Bread Mix

This is a whole loaf.

As you can see it is thinly sliced.

In fact it looks so good (and tastes so great with butter & honey) you could serve it at a brunch!

The most delicious sandwiches!

I don’t know about you, but I hated eating bread machine bread growing up. The pieces were way too thick, the crust way too crunchy, and the slices were usually dried out. Well in a quest to solve those problems here are my recommendations…

1) Use white wheat (it’s taste is more subtle) and always use the wheat setting (whole wheat needs to rise longer than bleached white flour).

2) Add potato flakes to your bread machine recipe to add the soft texture of a store bought bread. I add 1/2 C. to mine. This is extra great since the cannery just started carrying potato flakes! (This trick has been used since the olden days when women would use the water used from cooking potatoes in their bread to make it soft. )

3) Allow bread to cool in a closed Ziploc bag (or towel) to make the crust soft. Somehow, and I’m not sure of the science behind it, the moisture goes back into the bread and makes the crust VERY soft. My bread doesn’t get moldie or dry out as quickly as before. A softer crust makes the bread much easier to cut. CAUTION: I was told me that before store bought bread a crunchy crust was the way to tell the bread was fresh…so I guess if you like the fresh crunch to your bread continue to air cool.

4) Experiment with Gluten. I add 1 T. of gluten to my bread. Gluten makes the bubbles in your bread strong so that your bread doesn’t sink from the bubbles popping too early.

5) High Altitude dwellers should cut down the amount of yeast called for in the recipe because bread rises faster in high altitude areas and since the bread machine is a timed process it doesn’t know to bake when the dough has doubled in size. For reference, I halfed my yeast from what it called for in my recipe.

5) Make the process easy by filling Ziploc bags with all dry ingredients minus the yeast and placing in your fridge. This way you always have fresh homemade bread ready and waiting to begin for you with no mess!

Just as a side note, I’ve tried using other people’s very delicious whole wheat bread machine recipes in my bread maker and they never turn out (because of the high altitude problem) so don’t be discouraged if this happens to you! Just try to make your bread machine’s recipe to how you like it.

For more tips and tricks for using your food storage in everyday ways, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

I bought this last year at the Macey’s Food Storage/Emergency Preparedness sale. I thought I’d experiment with these eggs a couple of months ago and voila! They are great in baking. You can not taste a difference, in fact if you have eaten anything baked at my house since November you’ve eaten them! Don’t be scared by dehydrated eggs, if you currently have any mix in your pantry where you only need to add water then you are already using dehydrated eggs (also probably along with powdered milk…but that is another post)

1. Never run out of eggs again! The cans come with an equivalent of 226 eggs (18 dozen) in them.

2. They are cheap-Maceys (Utah food store) will usually have these on sale once a year in their “Preparedness” sale. Last year they were 1/2 off (price then was $18.00) and only $9.00 which makes a “dozen” of these eggs only 48 cents. The price currently at Macey’s for these is $22.50 making a “dozen” of these eggs only $1.19…which is still MUCH cheaper than a dozen of real eggs.

3. Very EASY to use. The conversion is 1 T. egg powder to 2 T. water. (Remember that there are 16 T. in 1 C. to make multiple egg conversion easier) When baking you do not need to re-hydrate the eggs before adding to your mix, simply add the needed egg powder and needed water to your mix and proceed as your recipe outlines!

4. My other FAVORITE thing about them is that you can make a 1/2 egg with out the mess. Translation: halfing recipes calling for an odd number of eggs just got a whole lot easier!

Some people might be afraid to try the cannery’s dehydrated refried beans, but let me tell you that they are the most creamy, flavorful, delicious refried beans I’ve ever eaten. If you’re still skeptical, it may help to know that anytime you are eating out and thinking outside the bun you are eating reconstituted dehydrated beans. They are very easy to make and take about 10 minutes prep time (most of which is just covering the beans and letting them do their thing). Everybody I’ve served them to has no idea and comments on how creamy they are. We use ours alot as burritos.

Food Storage Items Used: 1