I made flour!

[Lannie]

I figured I'd better stop monopolizing Pam's bread thread, so I'm starting a "flour" thread! LOL!

I wanted to see if my baby grain mill was any good, and it works perfectly! YOWZA! I've had this thing for probably 15 years, but never used it to grind wheat. I originally got it to try to grind dried herbs with, but it didn't work well for that (the herbs are too light and won't auger through well), so it's been languishing in the bottom of a drawer for at least a decade. I brought in some feed wheat and ran it through to see what it made and it made beautiful, perfect flour! YAY! Of course, there was the odd piece of hull and grasshopper bits in there, so I gave it to the chickens, but now I know I CAN. It'll take a bit of elbow grease, because it's a hand crank model, but Rich told me he likes the whole wheat bread so much, he'll help me grind if I get tired. What a guy!

Then I called Wal-Mart (who suggested that? I forget...), and found out that ours DOES stock 25 pound bags of Wheat Montana brand whole wheat. It's a couple dollars more than I could get it directly from Wheat Montana, but I don't have to pay shipping, so it's actually less expensive.

I'm SO EXCITED!!!! (You wouldn't think bread would make a person this happy, would you? : Next Thursday we'll pick up a bag of wheat when we go shopping, and my Kitchen Bread Book is on the way, so I'm all set. From here on out, it's 100% whole wheat bread!!!!!

This was an improvement I'd kind of stalled out on and wasn't thinking much about lately, so I would like to thank Pam for telling me a good way to make it, and Selden and Heather for poking pins in me to get me sufficiently back in the groove. THANK YOU GUYS, very much! ;D

~Lannie

[Tammy]

That is awesome, Lannie!

[epitts75]

Lannie, freshly ground flour doesn't act exactly the same as store-bought. You might try running the flour through a second time to get it a little finer. I have to do this even with my family grain mill. Also, soaking the fresh flour before making the dough helps the texture of the bread quite a bit. If you don't soak it or it doesn't rise enough it will have a texture similar to cornbread.

Have fun!

[Lannie]

NOOOOOOO!!!!! Don't tell me I have to grind it TWICE! LOL! It was hard enough the first time! (I'm going to have a giant oversized bicep on my right arm!)

I did soak the flour on the batch I already made, and it turned out FABULOUS, but it was using store-bought flour. I have the grinder set to as fine as it will grind, so I guess I'll just see what happens. If it comes out like a brick, then I'll tell Rich to start saving up for an electric grinder, and in the meantime, here, turn this crank for a while! LOL!

~Lannie

[parndt]

YAY!!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D I'm really glad you guys like the flavor! I was so fixated on the texture that I breezed over the flavor in the first couple loaves.
I was making up the dough today and had to run outside to move the cows halfway through adding the flour. It was really sticky when I went outside and when I came back in, half an hour later, it was barely tacky!! I only had to dust the table to keep it from sticking!! The loaves will probably come out much lighter now, we'll see tomorrow!!

(modified to add the second paragraph)

[robinp]

WHO HOOO! You will LOVE grinding your own flour! I have an electric mill that I've had for years and I make ALL of our flour recipes. Bread, rolls, tortillas, cinnamon rolls (to DIE for,) cookies, cakes, brownies, muffins, pumpkin bars, corn bread (I grind popcorn for that,) etc., etc. Absolutely NO comparison to store bought. No white flour, no white sugar, and no comparison. Also, experiment with different grains. I particularly like spelt with a little millet milled with it. Kamut is also a nice grain and if you like rye... The possibilities are endless. ;D

[Lannie]

Oooh, Pam, thanks for that! Now that you mentioned that, I remember reading in one of my cookbooks once that when making bread with whole wheat flour (even just a portion) that you should let it rest for 10 to 30 minutes after you initially mix the additional flour in. I had completely forgotten that, so thanks for reminding me.

Robin, I've already started thinking about different things I can do. Rich likes the rustic chunkiness of coarser bread, and I was thinking I could add some coarse ground oats to it maybe. And I used to have a bunch of recipes for things to make with rice flour. I'll have to see if I can find them again. I don't know WHY on earth it didn't occur to me at the time to just grind up some rice - I was thinking, "Where in the world would I be able to find rice flour?" ROFL! I had the blasted grinder in the drawer all this time, and I KNEW it was there. Sometimes I don't know where I left my brains...

~Lannie

[parndt]

Yep, they were WAY lighter and much higher this time! ;D ;D ;D
I should have kneaded it a little more cause they fell just before I put them in the oven but they were still really high. Like, sandwich worthy height, lol!

