Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Making Bread with Jana

Almost five years ago, we posted the Duggar family's whole wheat bread recipe. (Click here to view.) Since it's been a while, we wanted to update you and let you know that they still use that very same recipe, although they have since reduced the honey to 2/3 cup instead of one full cup.

Below are photos of Jana and Spurgeon baking some. And when the Duggars make bread, they don't mess around. Look at all those loaves!

Jana Duggar and Spurgeon Seewald make bread
Jana Duggar and Spurgeon Seewald make bread, January 2019

Photos courtesy duggarfamily.com

67 comments:

  1. Looks like a bakery. I'm sure it's really good.

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  2. There is something off with the texture of that bread, if you look at the pictures of the cut finished loaves (not shown here). It hasn't had enough kneading and enough rising time, or the dry-liquid ratio is off, or it needs some regular flour or gluten added. Whatever the case, it doesn't look like homemade yeast-risen bread usually does.

    I also question why you'd leave the loaves in the oven while you're heating up the oven. Some ovens have both the top and bottom elements come on during preheating. If yours does, then you will "broil" the top of this dough before you bake it. Seems better to give it extra rising time elsewhere instead of risking it rising in an oven that's heating up.

    I've been making bread and other yeast-risen doughs for 50 years, so I've handled my share of doughs. Jana's recipe looks and acts like a quick bread, not a hand-kneaded, yeast-risen, double-rise, gluten-chained bread. Yes, I realize it's made with only whole wheat flour. But even so, it still looks and slices differently than any whole wheat bread recipe I've ever seen. It looks very coarse-textured and heavy, without the structure or texture of good homemade whole wheat bread. Maybe that's what they like, but personally, I'd use a different recipe.

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    1. When you are working with freshly ground whole wheat flour and your protein is high enough and the moisture content is low enough the eladtin is fine. I mix mine, rise it once in the bown. Knead it down and put it in pans. If your oven is gas you can rise it in the oven as it heats up and add that into your baking time.
      Freshly ground flour is still alive.

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    2. I think it's a "quick bread" father than traditional bread. I have a family recipe for bread from my grandmother and it calls for the dough to rise in a bowl, then be hand kneaded and placed in the loaf pan to rise again before being placed in a preheated oven. I've made it with whole wheat flour but that works best if you use about half whole wheat and half regular bread flour. I'm not sure about the honey as my recipe uses some sugar but the proportion of sugar to the other ingredients is way less than the amount of honey used in the Duggar recipe. Additionally the rising time on the Duggar recipe seems very short to me.

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    3. Good heavens, Anon. 1:12, when you weigh in on an opinion, you hold nothing back. If it works for the Duggar family, why would they change it, although your bread sounds wonderful too. I can’t criticize anyone because my bread is Sarah Lee Honey Wheat. I just think it’s awesome that Jana cares enough to make bread for the family, and what a sweet thing to do with her nephew!!!

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    4. Can you also share your recipe?

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    5. Or you can do a second hand kneeding and proofing

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    6. Wow! Never knew you could know so much from 2 or 3 pictures!

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    7. I completely agree with your comment. It's not quite right.

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    8. I agree. This is NOT a recipe for your typical home made bread that rises in a bowl and then is kneaded and placed in a loaf pan to rise. If you make this recipe you shouldn't expect the usual home made bread.

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    9. I don't understand this recipe either. They seem to substitute olive oil for softened margarine. However the yeast doesn't appear to be added properly. When I learned to make bread I was taught to dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water and add in some of the four so it would work properly before adding hot water. I've tried making bread with just whole wheat flour. It turned out rather coarse and grainy. My family didn't like it as they were used to eating bread with a different texture.

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    10. Anyone who's good at making bread can see that this recipe is odd and won't produce the kind of loaf you might expect from homemade bread. If you want to try a good homemade bread recipe, find any Betty Crocker or Good Housekeeping cookbook from the 1950's on. They all have basic bread recipes that are good and that the average person can attempt. If you want to go deeper, find an artisanal bread cookbook and be prepared to buy some specialty ingredients to make a spectacular loaf.

