Junk food addicts argue with health food nuts, asserting white bread to be the best. The health food nuts retaliate exclaiming about how much better store bought whole wheat bread is than white bread.

The battle rages on…

On which side of this debate do you stand?

For that matter, which side should you REALLY be pulling for?

Lets weigh all the facts, the faults about each choice and determine which one we should honestly be proclaiming as “the honest to goodness best!”

The Faults of White Bread

1. White bread is nutrition less. Even fortifying it with vitamins can’t replace half of the nourishment that is lost through the bleaching and sifting process that is used on the flour which white bread is make out of.

2. White bread has a lot harmful chemicals and preservatives added to it to increase it’s shelf life, but they decrease your lifespan.

3. White bread is practically tasteless. This is a pro to some people but a con to a lot of others who enjoy tasty food.

The Faults of Store Bought Whole Wheat Bread

1. Store bought whole wheat bread would be extremely healthy and good for your body IF you could find a loaf made without fattening and nutrition less sweeteners like sugar (but no store that I know of sells any such thing).

2. Store bought whole wheat bread contains, unfortunately, the same chemicals and preservatives that white bread does, also to lengthen shelf life.

On light of this information which viewpoint do you now hold to?

Neither hopefully. There is only one thing you can do to make sure you are getting the best tasting, highest quality and healthiest bread. And that is…

Bake your own whole wheat bread! Read why you should below.

The Virtues of Home Baked Whole Wheat Bread

1. Home baked whole wheat bread tastes good. Home baked whole wheat bread has a very delightful taste that is probably the main reason (even more so than it’s health aspects) people prefer home baked whole wheat bread to it’s bland counterpart, white bread or unhealthy store bought whole wheat bread.

2. Home baked whole wheat bread contains vitamins and minerals your body needs. Medical studies have proven that all the B vitamins in whole grain foods help you to have a healthy heart, and guard against heart disease.

3. Baking your own whole wheat bread is not the least bit “difficult” either. Just learn the basics to baking bread along with a few proven recipes and you’ll be set.

– Beth Scott

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website.

Let’s face it EVERY cook makes mistakes (yes, even professional bakers make boo boo’s).

I’m going to list here, the 7 most common whole wheat bread baking mistakes that you’re probably making, or might make if you’re not forewarned, and what you can do about to stop them.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 1

By far the most common bread baking mistake is when the salt is forgotten to be added to the whole wheat bread dough.

This results in very bland bread, and even effects the rising of the dough. Making your whole wheat bread flat on top.

The best solution for this is to use a post it note as a reminder to yourself, to add the salt to the whole wheat bread dough.

You can stick the post it note where ever you’re most likely to see it (fridge, recipe book, etc..)

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 2

The second most common mistake is when the whole wheat bread dough is allowed to over rise, which leads to it falling.

This usually happens when the whole wheat bread dough is forgotten about. And with so much going on our lives, who doesn’t forget things like this now and then?

But don’t fret, there is a solution: If the whole wheat bread is already in the bread pans when it over rises simply use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the excess dough off the sides of the unbaked loaves.

Separate and roll this dough into a few medium balls of dough. Allow them to rise 20 minutes to 30 minutes on a medium oiled cookie sheet, and then bake them on 350 Fahrenheit, for 15 to 20 minutes as whole wheat rolls.

Also allow the whole wheat bread dough to rise for about 15 to 20 more minutes before baking if it is extremely flat on top.

Another solution to help you keep from forgetting about your bread, is to use a timer which will beep loudly after the selected time period is up.

Using a timer can also help stop other whole wheat bread baking catastrophes from happening.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 3

When you heat up your water to put your yeast in, it is easy to accidentally make the water a bit too hot. This mistake will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise.

To correct this mistake I strongly recommend you invest in a cooking thermometer, to measure the temperature of the water with.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 4

If the recipe you use makes too much dough for your family’s needs and you worry that the extra bread will grow stale before you use it, fear not.

It is perfectly safe to refrigerate unused dough for a few days and allow the whole wheat bread dough to finish it’s rising time once you get it out to use it.

