Grinding Whole Grains for Flour and Breadmaking


Grinding whole wheat berries with the Kitchen-Aid

As I mentioned previously, we started buying whole grains from a local, organic farmer to feed our goats (Windy Acres is the name of the farm, if you live in TN and want to check them out. We love them.). We sprout the whole grains and that’s what our goats eat on the milking stand. Sweetbreads wrote about the process last week.   

But enough already about what the dang goats eat, this post is about human food. 

It so happens that the local grain farmers also sell cleaned grains for human consumption. We use whole grains in our daily cooking (wheat berries, spelt, barlety, etc.) Wheat is the most consumed grain since we make bread using wheat flour. So the last time we were out at the grain farm we picked up a 50lb bag of whole wheat berries and bought a Kitchen Aid attachment to grind them with.

I tried making 100% whole wheat bread and it turned out to be a bit of a brick when it came out of the oven. I finally got my recipe to work after I substituted one cup of all-purpose white flour, reduced the water by 1/4 cup and increased the yeast by 1/2 a tablespoon. 

Making bread can be intimidating. This recipe makes it easy.

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Homemade Sourdough Starter - Capturing Wild Yeasties

my sourdough starter on day two, bubbling awaySomething my city self had imagined my country self doing every week once we moved here was baking fresh, delicious, crusty, bread. Ha - yeah, right! As people say, "life happens", and lately, it has really been happening. Despite the best of plans and intentions, there's always an unexpected event that sucks up a good chunk of the day and just having the time and energy to clean up after dinner can seem like a stretch. It started to look like bread making might be joining the more obscure "to-do wishes" on my list (like making a hat band from our guinea feathers and painting a Dutch hex on our well house... maybe next year??). 

I'm beginning to realize that sometimes, you just have to make time, even if it means putting off cleaning the coop until tomorrow (or the day after...ehm). Yesterday morning, after cleaning up from milking, I decided it was prime time to take a step towards having good bread. It was a baby step that I only needed about 5 minutes to accomplish - perfect!

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