Today sees the start of Real Bread Week. Always held in the last week of February it is the international celebration of additive-free loaves and the people who make them. An opportunity to celebrate the basic natural ingredients that go into making “real” bread, namely flour, yeast, water, salt and sugar.
Here at Beeutiful HQ I’ve been making my own bread for probably six years and would not go back to buying sliced bread. The taste difference is incredible and the fact it is stale within three days compared to the three weeks you can keep a branded shop bought loaf for is a clear demonstration of the extras involved in that shop bought loaf! Admittedly I use a bread maker, I don’t stand kneading for 15 minutes every night but with nearly daily use the bread maker is definitely a sound investment.
So what has Real Bread Week got to do with Beeutiful I hear you ask? Well, bread needs sugar to activate the yeast so I replace standard sugar with honey in my bread recipes. It does the same job but has added antioxidant benefits. Not a huge amount as you’re only using a teaspoon for a whole loaf but it’s still better for you than standard granulated sugar.
Below is the ingredients I use, give it a try. This is for a bread maker but you can use for hand making bread too, you might just want to reduce the amount of water a little.
Makes a 750g loaf
Ingredients:
450g Strong Bread Flour
300ml water
10ml olive oil
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1.5 tsp fast action yeast
Handful seeds (sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin) OPTIONAL
Let me know if you swap honey for the sugar in any of your standard recipes and if you try this bread recipe let me know how you get on.
So Happy Bread Eating during Real Bread Week.
Carly x
