I have great memories of homemade bread.  When I was growing up, my mom would often make it early in the morning, and the scent of fresh, hot bread would travel through the air vents into my room.  I remember my mom kneading dough with her hands and putting in ingredients without using a recipe.  She clearly knew what she was doing.

When I contemplated making my own bread from food storage ingredients, I didn’t know if I could make a decent-tasting, decent-looking loaf.  The process of making bread ─ everything from the mixing, kneading, rising and baking ─ looked too complex for a kitchen amateur like me.  I also wondered if I would have to compromise taste if I used dry-packed ingredients instead of fresh ones.

After making bread with a friend who knew what she was doing, both the concerns of my ability and of making great-tasting bread were put to rest.  I am confident I could make delicious bread again, and so can you– no matter what your level of experience in the kitchen, or what your knowledge of cooking with food storage.

Here are the simplified steps I followed to make delicious bread with food storage ingredients.
The recipe is found in the Mix-A-Meal Cookbook by Deanna Bean and Lorna Shute.  This is a recipe book dedicated to showing you how to use and rotate your food storage by making inexpensive, homemade mixes.  You can purchase it at www.preparednessplus.net.

The Mix-A-Meal Cookbook provides a “mini-mix” recipe if you want to try out a recipe before making a large amount of a particular food.  I used the mini-mix for this kitchen adventure.  The recipe I used was adapted for a bread making machine, like the Bosch Universal Plus.  The instructions are a little bit different if you are doing it by hand, but it is not too difficult.  The hand-kneading recipe is also found in the book and is included in the “free recipes” section of this website.

First, I assembled the ingredients to make the “Homemade Bread Mix” and mixed them in a bowl.  This included a 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of dehydrated shortening and a tablespoon of salt.

I placed (in this order) 1 1/4 cups of water, 1/4 cup of the Homemade Bread Mix, 3 cups of white bread flour and 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast into the bread machine bowl.
(For whole wheat bread, replace the white flour with 2 1/2 cups of wheat flour and 1/2 cup of gluten.)  Note:  The flour can either be store-bought or can be freshly ground wheat from a home wheat grinder.

I attached the dough hook, turned on the Bosch Universal Plus and the machine kneaded the ingredients for eight minutes on the number two setting.  Each bread-making machine will have varying control settings, but the idea is to knead the bread on a medium setting for 8-10 minutes.

I allowed the dough to rise for 30 minutes in the bread-making machine.

I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Then I greased a bread pan using shortening (you can use cooking spray, butter or margarine as well).  I placed the dough in a pan, placed a dry towel over the top and allowed it to rise for another half hour.

After the dough had risen, I removed the towel and placed the pan in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes.

The bread cooled on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and then was cut and enjoyed with honey.  It was delicious, and tasted equal to or better than bread made with fresh ingredients.

Don’t be afraid to try making homemade bread.  Even for an amateur like me, it was easy and the reward was great.

Until Next Time,
Patty Prepared

Filed under: Uncategorized by PattyPrepared