A new take on Breadmaking

Have you ever wondered how they make that wonderful artisan bread served in upscale restaurants -- you know the one that’s crusty on the outside but full of air holes on the inside? I think the secret may be something called bread dough enhancer.

I am on a new kick to make bread starting with whole grains, now that I have a Vitamix blender that supposedly can grind them into flour. This morning I started looking for recipes and found a new ingredient I had never heard of in many of them -- bread dough enhancer.

Disdaining all chemical additives and artificial ingredients, I Googled to learn more about this stuff that might “enhance” my whole grain bread, making it not seem like such a healthy rock. I found this recipe and started calling around to find out where I might purchase things like ascorbic acid crystals. It turns out health food stores carry most of what I would need if I choose to enhance my bread.

It almost sounds like cheating to add an ingredient to make the bread rise higher. I suppose “bread dough enhancers” should not necessarily be equated with “performance enhancers.”

Tomorrow I will make a trip to Mom’s Organic Market or Yes! to buy the whole grains and dough enhancer ingredients. Then the grinding, mixing, kneading, rising, and baking can begin.

Making bread has always seemed like such an earthy thing to do. It will be interesting to see if my blender on steroids and my enhanced dough will take my bread-making up a notch!

Have you ever heard of bread dough enhancer? Or used one in your bread-making? If so, did it make a difference?