Add-In Ingredients for Home Made Bread

One of the reasons I have a hard time deciding on a “finished” recipe for bread I make at home is that I am a perpetual tinkerer! A little bit of this, a pinch of that.  Always in search of something a little bit “better” or a little bit different.  (“Better,” you realize is an entirely personal value judgment that has no relationship to any actual value!)

Back in the day cooks — including our grandmothers and our moms — often used what they had, instead of what they were supposed to use;  they also experimented with their recipes — or at least my family did.  So, here are some ideas…..

• Green peppers
  Peppers probably don’t spring to mind as an obvious ingredient for fresh bread, but crafty grandmas wanted you get your servings of veggies — or your servings of heat — depending on which peppers you use!  Ingredients like sundried tomatoes or bacon added to your bread dough can make that loaf more than a side dish.
• Beer
  Beer has been used to make bread for a long time. Using the right beer can eliminate your need for yeast, (if you’re willing to accommodate those little yeasties who live naturally in your brew.) Most recipes I’ve seen call for half a can of beer. The baker gets a perk in the form of the remainder of the can!  No one likes flat beer, do they? 🙂
• Molasses/Treacle
  I add a little molasses in most of my loaves of bread. I happen to like that heavier aroma and texture that the flavor adds.  Molasses (black treacle in the UK) reminds many of us of Christmas time baking, along with gingerbread and dark fruit cakes that are made with them. Don’t save your molasses for the holidays! It gives bread a slightly sweet flavor, which is perfect for breakfast toast.
• Cherries
  I’m not sure if cherries are, for me, one of those warm-and-fuzzy flavors.  It seems that when I was a kid that cherries (of any variety) were like gold or “hens’ teeth” — my mom treated them as if they were the rarest of rare treats and to this day that flavor almost always gives me a moment of reflective recalled memories. Nowadays you can buy dried cherries in resealable bags at your local restaurant supply store (Gordon Foods for example which does a separate retail business in addition to their provisioning services for commercial accounts).  Cherries make for a good sweet breakfast bread, and mom and grandma knew that they kept bread rich and moist.
• Cornmeal
  I love a bread with crunch.  My Zojirushi machine tends to make loaves with a softer more Japanese style crust.  To compensate for the machine’s ethnic “bias” I usually add 1/3 of a cup of cornmeal to many of my loaves.  Bread has been baked for centuries using cornmeal, and your gran probably learned to put in her bread recipe by watching her own grandmother bake.  In my case, my gran’s mother passed when she was in her pre-teens and at age 12 she was lent out to the local coffin maker/carpenter as a sort of non-wife cook.  So, no learning from her gran… but I’m sure she learned from the other “ladies” in the small Polish town where she grew up.  Anyway…. personal stories aside,  cornmeal gives a crunchy texture to bread.  If you are hand forming your loaves then putting some in the bottom of the loaf pan helps to stop the bread from sticking. Bread-machines aren’t so cooperative. 🙂  Still, cornmeal bread goes well with winter comfort foods, such as a hearty stew or chili.  And if you are like me, liking crunch crusts, it’s good for ANY bread.
• Dates
  My own mom liked dates, and someone in the family knew friends who lived in Southern California.  Those friends must have thought that everyone in the world had to like dates because once or twice a year they sent us a package through the U.S. Postal Service with dried dates in it.  Dates add a very unique texture and flavor to a snack bread.  They are great with tea for an afternoon treat, or a late night supper.
• Onion Soup Mix
  If you’ve ever had onion bread you’re missing one of life’s great treats.  A local bakery used to sell it and my mom loved the stuff; so much so that for a while I got tired of it and never wanted to taste another slice in my life.  But it’s funny that certain flavors just seem to haunt you and I once again enjoy that unctuous flavor of onion bread.  Be careful if you are using dried onion soup mix — there’s a good deal of salt in it and you can easily stifle activities of your yeasties if  you add too much, but give it  a try.  I doubt you’ll be sorry.  All you need to do is dissolve the mix in hot water before adding it to the yeast for your dough.
• Shredded Wheat
  There are other ways of getting some extra crunch in your loaf.  Try sprinkling crushed Shredded Wheat cereal into your bread mix. It doesn’t make the bread taste of cereal, but it does give a nice wheaty flavor. Add a cup of crushed cereal to your dough before kneading it.  The same can be done with oats — either the long cook or the quick cook rolled oats that you use for making oatmeal.  And you can also use a variety of seeds:  sesame, poppy, etc.,  either within your loaf or on top as an addition to the crust!
• Shortening
  Grandma perhaps added shortening to her bread dough to give it a light and chewy consistency.  French bread, made without fat of any sort, owes it’s unique texture and crust to that absence!  A lot of my bread machine recipes call for a little fat of some variety.  Fats add flavor, they soften the texture and can reduce kneading time for your dough.
• Orange Rind
  Grandmas didn’t like to waste anything, and that included orange peels! Finely grate the rind of an orange into your bread dough, or use it as a flavor for a sweet glaze on your loaf. Light, citrus flavors pair brilliantly with sweet bread.  Try lemon, lime, or grapefruit peels too.

carmelized onion bread