Making A Start: Baking Bread

So, assuming that you've decided to make a start on Self-sufficient green living, where to actually begin.



It may depend on the time of year.  Some people might rush out into the garden and start digging over their useless lawns to make productive organic vegetable beds.  Others might start a brew of wine or beer.  Still others might go through their cupboards and throw away all the environment harming cleaning products they own.



The first thing I decided to do, something that most people are perfectly capable of going, was to bake my own bread.



I will admit that I use a bread machine for part of the process: for the initial mixing of the ingredients and for kneading the dough.  I was fortunate that we bought a bread machine several years ago which, apart from occasional use, has spent most of its life living in a cupboard.  You can buy a new bread machine for around £50:00, though there are both cheaper and more expensive models available.  I've also seen them in charity shops for £10 to £20.



You don't need a bread machine to make bread if course.  Many people mix and knead their dough the old fashioned way, by hand, and gain great satisfaction from doing so.  I use the machine for mixing and kneading because I can put the ingredients in and then go off and get on with something else whilst the bread maker does its work.  Hand mixing and kneading is cheaper and more environmentally friendly since the bread machine uses electricity.  Which method you decide to use is up to you.  For me, the machine is a compromise because as a busy minister time can be one thing I'm sometimes very short of.



So, why make your own bread when it is do easy to just walk into a supermarket or bakers and buy it?  Partly because when you make it yourself you know exactly what had gone into it.  When I bake my bread it has a few simple ingredients: organic bread flour, organic butter, organic milk (just a very tiny amount, it helps the bread to brown), filtered water, salt, Fairtrade sugar (I've yet to find a source of organic Fairtrade sugar) and yeast.  That's it.  That's all you need for bread,  Look at the ingredients if the average supermarket bread.  You find additions like soya flour, dextrose, emulsifiers:E471, E472e, flour treatment agent And calcium proportionate.  These extra ingredients are not their for thief health benefits or to make the bread better; there are there to enable the bread to be made more quickly and packaged whilst still warm, thus increasing the profits of the bread making companies.



E471 is a synthetic oil whose side effects include kidney problems and liver problems.  E472e also has similar side effects.  Calcium propritionate is an anti fungal and is slightly toxic.  It can cause migraine in some people (I am one of them).  It has also been linked to stomach disorders and behavioural changes.



It's worth baking your own bread because you know exactly what has gone into it.  It's worth baking your own bread because it can be cheaper than buying it.  Ok, there are sometimes some very cheap breads out there, but they are not good in either texture or taste.  It's worth baking your own bread for the lovely smell of baking bread that pervades the house.  It's worth it for the sense of satisfaction you gain from eating something nutritious and delicious that you've made yourself.  Perhaps most of all, it's worth it when you cut a slice from a still warm loaf and spread it with butter that melts into the bread as you eat it!



There are many good books that will tell you how to bake bread, as well as Paul Hollywood's recent BBC series.



If you want to make a start on the road of self-sufficient green living then baking your own bread is a good first step.