Guest Post – 5 Fruits and Vegetables You Can Add To Bread

I’m excited to announce the very first guest post on the blog. Joe Hughes, aka the Village Baker, is an expert in techniques suited to home cooking, and especially baking. His website, http://village-bakery.com provides the latest home-style cooking news, techniques, tricks, and recipes. I hope his article proves handy to all you bread bakers out there. Happy baking!

A few additions of veggies and fruits can go a long way in adding additional taste to your food.

You can learn to make bread rise faster in your bread machine to accelerate the baking process, too. The great news is that you can start baking healthy veggies into your bread to make it healthier and tastier. 

The vegetables I recommend adding to your food are:

1. Zucchini

Adding zucchini into your bread is a great way to add a punch of flavor to your recipe. But, you need to add this ingredient strategically so that your bread comes out well. The key is to grate the zucchini into a bowl. Once you’ve grated your zucchini you’ll want to add a generous amount of salt into the bowl.

Note: The salt will draw the water out of the zucchini.

The benefits of adding zucchini into your diet are:

• You’ll add omega 3s into your diet
• You’ll add vitamin B1, B2 and B6 to your diet

And this is just the start of the benefits you’ll reap.

2. Carrots

It’s difficult to make the right size bread, but no one complains when making a little extra carrot bread. If you’re a fan of carrots, you’ll love adding carrots into the mix. I recommend stirring the carrots into the dough in small pieces. You can also shred the carrots if you like.

Nuts can be added into the mix for additional protein and taste. Carrots are also filled with:

• Beta-carotene
• Antioxidants
• Vitamin A, K, B8
• Folate
• Magnesium

And with the great flavor of carrots, the bread will taste delightful, too.

3. Bananas

And bananas are a great choice. The introduction of bananas into your bread will allow for an infusion of vitamins and minerals into your diet. You can mash the bananas into your dough to allow for a rich flavor.

Not only are bananas tasty, but they are also filled with health benefits, such as:

• Improve energy
• Ease digestion
• Regulate blood pressure
• Fight cancer
• Boost heart health

4. Pumpkin

Sometimes, when I turn on my bread machine, I just want to add a simple ingredient. Pumpkin is often my ingredient of choice, and it adds an amazing flavor and texture to the bread, too. If you don’t want to add pure pumpkin, you can choose to add just pumpkin seeds to your dough.

And when you add pumpkin, you’re helping to:

• Enhance your vision
• Sleep better at night
• Lower your blood pressure

The antioxidants in the pumpkin help fight eye degeneration, too. Filled with potassium, this key ingredient also helps alleviate blood pressure issues.

Vitamin A, C and E are all abundant in pumpkin. If you add one cup into your bread, you’ll add less than 50 calories to your bread while adding in all the health benefits mentioned above.

5. Dates

Dates and nuts are a good addition to every bread.  Whole Wheat Flax Bread tastes even better when you add dates and nuts into the mix.Make sure to chop up the nuts and add them into the dough. When eating nuts, you’ll benefit from:

• Added protein
• Higher fat levels

But, nuts are just a small part of the equation. Adding dates into the mix allows you to enjoy a slew of health benefits, including:

• Added energy
• Potassium
• Magnesium
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin K
• Zinc

If the dates are too big, you can chop them up into smaller pieces for an easier integration into the dough. Fruits and vegetables are both great additions to your bread making experience. It’s important to have a way to dry out the fruits or veggies to ensure that the moisture doesn’t cause the formation of the dough to suffer.

Adding just these few ingredients or more will allow you to make a carb-heavy meal a bit healthier to eat. You’ll also find that many of the flavors add a different, twist to the bread we all know and love.