88. Breaking Bread… The Art, Health, and Fun of Baking Bread at Home

Healthy Benefits of Home Baked Bread

In addition to being more flavorful and aesthetic, homemade bread can be a much healthier alternative to store-bought bread. The bread you bake at home can be lower in sodium and sugar.  In addition to the whole grain goodness of your bread, you can also add a variety of seeds. Try sesame, pumpkin, linseed and sunflower seeds in and on top of your loaves for additional dietary fiber, protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants.

We also need to talk about what will not be found in your home baked goods. Homemade bread will not contain additives. Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients that goes into a loaf of supermarket bread? …So many chemicals that are surely not healthy to eat, right? The list of additives used in industrial baking will include rising agents, emulsifiers, and preservatives to give it a longer shelf life. All of this is about profit and not about your good health. When you bake bread in your home kitchen, you will use only real food ingredients!

 What makes factory baked bread products typically unhealthy?

Industrialized breads often use refined flour as a base ingredient, but may also include other ingredients such as: 

• Soya flour

  This flour is made from uncooked soya beans and helps strengthen dough, giving loaves structure and support during baking. It also contributes to a creamy, "bready" flavor. 

• Preservatives

  These are added to meet the shelf-life requirements. This is about profit and not about your good health!

• Enzymes

  These are added to adapt the dough to suit the production machinery. 

• Flour improvers

  These are blends of ingredients that enhance the flour, such as fat, flour treatment agents, emulsifiers, and enzymes. 

• L-ascorbic acid

  This oxidant helps retain gas in the dough, which makes the loaf rise more. 

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Yeast in Baking…Is It Safe to Eat Yeast?

Yeast is a single cell fungus that helps the bread to rise and become soft and spongy. Yeast is a living bacteria that dies when put into an environment that is 125 degrees or higher.  When you bake your bread the yeast will die.

There are many types of yeast used in baking. Some of them are commercial and some of them are extracted from fruit and grains. However, any type of yeast that is used in our bread baking, is completely safe unless it is consumed in raw form.

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