Pocket Breads for Health
I've been interested in replacing the store bought loaves of bread brought into the house with a healthy alternative. So I began experimenting with pocket breads. At first I used 1/2 wole wheat flour 1/2 unbleached flour and made some nice 8oz pocket breads for sandwiches and whatever else. They are big but they puff up nice, I make 4 at a time. I then went 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 whole spelt. The kneading was interesting and the 4 cups of flour took less water. The spelt made the bread a little less pliable and you could watch it tear when forming the doughballs I would later roll out, rest and bake. I could still get them to puff up but I had to pay a lot of attention to how long the formed pockets rested before ending up in the oven. Today I'm trying something new. I doubled the amount to 6 cups of flour. 3 whole wheat, 2 spelt and 1 golden flaxmeal. I'm almost convinced that the addition of 1/3 cup of Vital Gluten will put the dough back into the easy to puff catagory. Cant wait to see if this works.
Since I started baking these pockets no bread came off the shelf fron the grocery store. These breads seem to have been problematic because of the ease of witch you could just take it out of a bag toast it and slather it with something not so good for us. With these home baked pockets our bread intake has lessened by more than half. The things we use bread for like pocket sandwiches or eating with a bowl of capanata, grilled cheese or with a bowl of cacciatore seem to be a lot more enjoyable and it looks like the butter and jelly are disapearing fast. Homebaking these breads is changing our lives.