Tired of boring white bread and whole wheat bread? Then customize your homemade bread by adding extra “mix-in” ingredients. You can easily upgrade a bread or make it more unique by adding mix-in ingredients such as seeds, dried fruit, chopped nuts, etc.
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- Dried Fruit – Dried fruit adds extra sweetness and flavor to homemade bread. I like to use either golden raisins (IMO – juicier than regular raisins) or dried cranberries when I am adding fruit to my breads. However, you can also use dried fruit such as regular raisins, dried blueberries, chopped dates, etc.
- Fiber – Many of us (including Bread Dad) need a little extra fiber as we get older! In case, you want to boost the fiber in your homemade bread, ground flaxseed (flaxseed meal) and chia seeds are an easy way to add extra fiber. However, if you add extra fiber, you need to be careful not to throw off the moisture ratios of a recipe. Fiber usually likes to absorb a lot of moisture (and you might have to adjust a recipe by adding a little extra liquid to offset the extra fiber).
- Garlic – Many people like to add garlic powder or minced garlic to their bread, especially if they are making Italian-style breads. However, if you use a lot of garlic, this sometimes can be problematic when making bread. Why? Because unless the garlic has been fried, fresh & dehydrated garlic can have an anti-microbial effect (that can negatively impact the growth of the yeast). So don’t add a ton of garlic powder to your dough or it might have a denser bread. Another option to consider – try adding the garlic (e.g. via an egg wash) to the exterior of your bread (where it won’t impact the yeast too much).
- “Heat” – Many people like to add some extra heat to their bread. They often use ingredients such as crushed red pepper flakes, crushed jalapeno flakes, etc.
- Herbs – Herbs are an easy way to change the flavor of your bread. And the small jars usually don’t take up much room in the kitchen! Many of my visitors like to use herbs such as dried rosemary, Italian seasoning, dried oregano, dried thyme, etc.
- Onion – I love to add a little onion to my homemade sandwich breads. If you use onion powder or minced onions, this will save you from cutting raw onions & perhaps some onion-related tears!
- Meat – Some of my meat-loving visitors like to add dried bacon bits to their homemade bread.
- Multigrain – I like to use multigrain cereal (chopped up grains – not large cereal flakes) in my multigrain bread recipes. This type of multigrain cereal is often made out of a variety of chopped up grains (such as wheat, corn, rye, triticale, oats, soy, millet and barley).
- Nuts – I often like to use soft chopped nuts in my breads such as chopped walnuts and chopped pecans. In my opinion, small chopped up walnuts or pecans work better than larger nut “chunks” (because you get greater dispersion of the nuts throughout the bread). I will often break large walnut and pecan chunks by hand in order to make smaller nuts for my recipes. Of course, you should not serve any bread with nuts to a family member or friend who has a nut allergy.
- Pepper – A simple & inexpensive mix-in that many people use is black pepper powder or white pepper powder. This allows you to create a traditional pepper bread. Moreover, most people have some pepper at home and you don’t have to run to the store to buy a special mix-in. FYI – Some people prefer to use “cracked” black pepper in their bread as this is a more coarsely ground pepper. These slightly larger pepper chunks provide “bursts” of peppery flavor whereas finely ground pepper provides a more subtle peppery flavor.
- Seeds – Seeds often used to add some “crunch” and fiber to bread recipes. Visitor favorites include chia seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds (e.g. used in many rye bread recipes), etc.
- Spices – Spices are an easy way to change the flavor of your bread. Ground cinnamon is a popular spice and is often used in breads such as cinnamon raisin bread.
- Vital Wheat Gluten – Some of my visitors like to add a little extra vital wheat gluten to their breads in order to improve the rise of the dough. It is often added to lower gluten recipes such as 100% whole wheat bread (because this extra gluten provides a “structural” boost and helps to create a softer & fluffier whole wheat bread).
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