"Fortify" Your Life with a Good Bread Recipe

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The Problem

There are a lot of bad ingredients in our food supply, slowly poisoning us and making us sick. It’s hard to keep up with them all, while still having a life! But cleaning up your diet is a worthy endeavor, especially when battling chronic health conditions.

One of my favorite foods, which brings much joy and comfort to my life, is bread.

But it’s amazing how difficult it has been to find bread I can a) afford, and b) eat without worrying about the ingredients. For example, I have to avoid bromated flour, due to my thyroid. That pretty much means I have to eat organic bread.

The cheapest organic bread I could find was at ALDI. It had a lot of seeds, which I don’t love, but oh well. I usually prefer simple, easy to chew, plain bread, but OK, whatever. I settled on the ALDI brand for awhile.

But alas! One day I looked at the label, and I was dismayed by the very high sugar content! 12 grams of added sugar! That’s 1/4th the recommended standard daily allowance! (And I actually recommend eating less than the daily allowance.) Worse, this added sugar was in the form of fructose, one of the worst forms of sugar for the liver. UGH. Even organic brands are not safe!

I could get organic bread at a different grocery store, with ingredients that are acceptable, but it’s almost $7 per loaf. That is too expensive.

In general, I have three goals for my diet:

1. Healthful (Obviously)

2. Convenient (I have a lot going on! I don’t have time to fuss with food!)

3. Cheap (I’m the sole… ahem… breadwinner for my family, and I don’t make a lot of money. I have to be thrifty and careful.)

Unfortunately, sometimes it seems like you have to “pick two” from the above list. But it’s always great when I can attain all three! That’s what I’m going to share today! Drumroll, please…

I figured out how to make bread that is healthy, cheap, and easy! YAY!

(Healthy, cheap, and easy. Just like me. 🤣)

Normally making bread is a long, involved process. (I don’t use a breadmaker, because of the chemicals in the nonstick coating on the pan.) But I found a way to cut out the worst parts! No kneading required. And even better, I figured out a helpful mnemonic, so you can memorize the recipe and not have to look at a card.

Caveat: this bread is not “the best you’ve ever had.” If you are a bread connoisseur, you will be appalled. Just turn away now. But if you, like me, just want something tasty to make toast and sandwiches out of, this is good enough!

Memorizing the Recipe

First of all, there’s no shame in consulting a recipe while you bake, of course! But my goal is to make this as convenient as possible, by cutting out as many steps as I can. One of these steps is the process of pulling out the recipe book, finding the index card, and tacking it on the fridge… For me, I appreciate saving that time, but it’s totally fine if you need to consult a card!

The key is to my mnemonic is to remember the word “Fortify.” 

”Fortify” sounds like the numbers “4-2-5,” which hold the recipe together.

The ingredients are very simple, as long as you know what a yeast slurry is. (If you don’t, it’s easy to get the hang of, don’t worry. I’ll explain it in a moment.) Notice our special numbers below:

• yeast slurry

• 4 to 5 cups of flour (“four-to-five…” “fortify…” get it?)

• 2 cups water

• 2 tblsp olive oil

• salt & spices to taste

Bake at 425º F for 45 minutes.

See how “4-2-5” is the numeric theme?

By pure luck, this also works in metric. Not quite as handily, but still…

• yeast slurry

• ~500 grams flour (add more if needed, to get to the right texture.)

• 0.4 litres water

• 2 tblsp olive oil

• salt & spices to taste

Bake at 220º C for 45 minutes.

We still only have the numbers 4, 2, and 5!

“Fortify!”

Instructions

1) Make a yeast slurry.

A yeast slurry is just a liquid that activates your yeast, so it can start working to puff up your bread. The water wakes up the dormant yeast, which then feeds on the sugar to create the magic* that makes the dough rise.

*Magic = carbon dioxide and ethanol

• 1/4 cup warm water. (Not hot. Just a bit above room temp is fine. The goal is to dissolve the sugar without killing the yeast.)

• 1 tblsp sugar

• 1 package yeast.

Stir these together in a glass measuring cup and set it aside for about 10 minutes. Basically, I whip this up, go do some other quick chore, and when I come back, it’s ready. It should be foamy and smell yummy.

2) Add the wet ingredients to the slurry.

Simply stir in the oil and water to the slurry. Oil and water won’t mix, as you know, but do your best. The foam will pop, and that’s fine.

3) Stir up the dry ingredients.

Get your largest mixing bowl and add the flour, salt, and spices.

I usually use 4 cups white flour + 1 cup rye flour. I have used pure white flour as well. It just depends how I’m feeling that week! Add the salt and any spices that sound delicious to you that day: oregano, sage, rosemary, basil, seaweed…or unspiced is fine too! Whatever your heart desires. Just stir the dry ingredients to disperse the spices throughout the flour.

4) Mix everything together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated. This will be stiff and a bit difficult, but not terrible. It only takes a minute or so to get all the dry ingredients moistened. You don’t need to knead or spend a lot of effort here. Just make sure there aren’t patches of unincorporated flour.

The only tricky thing is whether or not you need to add a bit more flour. Too little flour and your bread will have tons of air pockets. Too much, and it will be a brick. Once you make this a few times, you’ll get the hang of what consistency works best for you.

5) Wait.

The secret ingredient in this recipe is time. Time does the kneading for you! (Yeah, I know that removing manual kneading means it won’t have the same crumb or consistency as artisan bread. Oh well.)

Cover the bowl loosely and set it aside for at least 12 hours. (Don’t use a towel to cover the bowl. I recommend wax paper sprayed with oil and placed lightly over the top.) I usually make this in the evening and let it rise overnight. The next day, the dough should be bursting out of the bowl. This is why wax paper is probably the best cover.

6) Bake and serve.

Grease and flour a bread pan.

• Tip #1: find a bread pan with straight sides instead of angled. This makes it easier to cut the loaf into even slices when it’s finished.

• Tip #2: I like to sprinkle some oats, poppy seeds, or sesame seeds on the bread pan after greasing it. They will coat the outside of the loaf for an interesting crunch.

Plop the dough into the prepared bread pan.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF or 220ºC. While the oven is preheating, the dough should rise a bit more in the pan.

Cut a slit in the top of the dough to allow air to escape. Bake for 45 minutes, remove from heat, and cool.

Honestly, the most annoying part of this recipe is slicing the bread after it has cooled. All the other steps are really fast and easy, and can be slipped in between a normal day’s activities without too much fuss. But the slicing part does require slightly more “fuss.” I invested in a bamboo cutting guide to help. It isn’t perfect, but it makes things go more smoothly.

Really, I think this bread is delicious! You can customize it to the flavors you like, and the preparation is simple enough to fit into a busy schedule. I estimate it takes a total of 10 minutes of actual working focus, with the rest being wait time. That’s not bad!

I hope you try this recipe and that you enjoy it!