! You can use it in any baked good – you’ll see amazing results in anything containing yeast!

You may wonder what kinds of recipes lend themselves to having a well-stocked pantry. If you’re not used to cooking with whole foods (foods that come to you close to the state in which they were grown), and instead usually use processed foods to cook, this might be a big change for you. The most helpful thing to do in this case will be to slowly integrate new recipes into your budget.

Below is a recipe useful for so many reasons – easy, affordable, delicious, filling, and the ingredients will be found in nearly every kitchen. I’ll be posting as many of these types of recipes in the future as I can. If you have any ideas of your own to add, please email me!

Hot Tuna Casserole

2 C elbow noodle macaroni
2 cans (5 oz each) tuna
1 C mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
½ C shredded cheddar cheese
1 C Italian breadcrumbs (optional)

Cook macaroni noodles according to package directions. Combine noodles, tuna, mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery, onion, hard-boiled eggs and half of the cheese. Stir well. Grease a 9×13 pan and spoon mixture into pan. Top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Serve hot.

Hope you enjoy this recipe! It’s a favorite of ours and a great comfort food!

One of my favorite comfort foods is banana bread. I love to eat it with butter melting over the slice of warm bread, along with a cup of tea or coffee. I love to bring a whole loaf out of the kitchen for guests, piping hot with the aroma daring anyone around to eat only one slice. Most of all, I love being able to use up all the bananas I have sitting in my freezer.

My kids LOVE bananas. For each of them, this has been their first food, and even now with my oldest being 6 years old, they each have a banana first thing after waking up – while I get a cup of coffee. To avoid going to the grocery store every couple of days, I have to stock up on bananas every time I go grocery shopping. But when you do the math, 3 kids eating bananas every day for a week is 21 bananas! I get quite the interesting looks from grocery employees as they ring up my purchases…

With this many bananas each week, occasionally one or two will ripen more than my kids think is permissible. (It took me a long time to convince my daughter that eating banana bruises did not actually give you bruises yourself…) My husband hates seeing these go to waste, so he’ll throw these older bananas into the freezer, whole with the peel intact before they are totally wasted.

However, this poses a problem. With a constant flow of bananas through our house, the danger of being attacked by a frozen banana when opening the freezer door gets to be quite high. When I have a very high Banana Danger Rating in our freezer, I make up a huge batch of banana bread. Frozen bananas lend themselves quite nicely to this recipe: as they thaw, they’re already mashed for you!

I take these whole, unpeeled bananas, run them under hot water for a few seconds, and peel as normal. Then I’ll let them sit in a bowl for ten or twenty minutes to thaw and they’re ready to go! Plus the over ripe bananas make the best banana bread, from the consistency, flavor and sweetness. Here’s my favorite recipe.

3 C all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups mashed bananas (6 medium)
1 ½ C sugar
½ C cooking oil
1 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Grease the inside of two loaf pans (8×4x2) and set the oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a second bowl, mash the bananas (you really don’t need to measure the bananas. Anywhere from 5 to 7 bananas can be used). Add the eggs (but make sure you beat them before putting them in with the bananas!) and stir together. Add the sugar and cooking oil, again stirring everything together. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just enough to combine. It’s ok if there are lumps and a little flour that’s not totally stirred in. Add the nuts if you’re choosing to use them, stir as little as possible.

Pour this into the loaf pans and bake in the 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle of a loaf comes out clean. Cool the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove them from the pan and cool completely on the rack. Wrap these in aluminum foil and let it sit overnight or freeze immediately. I always make at least a double recipe like this because one is NEVER enough!

When you’re ready to eat this bread, thaw overnight on the counter if it has been frozen. When you’re ready to eat, place on a plate and microwave it on high for two minutes. It will taste fresh baked and your house will smell amazing!

I’ve written recently about being grateful for having an extensive amount of food storage since our household income has been GREATLY reduced lately.  When I started out trying to build up my food storage, I did SO much research on the topic!  Here’s a few of the things that helped me:

1. Food storage calculator – this is something that helps by looking at how much a family needs to store (for a whole year!) that is recommended by the LDS church.  (Which, coincidentally, is NOT the faith we ascribe to) Anyway, it’s a great place to see what kinds of things should be stored, but it’s also something that made me realize how far I had to go!  Do not be intimidated by it.  Much of it is even beyond the goals I have for myself!  But it is a great place to see what kinds of stuff to stock. http://www.containerandpackaging.com/food_storage_calculator.asp
2. Baby steps on how to get started – If you have no idea how to get started and get overwhelmed thinking about starting to store food, www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net has a program where you can sign up for monthly emails to get you going!
3. One of the easiest things to store is grain – I love storing wheat, personally.  But what to do with it once you have it stored?   A wheat mill (to grind the wheat to flour) is a great thing to use – either a hand operated mill or electric.  My favorite place to find grain mills, mixers and the actual grain is at www.urbanhomemaker.com
4. What to do with all of this food storage?  This is a great site for both using food from my storage and for cooking on an EXTREMELY low budget is at www.Hillbillyhousewife.com.  I’ve used this quite a bit recently to find some great tasting recipes that help us feel like we’re not really on a budget!  I love her coleslaw recipe and the magic milkshakes.  Take a look at the $45 menu! http://www.menus4moms.com/frugal/meals_for_hard_times_1.php is also a great place to find food storage recipe ideas and budget meals.
5. Lists! – I love lists.   I love when someone else has the experience to tell me what I should go out and get from the store to have a well stocked pantry, refrigerator or freezer.  I also love it when someone gives me a great big list of thing I can make from those items!  Here’s a couple places that come close to doing just that – I hope to have lots of these lists worked up for myself very soon to post here for you.

