Read Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients for Free Online Page A

the heat to medium-high, cover, and bring it to a boil for 2 minutes. Add a pinch of cream of tartar and continue to boil it, uncovered, until the mixture becomes very dark. Be careful that it does not burn. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool partially. Very carefully, add ¼ cup of boiling water to the pan (it may sputter and water may jump out of the pan, so wear gloves and keep your face away from it). Dissolve the caramelized sugar and cool it to room temperature. Use about ¼ cup of this mixture in place of commercial caramel color powder in our Bavarian-Style Whole Grain Pumpernickel Bread recipe; decrease the water in the recipe by ¼ cup to account for the difference between liquid caramel and powdered caramel color.
     
    Chocolate: Some of our enriched breads call for chocolate, either cocoa powder, bar chocolate, or chunks. You will notice an improvement in flavor and recipe performance if you use the highest quality chocolate available. For bittersweet bar chocolate, Valrhona is our favorite, but Callebaut, Scharffen Berger, Lindt, Perugina, Ghirardelli, and other premium brands also work quite well. Our favorite unsweetened cocoa powder is Valrhona, but Droste’s, Ghirardelli, and other premium brands also give good results. In our recipes, it doesn’t matter if the cocoa powder is Dutch-processed (alkali-treated) or not: The question of Dutch-process is only important for baked goods risen with baking soda or baking powder. Yeast doesn’t seem to care. If premium chocolates are unavailable, try the recipes with your favorite supermarket brands. The premium stuff is not an absolute requirement by any means.
    Natural Sweeteners
    These sweeteners have trace amounts of plant nutrients (refined white sugar has none). But they still spike blood sugar levels and contain lots of calories. For diabetics or anyone on a weight-loss program, these should be used in moderation. Like salt, sugars help to hold moisture in the bread and keep bread from getting stale—salt and sugar are hygroscopic (water-attracting).
     
    Agave syrup: Agave syrup (sometimes labeled “agave nectar”) tastes the tiniest bit like tequila, and no wonder. The agave plant is the source of the fermentable juice that makes the world’s best tequila, and agave syrup is the concentrated sweetener made from that juice. It provides a smooth and distinct flavor in Mesquite Bread , and is available from natural food co-ops and by Web or mail order from Native Seeds/SEARCH (see Sources for Bread-Baking Products ). You can substitute it for honey or maple syrup if you prefer the flavor in recipes calling for those natural sweeteners.
     
    Barley malt: Made from sprouted barley, it is very dark, sweet with malt sugar, and quite thick. It adds a beery, yeasty flavor to bread. Barley malt is the main ingredient in beer, and malt sugar is one of the best sugars for feeding yeast.
     
    Brown sugar and raw sugar: Like white sugar, these less refined sugars are made from sugarcane or sugar beets, but they retain trace amounts of the nutrition found in molasses. They impart a caramel flavor as well. Raw sugars are most commonly found as demerara, muscovado, and turbinado and have a larger grain than regular brown sugar.
     
    Honey: This is the sweetener we call for most frequently in the book, produced by busy bees the world over from naturally occurring sugars in the nectar of flowers that they visit. Honey’s flavor is determined by the type of plant nectar the honeybee collects. Some honeys have very intense flavor, such as buckwheat honey, while others are quite mild, like clover honey. We’ve had nice results with all kinds of honey, so experiment with different types and see which you prefer.
     
    Maple syrup: The most commonly found maple syrup is Grade A, which is lightest in color and mildest in flavor. Many consider it the more desirable grade, but we actually prefer to use Grade B, which is made later in the production season and has a