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    11. @12:37 In answer to your yeast comment, it's possible that she's using instant, fast-acting, or "Rapid-Rise" yeast (which are different names for the same thing) instead of the usual active dry yeast, but she didn't say so. Instant yeast is milled into smaller particles, and you can add it directly to the dry ingredients. However, if it comes in direct contact with too much salt or sugar in the dry ingredients, you can deactivate it. "Regular" active dry yeast does best when softened first in warm water, usually with a pinch of sugar to wake it up and make sure it's still viable (proofing the yeast). There's even a difference between the temperature of the liquids you can use for instant yeast and the temperature you use for regular yeast. Instant can take a higher temperature liquid (120-130)because by the time you dump it on the dry ingredients, it cools down. Regular yeast needs a lower temperature range for the liquid when it's first softened/proofed (110-115) because that yeast sits directly in the liquid for 5-10 minutes. If the water is too hot for regular yeast, the yeast will be killed.

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    12. Anon 2:52. Thank you for the information on the yeast. Since the Duggars are sharing this recipe it would be nice if they'd include information on what type of yeast they use and how they actually mix the ingredients together. Otherwise people don't know how to get the same loaves they do.

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    13. 1:12 PM -- Thanks for sharing your expertise. :)

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  3. Jana bakes bread. Jessa buys Chik-fil-A. lol

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    1. Don't pit women against each other.

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    2. Jana is single. Jessa has two toddlers. lol

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    3. Some people are better at cooking than others. And don’t even try to say “anyone can learn to cook, just follow the recipe” because I have met many people who despite their best efforts aren’t still terrible cooks.

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    4. It's not a competition. Don't make it one. lol.

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    5. 134 JESSA IS A GREAT MOTHER, REMEMBER SHE COMES FROM A BIG FAMILY, SO SHE CAN HANDLE LOTS OF KIDS, JESSA, REMEMBER, TAUGHT ALL HER SIBS, SO SHE CAN HANDLE LOTS!!!!!!!! SO, ONCE AWHILE IT IS OK TO GO TO A FAST FOOD PLACE, MAN, NO ONE IS A SUPER HUMAN!!!!!!

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    6. I don’t think the OP was pitting women against each other or making a competition. “Jana bakes bread” is as interesting as “Jessa goes to chick-fil-A” or “Jill vacuumes”. I’m not the OP by the way. I just think responders have taken her/him out of context.

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    7. She bought Chick-fil-A for a group event which was a smart decision IMO Jana is making bread for their family, I’m not sure how you’re comparing the two things exactly, other than trying to be rude.

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    8. This is the second time in about the same number of days that the same person has declared one or more of the Duggar girls or wives to be a "great mother." We're starting to wonder how that person knows that information to be true. Please clarify. Are they your personal friends?

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    9. Man alive people, I thought the post that the original poster said was funny. How that got turned into people saying it was a rude comment, pinning one woman against the other, that Jessa isn't super human!!, Good grief this blog is the only blog I ever came to where you can't joke around and you have to act starry eyed about the Duggar s at all times. Give me a break, they are people just like you and I so lighten up already.

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  4. I do have a question about the recipe. If you use 2/3 c. of honey instead of 1 c. should you use less flour than the recipe calls for?

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    1. No. The intent is to reduce the sugar content.

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    2. You can actually completely leave out the sugar/honey it's more healthy it impacts the bread in no way other than its less sweet. Additionally you can leave salt out of recipes like this with no issues. We make bread regularly at home we usually use oil instead of butter. I live in the UK as nd note American recipes contain way too much sugar and salt!

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    3. If you want your yeast to "burp" nice big bubbles into the texture, you should feed it at least some sugar. That's why it's hard to find good store bread that's sugar-free.

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    4. I thought sugar made the yeast rise

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    5. Julie. That is what I thought too. It supposedly "activates" the yeast or something. I'm not sure you can skip it without putting something like honey in the recipe to get the same effect.

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  5. That's right Jana. Get them started young..
    Lol.
    Spurgeon is just the cutest little boy. Love his curls.

