Breadmaking

Early in the pandemic, I decided that all our bread should be homemade--so much tastier than grocery store bread!  I experimented with the 5-minute artisan bread method, bought us some dough buckets, and actually did it!  Except for the occasional bakery ciabatta, all our bread since 2020 was home made.

I'm keeping up that bread making resolve here at Dad's house.  My folks have been home bread bakers for a long time, thanks to a trusty West Bend brand bread machine.  (In my preschool class, we call it a Bread Robot!)  They recorded every loaf they made for many years in their Breadmaking Log.  (More about keeping logs later...).   Many loaves gained the epithet "Gnarly but Nice"

The machine is still going strong, though the loaf pan has been replaced several times.  

I made this loaf yesterday with a special added ingredient:  Spent Grains!  My brother-in-law is an avid home brewer and doesn't like to waste the leftover grains from each brew batch.  My sister dries out these spent grains and grinds them into a flour.  You can't really bake with them like flour, but you can add a modest amount to flavor and enhance a loaf.  The dark color from my bread yesterday is mostly because of the addition  of the spent grains, though the loaf itself is mostly whole wheat.

google-eyed spent grains from my sister