ISO Bread Recipes

[esther]

hi! well, im baking bread again this weekend. this week, im looking for a bread which somehow involves carrots and honey. anybody? if possible, it should be healthy and i want to have it wheat free. and not like carrot bread as in cake, but bread bread, like with yeast or something.
jewish new year is coming up, and carrots and honey are some of the symbolic foods we eat for a good year, just in case anybody cares.
take care

 

[oldcoot]

I'm sure not an authority on the subject, but it seems to me that, without the high gluten content of wheat, any leavened bread will have a more cake-like consistency. It will be intersting to see if anyone can suggest a recipe that will give your desired result, Esther.

 

[esther]

no, i dont think it should be a problem. i know that splelt can easily replace wheat, and produce a good leavened bread. oat, spelt, rye, quinoa, barley, millet and wheat are just a number of grains which can produce a good leavened bread.
thanks anyway, i really appreciate your help.

 

[oldcoot]

Out of pure curiosity, I did a simple Google search for "carrot bread", and came up with more than I could look at.

Some use no flour of any kind, using baking soda for leavening. Others use a variety of flours, usually whole wheat & bread flour. No obvious reason your non-wheat flours could not be substituted successfully. And honey could surelly replace the sugar called for.

Incidently, spelt is a variety of wheat, and those other "grains" you mentioned tend to require some wheat flour or something like gum amaranth to contain the gasses from the yeast for successful leavening. In all cases, the loaf is "heavy" as compared to wheaat loaves. (Not necessarilly a bad thing!)

 

[esther]

right, right. i did a search too, and most of the recipes where more like cake. like you know how its called banana bread, but its really a cake?
i want to use spelt, i think. i know that spelt is easily to replace wheat with and it rises pretty well, the other grains to usually need a bit of something.
so i found a regular nice bread recipe (well,i hope so, its called the best bread in the world) and just use honey instead of sugar, and substitute the spelt, if i can obtain some. do you thing i could just add grated carrot, or would i need to replace some of the flour with it? and maybe just some chopped walnuts too. what do you thing about adding in the carrot?

 

[oldcoot]

Esther, O bake mostly a simple white bread - "Italian" style, using olive oil and honey. And I'm still in the novice stage even at that. So my ideas are far from expert. As for adding carrot - I'd expect one should do just that: add it, not as a replacement. Especially if using a low-gluten flour like spelt. You'll need all the gluten you can get. Honey in place of sugar is a common thing. I've found it necessary to add a lot more of it than the sugar for the same effect.

Have fun, and let us know the results.

 

[esther]

i really want to do this bread thing for this weekend, but im torn... there are all these amazing concerts on around the country and i dont know what do choose, or when to do what, etc. funny how we invent problems, when , thank G-d we dont have any. i know this is nothing to do with cooking, but i just thought id share it.
apologies...

 

[kitchenelf]

Esther - sounds to me like you need to take in some conerts - you can bake a loaf of bread anytime you want. There, anything else I can help with????

 

[esther]

so today i was on a quest for spelt. i went to a local bakery, called seven grains bakery, because of a special bread they sell by the same name.
apparently, a name is all it is, because it doesnt even contain spelt, the owner with the long blond ear-locks confessed apologetically.
anwyay, so time is running out, looks like i might be back to whole wheat. no shame in that, i guess, even though spelt is better for you. maybe i could give the health food store a try.

 

[esther]

so on the phone, long distance to my mum tonight, who was in defense of wheat. everyone is mean to wheat and says that you should go off it, in favour of other grains, which is why i was looking for spelt. (peer pressure...) but she was saying that its like , one of the western worlds staples and as long as you are staying away from all the artificial rubbish that comes along with it, its okay. so im doing that. whole wheat honey and carrot bread. wish me luck!

 

[esther]

bread is done. whole-wheat honey-almond. baking nicely as we speak.

 

[oldcoot]

Funny thing about modern processed foods like bleached wheat flour, refined sugar and salt, and stuff: its used mostly in the more "advanced" societies, like the U.S. and Europe - where, oddly enough, human longevity just keeps rising.

Funny thing!

 

[esther]

yes, along with obesity, hear disease and late-onset diabetes.
interesting....

 

[oldcoot]

Don't blame overeating and inactivity - the primary causes of heart disease and type II diabetes - on refined foods.

Esther, I took a shot at carrot bread last night, just for fun. Had to use white flour as weevils had gotten into the whole wheat. I used two large carrots (grated, of course) in a small 2 cup loaf with evoo and honey. Cot a nice loaft, but neither BW nor I could dectect any carrot flavor (turned the bread yellow, 'tho). How much carrot should I have used?

 

[esther]

ah, see, i never actually used carrots. the place where im staying DOESNT HAVE A GRATER! (how could this be???) so it ended up being whole-wheat honey-almond. oldcoot, amazing is not the word.
i was just going to grate a couple of carrots and pop it in....
anyway, about that argument we are having. longevity is a result of less disease and such, due to immunistation and vaccination. but also in these countries, which all have huge dairy industries, there are high rates of osteoporosis. you cant argue that bleached white flour and refined sugar are good for anyone. people overeat on these foods, bc they are less filling that whole and more fibrous grains. most people dont realize that they are addicted to sugar and are barely conscious of their sugar intake, because everything is processed. i agree that main cause of todays societys food-related maladies are due to overeating and inactivity. but its all connected,really.