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  6. What a sweet picture of Jana with Spurgeon.

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  7. Dear Jim Bob and Michelle, I think it's cute when Spurgeon is helping his Aunt Jana make bread for the whole entire family. Natasha B.

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  8. Jana has so many talents ! I hope she enjoys making bread for such a large family !

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  9. I grind my wheat and make bread a couple times per week. Nothing looks like, or tastes like, fresh ground wheat bread. It's nothing like that store bought stuff!!!

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    1. Not everyone likes whole wheat bread. There were ladies in the church where I grew up who made it, including my mom, and it all tasted like cardboard to me. Many people prefer bread from the store or a bakery. Different strokes for different folks.

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    2. That's the point - you can make good homemade whole wheat bread. That recipe and those pictures do not look like good homemade whole wheat bread. Sometimes people think that whatever the Duggars do is the best, just because they're the Duggars. There are better ways out there.

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    3. 12:41, it all depends on the recipe. I’ve had some that tasted amazing and then others tasted like, as you said, cardboard.

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    4. Different strokes for different folks. I've never heard that before. Its cute! :D

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  10. Love the Duggars and their thriftiness! I use an old grain, sprouted spelt, for homemade bread. It's delicious tasting and has less gluten. I'd love to share the recipe if they want to try it.

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  11. Janay seems like such a sweet aunt, always teaching things to her nieces and nephews, not to mention her younger siblings. She'd make a wonderful teacher.

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  12. dough sure doent look right for homemade bread

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    1. It looks more like biscuit dough. Even pizza dough has a smoother texture. The picture where she's taking it out of the machine is the point where the dough needs hand kneading until it becomes smooth and elastic.

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    2. It's obviously not a regular bread recipe. From my experience in making bread, the ingredient proportions seem a bit off too. However, if the Duggars like it then they should continue to make it. I'll pass.

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  13. There's a ring on that finger :)

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    1. It's the purity ring, right hand.

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    2. Really? I wouldn't wear a ring while making bread myself but if Jana wants to why not?

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    3. That’s a purity ring

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    4. I think they wear chastity rings until they get married? I saw an episode where the Bates do as well. I knew some kids in school from strict religious families and their parents gave the girls chastity rings when they were around 16 and they could only court to.

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    5. It's a purity ring. All the daughters had one before they were married.

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    6. I hope the boys get one to

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    7. Nope. Boys don’t get purity rings.

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    8. Anon 3:07That is not true. Boys can get purity ring as well.

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    9. 3:07 Some families will give the sons purity rings. I recall a particular brother singing group from the 2000s who had purity rings.

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  14. This recipe is simple and rather quick (as making bread goes) but I'll continue to use the Betty Crocker honey wheat bread recipe for my family as the Duggar recipe won't produce the type of bread they like.

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    1. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the old standard bread recipes from Betty Crocker. That's how many people learned to make good homemade bread.

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  15. Like many of the Duggar recipes this one takes shortcuts to produce something quickly. If you grew up eating it, it would be OK but I'll pass on it as I like double rise home made bread better.

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    1. Double rise bread is so worth it. There's something very satisfying about working with nice soft bread dough and knowing there's something alive in it making it rise. I love the way the texture of the dough changes as you mix and knead, almost like magic. You get out of bread what you put into it. It's not a process you should hurry.

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  16. Sounds delicious. Jana is such a beautiful woman. Spurgeon is adorable.
    Joan,Marion and Marilyn

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  17. MAKING BREAD IT SUPER FUN, AND TEASTE LIKE WAY BETTER THEN STORE BOUGHT!!! EVEN IN A GREAT BAKERY, HOMEMADE IS SUPER GREAT!!!!!!!!

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    1. I agree with you. My sister's and I love baking different types of homemade breads and on these cold Winter days they sure go good with the stews and chili and homemade soups we love making too.

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    2. YA, I KNOW, I LOVE CHIILI, AND HOMEMADE BREAD!!!! I LOVE COOKING, AND BAKING TOO!!!!!!

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  18. When do you think Lauren and Abbie will have a baby?

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