That’s all for now, but I have so much more to share about this!  Keep checking back – I’ll be getting all this up and going soon!

Today I made bread – and the house smells wonderful! What a great smell to have seeping into each corner of the house and spilling outdoors. It’s pretty cool outside today, but as the kids were playing, they had the smell of fresh bread coming out to remind them of the warmth inside! I love being able to hand each of them a thick slice of it with butter and honey melting on top as they come in from the cold. That and a mug of hot tea and my afternoons are just about the coziest I can imagine!

I’ve been baking bread from scratch for about 5 years now. A friend showed me one day how she ground wheat from whole wheat berries (the wheat that comes from the stalks of wheat you see growing in fields). I took home a bag full of fresh ground flour that day and baked it into bread. It was just about the worst bread ever! I didn’t know many of the tricks I know today, and it took me a LONG time to figure out most of them. But today I’m making great bread – in fact, my oldest son had a rare taste of store-bought bread the other day and asked why the bread tasted so strange!

There is something about good home-baked bread that feeds our souls as well as our stomachs. Something very settling and comforting about the smell of yeast and flour. I think it’s worth the time it takes to make great bread and worth it to invest the time needed to learn this new skill. I had to wade through so many different websites, cooking shows, recipes and forums to learn how to make good bread. So I figured, why not share that skill with others? So my husband was good enough to help me make a video showing what I’ve learned over the years! (I think he was just in it to get the fresh baked goodness at the end, though!)

So here is the work of my learning. If you don’t have a grain mill, it’s fine to start with store bought whole-wheat flour. Be sure to get it fresh if possible! It goes bad quickly. If you don’t have a mixer (either a large one like I use or a stand mixer like a kitchen aid), you can still use the same recipe. You just have to knead the bread by hand for about 15 minutes. Your arms will be tired! But it’s so worth the effort in the end. Kneading bread pretty much consists of pressing the heel of your hand deep into the bread when it’s on a counter top or in a shallow bowl, then pulling it back towards yourself and repeating. I did this for several years, and it’s a GREAT way to get out any frustrations or stress! It’s a good workout!

I’ve used several recipes over the years, and the one I currently love started out as Marilyn’s Famous Whole Wheat Bread Recipe. However, I’ve changed it into my own.

6 C warm water
3 T yeast
2/3 C molasses or honey

Combine these and allow to proof for 5 to 10 minutes until bubbly. Add the following

2 T salt
2/3 C honey
2/3 C vital wheat gluten (optional)
2 T dough enhancer (optional)
2 C wheat berries, cooked (optional)

The wheat gluten helps the bread rise, but is not necessary. The dough enhancer helps the bread stay fresh longer, but once again is not necessary. I’ll post a recipe for that later. Cooked wheat berries are nice, but are only added for texture. My husband loves it! To make it, place the desired amount of wheat in a crock-pot with water at a ratio of 1 part wheat to 2 parts water. Cook until most of the water is absorbed and the wheat berries are big and plump. I make a huge batch and freeze it. This also makes GREAT breakfast food with milk and honey!

Anyway, add all of the above ingredients mix and start adding 14 to 18 cups of whole wheat flour a cup at a time. Knead 15 to 20 minutes, or 6 to 8 with a mixer. Allow to rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Split into 5 to 6 loaves, shape and place in greased pans. Allow to rise again about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the loaves are 180 to 200 degrees inside. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes in the pans, then remove from pans and allow to cool completely before wrapping. I’ve kept these in the freezer for 6 to 8 months without any noticeable difference in taste. I’ve never had it last longer than that!

If you’d like to make less than 5 loaves at a time, use the following:

1 C warm water
2-½ tsp yeast
2 T molasses or sugar
1 tsp salt
2 T honey
2 T vital wheat gluten (optional)
2 T dough enhancer (optional)
1/3 C wheat berries, cooked (optional)
2-3 C whole-wheat flour

The rest of the instructions should remain the same. Our video should be finally edited later this week – take a look at it to answer any questions about how the bread should look at various stages! Hope your home is soon filled with the scent of bread!