How Homemade Bread is Healthier for Your Family Than Store-Bought

Decades ago, before Walmart emerged on everyone’s radar, most food products were produced by specialty artisans. Dairy was delivered, vegetables came from the garden and neighbors, meat came from your home or the butcher, and breads came from the baker or from your oven. This was the way things had always been, the brick and mortar shops ruling and profiting off of each other. Further, studies have shown that living in this way was healthier and safer than how we live today. 

It’s not realistic to have dairy delivered to your home every day, and many HOAs prevent produce making animals from their neighborhoods. Vegetables are difficult to grow in our new expanses of homes because of the infertile grounds. Meat is solely obtainable via grocery stores or the rare butcher. And most breads are bought from those same grocery stores. However, breads are some of the best at-home products that you can make today—especially when taking into account the machines that we can now use to make the process easier, and the huge health benefits that making your own bread can give to you and your family. 

The Technology

Making your own bread at home has a lot of benefits. Most of them are health benefits, but there is also the cost-effective portion of the whole endeavor. Yes, picking and using a bread machine is an investment—but it is an investment that you are guaranteed to continue using after your first bake. Often, these machines are versatile; they let you bake bread, but they also can produce cake doughs, crusts, pretzel dough, pizza dough, and many other options. 

Bread machines are used by putting flour, yeast, egg, and a series of seasonings into the kneading cavity. After the machine is turned on, a dull blade will begin turning, mixing the ingredients until they form a large ball. For higher end machines, this dough ball will then sit on the bottom of the cavity and begin to bake inside of the machine. The entire process can be done with minimal attention and no supervision to create large, great tasting loaves of bread. Many people who use these high end, bake-in machines, tend to use them multiple times a week—making back their money within the first few weeks of use. 

Use Clean Water to Make the Best Breads

If you’re considering beginning your bread career (as so many have done within the last year) the first thing you’ll want to do is get a high quality water filter. Do this even before getting a bread machine. You want to do this first because you’re able to make bread even without a bread machine (you’ll just have an easier and more convenient experience if you have a machine.) The importance of water quality for your bread is huge. Filtering your water before using it removes impurities, making the entire end product healthier—but it also greatly affects the end product of your loaf. Too many minerals in the water can change the chemistry of your bread, making it sag, inflate, collapse, tough, or soft. The Brita under sink water filter is one of the best DIY choices available for every home. 

Pick the Best Ingredients: Whole Grains, Live Yeast, Fresh Eggs

Making your bread at home means you have access to every type of bread possible. That allows you to pick the best possible ingredients to create the flavor and nutrition level you and your family need.This is great because it lets you take control of the healthy aspects of your bread. From choosing whole grains (the healthiest of grains) to choosing fantastic fresh eggs, you’re guaranteed to have great tasting, nutritious bread every time you approach the machine (or bowl). 

You can even begin making your own starters for the best bread in the world: sourdough. Sourdough is a bread which requires a super-live yeast in order to get the sour taste that it’s known for. This means that you’ll have to use a starter which needs to be fed and cared for on a daily basis (to start). However, this active yeast starter is one of the best choices you can use for your bread because it also has nutrition values which improve your gut health dramatically. Just like consuming probiotics, eating super-active yeast increases your immune system and digestive qualities. 

Further, you can choose which grains you put into the bread with your basic ingredients. You can even add protein mixes, cheeses, added vitamins, vegetables, and other options to ensure that you’re getting the best tasting, and most nutritious bread from your kitchen.