Free's bread thread....quest for the perfect 100% whole wheat recipes

[ohiofarmgirl]

do i wanna come over?

um... YES!!!!

i'm canning up the stock from the pork leavin's... Kai thinks she's had the best day of her WHOLE life b/c i gave her another bone today (the roundy ones). she still cant chew them with her little teeth but she loves working those bear-killin' jaws.

call your man - i got like 4 buckets of eggs from my hens who dont know they are supposed to SLOW DOWN now that the pigs are resting comfortably in the freezer

;-)

 

[freemotion]

I'm throwing a bunch of meat scraps, fat, and bones I boiled up to those hens, hoping to bribe them into laying. Actually, I think they are laying, just have a rat that I suspect is storing the eggs under my hay pallets.

I cleaned out the folk's freezer and boiled up everything that was a decade or more old....

 

[framing fowl]

I finally got my grain mill and am anxious to try it out! I'm mostly confused about the order of things so this is what I think I understand:

1. sprout the wheat berries
2. then dry in dehydrator (not sure how long?)
3. grind into flour (store what I'm not using in freezer.)
4. soak flour that I'm using in whey and water for about 8 hours (maybe 2 T whey with the remaining liquid called for in the recipe?)
5. Make bread

Is that right for the process?

Then this is a dumb question but will your volume of grain that goes in the grinder be the volume that comes out or does it fluff up? So if I know I want about 4 cups of flour and don't want to have too much left over, do I just put in 4 cups of wheat berries?

 

[freemotion]

If you sprout, you don't need to soak. Soaking is to neutralize the phytates in the grain, which are the germination inhibitors that are also irritants to the human digestive tract and block nutrient absorption. If you sprout the grain, you've completely neutralized the germination inhibitors.....no soaking required! This method is best for the most sensitive people.

If you want to soak instead, follow the method I outlined earlier in this thread which covers the soaking period needed. The Mother Earth News article, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, also outlines a method that covers the soaking period needed. Just ignore the whole wheat recipe if you grind your own. The article gives a whole wheat recipe that is meant to mask the "bitter taste" of whole wheat flour. The author obviously is unaware that the bitter taste is rancidity. Not an issue with grinding your own flour.

Yay for your new grinder! You are gonna love it!

Depending on your grinder, two cups of wheat berries will yield about 2.5 cups of flour. You will need some extra flour for kneading unless you are using a bread machine.

You can store the flour in the fridge, too, unless you won't use it up for months. I store it in the fridge for up to three months and it is still fresher than anything I ever bought at Whole Foods. Makes ya wonder how old that stuff is. Nutrient-wise, freezer is best.

 

[framing fowl]

Thanks Free!

 

[VickiLynn]

If you store your flour in the refrigerator or freezer, do you need to bring it back to room temperature before you bake with it?

 

[freemotion]

If you store your flour in the refrigerator or freezer, do you need to bring it back to room temperature before you bake with it?

That depends on what you are baking. I don't worry TOO much when making a long method bread since it will come to room temp sooner or later. Pie crust likes cold. Anything you want to rise fast, like a quick pizza crust, well, maybe. I don't worry about it much.

 

[okiemomof3]

I normally get half again as much flour as i put in. so, if i want 4 cups, i will usually grind around 3 cups of berries and that will give me enough if my dough is too wet, etc. with my recipe, it calls for 8 cups of flour and grind 5.5 cups of berries and i almost always have at least a 1/2 cup left over, if that helps.