Here in the Land of Eating Poorganically, we’ve already covered Dairy, so we’re moving on to the next food group that I can speak with confidence about: BREAD.
I LOVE BREAD! It is my favorite food of all times, so I knew that I really needed to figure out a way to make this post concise instead of rambling on hungrily about the delicious, yeasty breadliness.
To streamline your poorganic bread selection, and my own, I’ve developed this little grading scale. I’ve developed it based on the PIGSADGET criteria that we talked about long, long ago. If you are totally confused about poorganics, reading PIGSADGET will help you. (Why did I not call it “GET SAD PIG”? That would have been much cleverer and easy to remember.)
Okay, here we go. I’m not being mean; these are just the facts (according to my completely arbitrarily made-up grading scale). 🙂
| Score | My bread is | Why? | Pepperidge Farm 100% WW | Homemade Pitas |
| +5 | Homemade | Because that means you can control the types of ingredients. | 0 | 5 |
| +5 | 100% Whole Grain | Beware of flour called “wheat flour” that isn’t “whole wheat flour.” That just means it comes from wheat. | 5 | 5 |
| +4 | You ground the wheat/grains fresh. (Or the baker did) | Seriously, you don’t need to read this chart if you grind your wheat. You’re fine, nerd. 🙂 | 0 | 0 |
| +4 | Bought from a Local Bakery where it was made | We like to be locavores, and usually this means fewer preservatives. | 0 | 0 |
| +5 | 5 ingredients or less. 4pts for 6 ingreds. 3 for 7. 2 for 8 and so on. You can stop at 0. | Fewer ingredients mean better bread. Plain and simple. | 0 | 3 |
| +1-4 | One point for each ingredient in the top four ingredients that is organic | Organic means no pesticides, and no GMOs | 0 | 2 (I didn’t give myself a point for local honey-but I wanted to.) |
| +3 | Uses ONLY Natural sweetener like honey or molasses | It’s the best way to sweeten–bread needs some sweetener to rise | 0 (Has honey-but also sugar-DANG. That’s sweetener stacking.) | 3 |
| +1 | Only 100% cane or organic sugar | Even though sugar is refined, organic of cane sugar is never genetically modified | 0 (It just says “sugar” not “sugar cane” so that means it probably came from sugar beets, which are GMO | 0 |
| -1 or -2 | High fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin, or other corn and soy-derivatives -1 for each | Almost without exception, non-organic corn and soy derivatives are genetically modified | -1 (It doesn’t have HFCS, but it does have soy lecithin. BOO. ) | 0 |
| -2 | “Enriched” or “wheat flour” is first ingredient | This flour has very little nutritional value and almost always means bad stuff is added to the bread to make it taste decent. | 0 | 0 |
| -2 | Tastes Bad. | I’m just keeping it real. Obviously, if it tastes bad, it should lose points. | 0 | 0 |
| -2-4 | Cost more than $2 a lb. Weight is important! You lose a point for each dollar over $3 a lb. Sure, you can find Great Harvest bread for $5 a loaf, but that isn’t affordable for most of us | The “heft” of the bread translates to how filling it is, so consider that when you turn your nose up at “thicker” breads. | Was $1.30/1.5 lbs when combining BOGO with coupons | Um-no clue, but I am SURE they are not more than $2 a lb |
| -1 | Lose a point for every hour you spent making it. You don’t have to include rise time. | Maybe some of you resent point loss for homemaking bread, but convenience has to be considered. | 0 | -1 |
| Total! | Add up your points | Consider what your “GOAL” score should be. | 4 points | 17 points |
Does that help? Are there any point considerations that you think I should add to the chart? My goal is going to be to have the highest scores I can, but to aim for the most “positive” score even with store bought bread. It is just not realistic for me to make all of our bread from scratch. Mainly, we want to avoid a negative score, right?
I’ll try to start posting some of my favorite poorganic bread recipes for you to try, but start with the AMAZING pita recipe from Tammy’s Recipes.** It is REALLY fabulous, not difficult, and solves the kid-crust eating debacle.
**I have made a few slight changes to the recipe. 1. I use honey instead of sugar. 2. I’m using “King Arthur brand “White Whole Wheat Flour.” It comes from a lighter (whiter) grain of wheat, so even though it is whole wheat, it has a much lighter flavor and texture. 3. I used coconut oil instead of vegetable or olive oil this time. They are the BEST yet!
Love the chart 🙂 My Nature’s Own from Walmart scores a 4. Do I get bonus points for adding homegrown herbs to the pita?
Last time I tried to make home made bread it would not rise. I wonder if the humidity in south florida has anything to do with it?
Actually, humidity should help, so I don’t know . . .Yeast can get old and dead. Also water temperature (too hot or cold) can kill yeast. I’ve actually begun to measure the temp of my water and activate the yeast separately because it is SUPER frustrating to throw out a whole batch of dough. Also, I HIGHLY recommend using high gluten flour or even a crushed up Vitamin C to encourage the rise. Don’t give up! Tammy’s Recipes has a lot of wonderful tips about bread. She is more of an expert than I am.
My pitas never come out looking so perfectly round and tender. 🙁 I’m gonna have to try that recipe!