You can place a ziploc bag or plastic wrap over bowls that contain your whole wheat bread dough, to store it in your fridge and prevent oxidation.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 5

Burned bread. Yup, nothing tastes worse than whole wheat bread which is black as charcoal.

To avoid this, be sure you follow baking times and temperatures strictly. And again use a timer to remind yourself when it’s time to remove your whole wheat bread from the oven.

Also remember that gas ovens and electric ovens vary in their temperatures. If you’re using an electric oven you should bake almost all pastries on 350 Fahrenheit.

Sometimes a recipe will call for you to start baking a loaf of bread on a higher temperature, but will also usually tell you to turn the heat down after a certain amount of time.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 6

Mistakenly or purposefully using the wrong type of flour. If you are baking whole wheat bread, the only way to get good results is by using whole wheat flour to bake your bread.

There are different recipes for all the different types of bread and they all use one specific flour for each recipe.

So don’t try any substitution hoping that by adding rye flour for instance, you will actually turn a whole wheat bread recipe into rye bread. Because you won’t.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 7

Last but not least there is the problem of air bubbles (also called ”pockets”) which create large holes inside the whole wheat bread, after it’s done baking.

The best solution for this is to pinch any such bubbles whenever you see them in your whole wheat bread dough, before you bake it. This will immediately deflate the bubble.

Now you are armed with the knowledge of the 7 most common whole wheat bread baking mistakes (most of which also apply to all other rising breads) and how you should deal with them.

So don’t let the bread mistake blues get you down ever again.

– Beth Scott

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website.

If you eat white (or any kind of store bought) bread, then here are a few things you should know before you put that next slice in your mouth.

For example…did you know that the inclusion of hydrogenated oils, artificial preservatives, emulsifiers, additives and other chemicals in bread became standard practice in the mid 1950′s?

At this same time whole wheat flour was replaced by bleached, enriched white flour. In this process, grain is bleached and sterilized with chemicals to make it white and soft.

It is then artificially enriched by adding vitamins, minerals and other materials destroyed in the chemical process.

Despite what you may have been told, trying to ”enrich” something with the very vitamins and minerals that were removed from it in the first place, does not make it even half as healthy as the natural unrefined version.

When you think about this, it doesn’t even make much sense.

It is also a growing practice in many bread producing factories to replace white flour with substances like alum, ground rice, and whiting.

Alum is the most commonly used of all these substances, because it gives the bread a whiter color and causes the flour to absorb and retain a larger amount of water than it would otherwise hold.

This enables the factories to produce bread which imitates bread made from a higher quality flour.

This tainting of your bread with harmful chemicals, such as potassium bromate, emulsifiers (both commonly used in bread production), and alum, jeopardizes your health.

Do you know why your store bought bread has such a long shelf life?

The mysteriously prolonged shelf life is because of a particular emulsifier used in making the bread. This emulsifier is mainly used as a softening agent and tends to deceive buyers as to the real age of their bread.

This emulsifier can hide the signs that your bread is rotting (it certainly doesn’t stop the rotting) for a few extra weeks, but the harm it does to your body (and the harm in eating the half rotten bread) makes the cost for this ”convenience” very high.

Is it any wonder then, that every year a growing number of people just like you and I, are being hospitalized with illnesses and incurable diseases?

Is it possible for you to protect yourself and your loved ones against unhealthy and harmful bread?

Well, buying bread from a store is certainly not the right choice to make. Even if you buy commercially produced whole wheat bread you’re not getting healthy food.

A lot of times what passes for whole wheat bread is actually white bread colored with caramel.

If the first ingredient in a loaf of whole wheat bread is unbleached enriched flour, then you’re not truly buying whole wheat bread at all, just white bread (loaded with chemicals) that is disguised as whole wheat bread.

There is only one true solution to ensure that you avoid poisonous, toxic bread. And that is to bake your own healthy whole wheat bread.

This is no where near as difficult as it sounds. In fact it’s dead set simple. All you need is a good proven recipe, and an expert guide to teach you just once what to do.

– Beth Scott

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website.