The Wheat Bread Experiment

Last month when I went to the Preparedness Expo, one of the speakers handed out a small paper explaining how to make a loaf of 100% wheat bread, and not have it turn out like a heavy brick, by just following a few simple rules.  So I tried it.

Here are the rules:

1.  Pick any white flour recipe and substitute whole wheat flour for all of the white flour.

2.  Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for each cup of liquid in the recipe.

3.  Mix all ingredients together except leavening (yeast, baking soda….) and eggs, if using.

4.  Cover mixture with towel, let sit at room temperature (about 75F) for 12 to 24 hours.

5.  Mix in leavening and eggs (if using).

6.  Cook according to recipe.

Now, as most of you know, I am still learning all about this thing called “baking”.  I really enjoy it, but I am self taught so things don’t always go according to plan.   

 

The first thing I did was grind hard red wheat berries into flour.  This was a new experience.  When we bought the grain mill we tried grinding wheat just as a test, but I don’t think I have ever baked with 100% home ground flour.  I really didn’t know what I was doing so I ran it through the mill 3 times.  Each time at a finer setting. It was nice flour when I was done, but still coarser than store bought.

 

 

Then I got everything in one place. I substituted raw honey for the sugar in the recipe.  So here I have  flour, butter and salt, honey, milk, water, and lemon juice.

 

 

Everything went into the mixer.

 

 

Then I oiled my dough riser.

 

 

And added the dough.  It was very moist, even with 7 cups of flour.

 

 

I needed a warm place to put it so I put it into the oven with the light on and left it there for about 24 hours.  When it came out it was funny looking.  There was a dark layer on the top and a lot of moisture in the riser.  I think I got it too warm, or maybe for too long.  At this point I’m not sure.

 

 

I threw it in the mixer anyway and added the yeast.

 

 

It was soft and workable when it was kneaded. Actually, it was too soft.

 

 

I divided the dough in half and rolled out a rectangle for each loaf.

 

 

At this point they needed to rise for another 30 minutes and I thought they looked quite nice. (And normal).

 

 

After 30 minutes they had spread out in the pan but really didn’t rise much. 

 

 

Here they are fresh out of the oven.  They look great and smell delicious!

 

Onto the cooling racks.

 

I would love to tell you they turned out great, but sadly, they were not quite right.  They were not done in the center so I re-baked them and they still were undercooked inside.  I would have tried again but that “dark” stuff sort of all ended up towards the center of the loaf and the taste was a bit “off”.  I was uneasy about poisoning myself and my husband so I had to call this one a “fail”.  I’m going to try again with a different recipe that doesn’t use as much liquid.  Maybe that will help – I don’t know – I’m still learning :)  Any suggestions?  Do you have a favorite bread recipe that you’re willing to share?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Blessings,

Red

Sourdough Bread

Have you ever made sourdough bread?  When we bought my stand mixer from a young couple off of Craig's List, she gave me some of her "sourdough starter".  She said she had been "feeding" it for a whole year and I was pretty impressed.  I took it home and fed it just like she instructed me and have made some tasty things with it, including sourdough pancakes - YUM! 

Anyway, I was doing a search on sourdough recipes one day and came across a blog that mentioned Friends of Carl free sourdough starter.  I decided to look it up and I was floored.  The story is fabulous.  Carl Griffith's starter came from the Oregon Trail in 1847 and it is still being produced and shared freely today.

If you are interested, you can follow the link above and find out how to get your own with just a stamped self-addressed envelope.  Mine took about 4 weeks to get here from the time I mailed my request.

They send you a snack sized ziploc bag with dried starter in it.  You can print off instructions from the website on how to reconstitute it.  It works!  Today I made sourdough pancakes using some of it. I am not a big fan of regular pancakes because I don't like the gritty feeling they leave in my mouth, and I always feel crummy after eating them.  I think they swell up or something.  Anyway, sourdough pancakes are different.  They are awesome.  Really.

Next I'm going to try sourdough bread.   I'll try to remember to take pictures :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Election Results and How Our Bread Turned Out

This morning I was doing "the happy dance of joy" because we have fired Pelosi!!! I cannot think of anything better than that except firing BO.  I am terribly disappointed in our Governor race here in Oregon.  It is so close but I think Kitzhaber is going to win.  He was Governor of Oregon for eight years and couldn't do anything right.  Now he wants another chance, and of course the unions love him.  Oh well, if I dwell on it I will just make myself miserable.

Now for the cooking report.  We made the soup and it turned out very good.  We froze some and ate the rest over two days.  The bread was a lot of work!  But we did it and it tasted pretty good. Not fabulous like I was hoping - I mean "home made bread" ???  Doesn't that just conjure up wonderful thoughts?  We made wheat bread this time, so maybe we will have better luck with white or sourdough.

Thanks for stopping by!