Bread

BHA, BHT and TBHQ. 10 letters that use to mean nothing to me. Now.....

Well now we avoid these things at all costs. They are preservatives that are used in food and packaging and some of the big things that have to be pulled out when on the Feingold program. At first I thought that it couldn't be that hard to eliminate three preservatives. I was wrong.

 

As a preservative companies often use these ingredients in their packaging, and if it's in the packaging it doesn't have to be listed as a ingredient.

 

Tertiary Butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ as it is more commonly referred to as, is in fact a chemical preservative which is a form of butane.

 

I was a little thrown when I realized that most shortening contains TBHQ. And judging from Judah's reaction to Dairy Queen last month I'm pretty sure that he should never consume TBHQ again ever if we can help it.

 

Unfortunately I realized that my bakery bread contains TBHQ. And so out with bakery bread it is. Although Feingold does give you the names of some approved bread it is almost impossible to find it in stores and it's also quite costly. I have been making my own buns for years and thought it couldn't be that complicated to do bread as well. I was wrong. Again.

 

Let's just say I didn't even show you my first two batches. They were not pretty, and according to my dad the second one smelled like beer. (Yeast) So when Mom and Dad were here for Thanksgiving we went online hunting for other recipes and tips, then together we made bread. Did you ever notice that things always work better when your mom is around? I thought that I should try this week without her and am happy to report that they turned out great. The texture and size and colour are almost identical to a store bought bread. (I have often found homemade bread to heavy in the past.) The flavour is not quite perfect but Mark and I both think that it could just need more salt ... and maybe sugar. I'll try again next week maybe. Anyways I just had to show them off to someone so here you go. My homemade bread. I'm pretty proud of myself.