5 Ways to make Homemade Bread Better

Do you ever wonder why your bread is never as soft as the store bought bread? Or as tasty as the farmers markets and bakeries? Read on for my top 5 tips to make your homemade bread better!

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5 Ways To Make Homemade Bread Better

1. Use Milk Instead of Water
2. Add an Oil or Fat
3. Use eggs
4. Get Familiar with Your Dough
5. Start Milling Your Own Flour

1. Use Milk Instead of Water

Milk is amazing in breads. Using warm milk in your yeast bread, instead of water, will allow your bread to come out softer and more fluffy. Milk also enhances flavor! As the dough bakes the sugar in the milk will begin to caramelize and add a depth of flavor and a hint of sweetness.

2. Add an Oil or Fat

Butter makes everything better! I like to use real, grass fed or homemade butter in most of my breads. Butter is an obvious flavor enhancement as well.

Using any oil or fat though will give your bread a delicious flavor as well as a fluffier dough and finished product. The addition of an oil or fat will also keep help keep your bread moist as well as helping it stay fresh for longer!

3. Use eggs

Eggs can add a whole new level to your homemade bread. They are emulsifiers, that helps any oils you add blend well with the other liquids and is also a binder making the dough more consistent throughout. Eggs also add volume to your homemade bread. And the yokes make it more tender!

And if those reasons aren’t enough to convince you, the addition of eggs will also will add more flavor and protein, making your homemade bread healthier and delicious!

4. Get Familiar with Your Dough

Learn to read your dough. One of the most beneficial things you can learn to make your home made bread better is to learn how dough is suppose to feel, look like, and react to different environmental changes. Your dough will need something different every time you make it. When its dry outside you might need to use less flour, and the opposite when its humid. The same goes for the time of year. If the weather is warm then rising time will be shorter, but in the winter it could take a bit longer to rise the correct amount.

Tips for reading the dough

• Don’t add to much flour, slowly add enough flour that the dough comes away from the bowl
• once it comes away knead the dough only adding flour as needed to keep from sticking to the surface.
• Do not over knead your dough, this will break your gluten proteins and you wont have a great structured bread
• Make sure you knead enough. kneading your dough helps activate the gluten proteins that give the dough its stretch and structure. Without it your bread will be dense, not rise, and cause it to not be light and fluffy.
• You’ll know when its kneaded just right when you can gently stretch a small piece of dough thin enough to see light come through it when holding it up without tearing a whole in the dough.

5. Start Milling Your Own Flour

This last tip is one of my favorites and I hope to talk about it more often! It is a bit of a learning curve but definitely worth it!

Grinding Your own grains will enhance your homemade bread in so many way. There is so many varieties to choose from so you can pick which one is best for you and your family. The flavors are like nothing you can get in the grocery store. And so much healthier to. Just by switching to freshly ground whole grains, some people have been able to tolerate grains again! Use an ancient grain and then sourdough, their chances of being able to tolerate bread and other wheat products go up as well. And for those that are celiac, you can grind gluten free grains and eat homemade gluten free treats that taste way better then the store bought!

I have the Nutrimill Harvest grain mill. Some of my favorites to grind right now are Spelt and Kamut!

If you are wanting to get started grinding your own grains I recommend starting with a hard white and soft white wheat as they are closer to what you’d be used to getting from the store and wont shock your taste buds too much. This book is great for beginners! The first half if full of information about grinding you own grains and the health benefits of it and also gives you insight on many grains you can grind! The second half is recipes you can follow specifically with certain grains, which is a lifesaver when you are learning how these grains work.

Get to Baking With these 5 ways to make your homemade bread better!

As you can see, it is so simple to make you homemade bread better with just these 5 tips. Let me know if you try any of these and what’s you favorite recipe!