Works For Me Wednesday -- Bread Kits

Today I’m making bread kits. My mom has the best whole wheat bread recipe—and I love to make her bread. This recipe makes the bread cost at the most 11 cents a loaf. But the time put into measuring flour, yeast, salt, NFD milk (non-fat dry milk), gluten, dough enhancer, sugar and the liquid ingredients, and then washing the measuring utensils adds up. Still, I will not stoop as low as to buy bread for $1.81 a loaf.

So, while I was expecting Bun, Mom taught me to make bread kits. You measure all the dry ingredients (everything except water and oil) into quart-size bags, canning jars, or Ziploc containers. I originally started making four kits at a time.

Now I usually make as many bread kits as I have containers for and then stack them nicely in my freezer. But, as you all know, my freezer died. I still decided the temperature is cool enough in the garage to stack my bread kit stash (until I get a new freezer). The bread kits don’t have to be frozen or refrigerated; it just makes them last longer.

When I’m ready to bake bread, I get out my bread kit and bread machine. I put my 1-3 T. oil in the bread machine with 1 1/3 cups very warm water, add the bread kit and let it knead and rise. I like to bake the bread in my oven (instead of the bread machine). So I take the dough out, form it, place it in the pan to rise, and then bake. Sometimes I bake two loaves at a time to share with neighbors. Then I use my Kitchen-Aid to knead the bread and then let it rise in a big Tupperware bowl, separate it into two loaves, form them, let them rise in their pans, and bake both in the oven.

Bread kits save me a lot of time and hassle. I wash all the measuring cups once after making sixteen or so kits. On baking day, I eyeball the amount of oil (so I don’t have to wash a measuring spoon), I don’t wash the glass measuring cup that only measured water, and I do wash the bread machine pan and the loaf pan and the counter I formed the loaf on.

Bread kits make me happy. Homemade bread makes the whole family happy.