Flying Under the Radar

I'm not braggin', just informing...Ok, so here it is:  for at least 10 years, thanks to the influence of many of my friends from our former church, I have milled my own whole wheat flour and then made 100% whole-wheat bread from the freshly ground flour. 
Patti Hauck taught me the secret to the process of using only whole-wheat flour, using "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" as her reference material; the secret is kneading the dough until the gluten strands are fully developed:

"Kneading is the secret of truly splendid bread, so continue until the dough is silky smooth."

Quote from p. 45; My copy of the book.

Most of my loaves have been light since the mini-workshop she gave in her home all those years ago.  I love the bread for many reasons, one of which is the simple recipe that produces such a tasty product.

A Loaf for Learning

6 Tbsp. warm water

1 tsp. active dry yeast

3 c. whole wheat bread flour, finely ground

1 tsp. salt

1/3 c. cold yogurt

2/3 c. hot tap water

2 Tbsp. oil

1 1/2 Tbsp. honey

Dissolve yeast in 6 Tbsp. warm water.  Mix together thoroughly in large mixing bowl the flour and salt.  Make a well in the center of this mixture.  Stir together the yogurt, 2/3 cup hot tap water, oil and honey (you may use molasses or brown sugar instead). 

Pour yogurt mixture into center of flour mixture and stir a couple of times.  Add yeast mixture to this mixture and stir until all the flour is wet.

Attach bowl to upright mixer.  Using dough hook, knead the dough until all the dough gathers up on the hook, cleaning the sides of the bowl.  It takes my mixer about 15 minutes on 4 to reach this point.  Wet  your hands and retrieve the dough from the bowl;  use your middle fingers to gently stretch the center of the dough until it is paper thin.  You should see strands of gluten when held up to the light.  Round the dough.  Let rise, covered for about 2 hours; punch down and let rise again for about 1 hour.  Punch down and shape; I put mine in my bread machine without the dough hook.  Let proof for about 45 minutes.  Bake for approximately 45 minutes.  So good!

I use a KitchenAid stand mixer for kneading, rather than the purist method taught in the book.  It works for me and is the method Patti taught me.

Mine looks like this, only more "used."

 I also started out milling wheat berries using the grain mill attachment for my KitchenAid, which produced a slightly coarse flour, but worked and was affordable.




Once I finally felt like I had develop a lasting habit of baking bread, I started to research and to shop around for a different grain mill.  I talked with my bread-making friends, priced the options and decided upon:

K Tec Kitchen mill http://www.blendtec.com/products/kitchen_mill

I love this mill because it's a workhorse, and it was affordable.  It has a number of coarseness settings and is user-friendly.  Its one fault is how noisy it is.  If you are considering this mill, try to find someone who owns one so that you can hear it running.  I knew going into the purchase about the noise because a couple of my friends have this mill.

Over the years I have also moved from baking multiple loaves in my oven to baking one loaf of  bread in my bread machine.  I have tried mixing and kneading in the bread machine, but found that the process is elongated when using this method.  It is, however doable, if you are willing to manipulate your bread machine to continue to knead the dough until it is "silky smooth" and the gluten strands are fully developed.

Breadman TR520 Programmable Bread Maker for 1-, 1-1/2-, and 2-Pound Loaves

The reason this post feels like something of a confession to me is that I have come a long way from my days of wearing jumpers and a head covering in church; those were practices born out of devotion and desire to express my love and honor for and to God.  If I did pursue baking 100% whole-wheat bread made from flour that I milled because of the influence of the culture in which I found myself, I don't continue to do so for that reason.  I fell in love with the process, the taste and the benefits of the bread!

Another thing:  I scooted out to the "Maple Leaf Country Store" yesterday to pick up some items in bulk which we needed.  I came away with #50 each of rolled oats and hard white wheat berries plus a #9 bag of white popcorn kernels.  If you could see my basement storage area, you might believe that we are still stocking up for Y2K.  I find it easier and more cost effective to buy these things in bulk and store them safely -- really!


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