[Lannie]

I'm rockin' and rollin' now! We got 50 pounds of wheat (hard red spring) when we went shopping, and today I started grinding. I also got Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book in the mail today, so while I was turning the crank, I browsed through the book.

Selden, if you see this, THANK YOU for recommending it! It's right down my alley! I love the detail and the explanations of WHY things do what they do. It makes me understand it so much better. I'm really looking forward to trying some of the recipes in the book, most especially the one using "fresh milk" and butter. It sounds really good, and to finally make a loaf of bread using wheat that I ground, milk from my cow, and butter that I made from that milk, well, it's a very satisfying feeling. I work my tail off doing this kind of thing, but when it's done and I have something wonderful THAT I PRODUCED, it makes all the effort worthwhile.

I do have to say, though, Rich came in while I was sitting at the table grinding away with my baby grinder, and said I need an electric one. (LOL! Mr. Scrooge can't handle watching me sweat, I guess!) I had just read the part in Laurel's book about electric grinders heating the flour to (possibly) a point that would oxidize the oils, therefore making the flour bad, and told him that maybe I should just keep hand grinding. However, I think KitchenAid makes an attachment that I could put on my mixer, and if it runs at low speed, maybe it wouldn't heat it up much more than hand grinding, and it sure would save a little sweat. Whatever. It doesn't matter. As long as it gets ground fresh, that's all I care about now.

~Lannie

[missevelyn]

Can you lengthen the handle so you can sit side beside the mill using both hands? Love the sweet flavor of home ground.

Regina

[Lannie]

Well, my first two loaves of bread made with flour I ground are now in the oven. I would have done this a couple of days ago, but our propane guy went missing and we ran out. The last two days we've been eating from the electric skillet, and it's been AWFUL! I didn't realize how much I missed my cast iron pan until I had no fire to go under it! LOL! The good news is he finally showed up last night, so now I can cook again! YAY!

Anyway, I'm making the buttermilk bread from Laurel's book, made with whisked clabber rather than cultured buttermilk, and Bandy-butter. ;D I used that recipe, but followed the instructions in the "Loaf for Learning" chapter. I decided to try to knead by hand this first time, so I could follow along with the book, and get a feel for the dough. I haven't hand-kneaded in probably 10 years or more, and that was with white flour, so this was all a new experience for me.

It was a total MESS!!!! It was so soft and sticky, I couldn't handle it without my hands being wet all the time, and I was just working more water into it that way, so I added more flour, and more flour, and more flour. The book says don't add too much or you'll end up with a brick, but I couldn't get enough flour in it. It was getting stickier by the minute, rather than firming up and getting elastic like it should have. I have no idea why. Even when trying something new for the first time, I rarely fail completely, but this time I cried uncle. I threw the whole glob into the KitchenAid and let it go on low speed for a while. It was still like batter, so I put MORE flour in. Finally, after another 10 minutes (maybe more), it started acting like actual dough instead of pancake batter. The recipe called for 5.5 cups of flour, and that's what I started with, but I'm pretty sure I put in at least another cup and probably more like 2 cups of flour. I was just adding heaping soupspoonsful at a time...

Once it started cleaning the sides of the bowl, I checked it according to the book. I could get the dough to stretch all right, but it was not supple, and it had lumps in it. Part of that might be my coarse ground flour, I dunno. At any rate, I pulled it out of the bowl, made the best ball I could out of it (it was still sticking to me fiercely), and plopped it in a bowl to rise in the oven with the light on (it's 80 degrees in there). From that point on, it went perfectly!

After the first rise, I deflated the dough and reshaped it, then put it in for the second rise (it wasn't sticky anymore by then), which went according to plan, then I deflated it again, cut it in half, and shaped each half into a ball, let it rest for 15 minutes, then made my loaves.

The last proofing is supposed to be at 90 degrees, and my oven light only heats up to 80, so after half an hour in the oven with it rising verrrry slowly (but I need bread TODAY!), I devised an ingenious plan. I took my big (10x13) Pyrex baking dish, put very hot tap water in the bottom, and set the loaf pans sideways across it. They fit inside just perfectly, so there was hot water on the bottoms of the pans, and then I covered the whole thing with a damp tea towel. It finished rising perfectly in that contraption while I preheated the oven, and now they're baking.

I can't wait until they're done! I'm making some cream of chicken soup for dinner to go with the fresh bread.

