Hi All

I was hoping to turn all this wheat that I have in to bread maker mix. I was planning on grounding up the wheat to make flour, mixing the ingredients and storing it in a ziplock bag. Then I could bring my breadmaker in to play to make this stuff. Does anyone have a good recipet for this? I want to avoid having to add store bought flour. I'm shooting for the all natural whole wheat bread.

Watch six and keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.2all), February 22, 2000

Answers

its not easy to make 'good' 100% whole wheat bread. my experience is that it needs to be usually quite hard, even brick-like on occasions. i'd love to hear recipes that don't result in this.

your best bet, since you are probably a novice, is to mix whole wheat with white flour 50/50, or close to it. there are many good books that can tell u excatly how to go about it. make sure you use *good* yeast, and grind your ww flour as finely as possible.

good luck!

-- lou (lanny1@ix.netcom.com), February 22, 2000.

I'll call my friend Sue tonight, and post the reply to you thereafter. We went to a Mennonite store and bought buckets of whole wheat. She has been making the most heavenly bread ever since fall with this, and she grinds it up as she needs it, which keeps the whole wheat flour much fresher. I LOVE visiting her, and will soon unearth my house from preps stashed all over and begin breadmaking with mine too. Her recipe must be good, because the result is absolutely delicious. She never would/could eat/digest whole wheat before this, and now finds it filling and loves it.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

Lots of info through the Countryside baking threads .

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), February 22, 2000.

I would have to agree with several points made above. Grind the wheat just before you need it. It stays much fresher that way. I also agree that you need to mix with white flour as this is easier. There is a very good recipe for bread in these archives under Bardou's Brad recipe. Sorry, link impared.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

a tremendous difference in WW breads even using the same recipe. It all depends on the grain. All my life I was told/taught that the VERY BEST was hard red Montana wheat. Well...when I moved to Florida and y2k came along, I needed to buy some more wheat. I could not locate any hard red wheat. So I "settled" for a hard white wheat called Prairie Gold. I WILL NEVER BUY HARD RED WHEAT AGAIN unless that is all that stands between me and starvation. 30 plus years I used the stuff in ignorance. Now my stone ground flour bakes lovely light off white loaves. No more dark door stops or bookends. Hubby will not eat the heavy WW breads, but loves the bread I make now. So if you have the red wheat, I would advise that you mix it AT LEAST 50/50. Even then chubby hubby will only eat it toasted. I have a Restal Mill that I bought in the late 60s. Its a stone mill and its still going strong. I can do pastry flour with it by running it through more than once. But for bread I never have to run it through more than one time. Another thing that you can add to make your WW bread lighter is old fashioned oat meal. Also try adding a little extra water to it. Make the bread dough a little tacky, as in sticking to your finger, after the mixer mixes it. I, even with store bought bread flour, always add an extra cup of flour and more water to the recipes to get a bigger loaf. But I can't tell you how grateful I am that I got the Prairie Gold. The chickens won't be getting any of that grain.

-- Taz (Tassi123@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

Thanks all. I have both hard red and white wheat to grind. I like the oatmeal trick too. I will post the results provided I don't kill myself dropping a bookend style loaf on my foot.

Watch six and keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.2all), February 23, 2000.