I just need to get the initial mixing part down pat, and then I'll be good to go. I'd rather do it in the KitchenAid, but I think my bowl is too small for a two-loaf batch of whole wheat dough. It does a batch of white dough with no problem, but the whole wheat dough keeps climbing the collar and I have to stop it every few seconds to clear that. Hand-kneading would probably be less of a hassle, if I could figure out how to get over this whole "stickiness" business. I mean, it was a real mess. But I will persevere, and with luck, my next batch will be better, and the next one will be better, and so on.

I wonder if I can make cream biscuits with the whole wheat dough? Anybody ever do that? I love making biscuits, and pancakes, too, but I've never done it with 100% whole wheat. I guess I'll just have to try it and see.

~Lannie

[Lannie]

Here it is! In spite of the trouble at the beginning, they turned out really NICE!



When I put them in the oven, the dough was barely above the sides of the pan, because the recipes in the book are for smaller pans, and I have the bigger size, but I must have done something right because they rose in the oven quite a bit. Here's a "profile" view! LOL!



This might be my new favorite bread. It uses not only my home ground flour, but my homemade dairy products, so that's a plus. ;D I love making stuff from scratch!

~Lannie

[robinp]

Oh my, they're beautiful! And delicious, too, I bet. I have Laurel's book but I've never used it. I need to drag it out.

I have an Electrolux Assistant (my dream machine) that I make my bread in. It mixes it and kneads it. I make a triple batch of dough every time. But, when I add flour, I add until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and kind of makes a doughnut around the kneader. Sometiimes there's a pretty big difference in how much flour it takes depending on the day. So I wouldn't worry too much about adding too much. If it's a sticky wet mess, it needs more.

Wait till you make cinnamon rolls with that dough. To die for...

[missevelyn]

Cream biscuits are delicious with whole wheat, always make mine that way. I don't do the rolling out routine though, just drop biscuits. With whole wheat, butter, honey....burp.

Regina

[Lannie]

Thanks, Regina! I'll try it then. My recipe is for 2 cups (white) flour, salt and baking powder of course, and 1-1/4 cups of cream. Do you think I'd need more cream, maybe 1-1/2 cups, because the whole wheat flour soaks up more moisture? I don't roll mine, either, I just pat it out and cut it into squares with a pancake turner. YUM!

This bread, however, is SO light and fluffy (I'm still having a hard time believing it) that it's really hard to cut! LOL! My "bread" knife just wants to smoosh it. So I used the big long serrated carving knife, which worked a lot better because I could get a longer stroke with it, but you need two hands to hold one slice of bread! And no way can I slice it thin. The slices are at least half an inch thick, but it hold together better if they're a full inch thick. This bread, toasted, is TO DIE FOR! If you can get it to stay standing up in the toaster, that is.

The bread book says that milk products make the dough very light and fluffy, so maybe next time I'll cut down the amount of clabber slightly, replacing it with plain old water. I'm sure it'll still be very good, but maybe a bit more sturdy. I can't even imagine how good dinner rolls would be with this recipe.

I'd better get to work grinding more wheat, huh? Between dinner last night and breakfast this morning, we've already polished off more than half of the first loaf. I don't think this bread will last very long around here! LOL!

Robin, if I could figure out a way to make cinnamon rolls without sugar, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but in my mind, they're no good without the glaze. Maybe I can work something out using honey instead, although too much honey makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Gack! I'm just not much into sweets anymore, although I do remember I used to love cinnamon rolls!

~Lannie

[kwantmfuzzix]

We interrupt this broadcast for a special announcement (obligatory husbandly praises).

Borrowed from Ohio Express:

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.
I got bread in my tummy,
And I feel like a-lovin’ you:
Bread, you're such a sweet thing,
Good enough to eat thing
And that's just a-what I'm gonna do.

If that wasn't good enough, how about this one?

Mmmmm Mmmmm good,
Mmmmm Mmmmm good,
That’s what Lannie’s bread is,
Mmmmm Mmmmm good.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Rich

[parndt]

That was so sweet!

[Janene]

I think you need to send me a loaf for Quality Control Testing..... ;D
Oh, and don't forget some cheese to go with it for True Quality Assurance test!
;D
Janene

[Lesli]

And for a truly accurate taste testing you probably should send some way down here to Texas, you know for accuracy's sake! ;D Mmmm I can almost smell it.

[Joann]

Lannie, I am very, very proud of you!

To get past that sticky dough phase I usually just stir the dough in the bowd with a long wooden thing that somebody carved. It looks like a giant chopstick that is thicker at one end. Stir, then rest until the dough soaks and tightens. Very littlte kneading is then required.

Joann