One of my children’s favorite books is the Little Red Hen. The hen finds a kernel of wheat, plants it, tends it, harvests it, mills it, and bakes a loaf of bread with it all by herself. While I don’t grow my own wheat, I do mill my own. I could write an entire series of posts on why whole wheat flour is better for us, but I won’t. It’s enough to say that we decided the benefits of homemade whole wheat bread far outweigh the inconvenience of baking it myself. Since flour begins to go rancid and lose its health benefits the minute it gets milled, it makes sense to mill my own at home. Which is why every bread-baking day begins with my grain mill…
Here’s my wheat, waiting for me in the bucket.
I put about ten cups of wheat in the top.
I turn the dial to around one o’clock.
And the result is about 12 to 14 cups of flour!
Alright, time to do some mixing! My recipe calls for olive oil, but I prefer coconut oil for its health benefits and its taste. I keep mine up above my stove, which is a warm spot I guess, because it pretty much stays liquid all of the time. Which makes it easier to cook with. Although I live in fear of dumping that bucket all over my kitchen…
Next I add honey to the oil and warm water already in the mixer. (I buy my honey raw in bulk.)
I use SAF Instant Yeast. It works far better than anything you buy in the pre-measured packs. (And, yes, holy cow, that is my baby bump in the way there. I believe I need to post an updated pic soon!)
I let that mix up a tad and then turn off the mixer to make sure the yeast is still alive. See how it’s bubbling a bit? That’s a sign of happy yeast.
Next, we add two cups of flour and turn the mixer up to medium. You want to get a good spin on it so everything mixes well and there aren’t clumps. It took me awhile to figure out how crucial that is. I spin it as fast as circumstances allow. (In other words, if I get splattered, I’ve over done it.)
At this point, it’s safe to add the salt. Save that for last, as it slows down the yeast action.
Time to start counting cups of flour (about 13-14 in addition to the 2 we put in at the beginning) and mixing at a medium high speed. This is where I plead for silence in my kitchen so that “Mommy can remember the numbers.” I have yet to be successful at this, which is why it’s nice to have a grown-up helper standing close by to keep count. Inevitably, I get interrupted, can’t finish a thought, and I put in too much flour. It’s a vicious, vicious cycle.
Here we are at about 12 cups of flour. (Fourteen total.) See how it’s still too sticky? Now I will start adding flour a bit slower, watching the mixture closely for strands of gluten to form.
If you look closely, you can see that the dough is pulling away from the roller. This means the gluten has formed, there’s about enough flour (sticking my finger in there to make sure it comes out clean is the surest test), and its time to set the timer on the mixer and walk away for five minutes.
In my case, that means clean up the globs of dough off my children (Mommy got a little over-zealous with that batch, sweetie, don’t worry, it will come out of your hair) and start trying to find my shirt underneath the flour dust.
Once this kneads for about five minutes, I remove the roller, pop a lid on it, and stick it under my stove light for 30 to 45 minutes. This let’s it rest and rise. And lets me rest. And then rise to clean up the kitchen for Round Two.
I’ve decided in the interest of your little eyeballs, this will be a two part post. Come back tomorrow for the rest of the bread madness. At the end of tomorrow’s post, I’ll give you more details about what type of mixer I use, etc. But if there’s something specific you want me to cover, leave it in the comments and I’ll make sure I get to it!
7.30.2008
Awesome! I love making my own bread, though I’m not to the point of milling my own wheat. I make ours because my boys have such sensitive allergies.
7.30.2008
How many loaves does your family go through in a week? How often do you make bread? I totally agree with you on the whole wheat flour, as I have been researching more and more. I have relegated us to almost NO BREAD since researching this stuff. That makes for a slightly grouchy Hubs. So I am enthralled by this, to say the least.
7.30.2008
Where did you get your cute little container to hold your salt?
7.30.2008
Funny timing.
7.31.2008
Can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am by learning this! I’ve always needed to know how go about doing this, with pictures. YOU ROCK
7.31.2008
One time Kim and I went to the home of a friend of ours so that she could teach us to make bread this way. And I have to say, it was the BEST bread I have ever put in my mouth.
I don’t have any of the equipment that you have, but I am wishing that I did right now…LOL!
Thanks for the pictures and instructions. It is very valuable.
7.31.2008
I was just wondering where you buy your bulk coconut oil? We use coconut oil for all of our baking and cooking too. I buy mine from Mountain Rose Herbs (it’s unrefined organic), but my,oh my, have they gone up on the price!!
Love the post. Completely and totally jealous of your Nutrimill. My baby bump is starting to get in the way now too! But that’s a good thing,right?!!!
7.31.2008
Shannon, the salt cellar came from the Alton Brown store, which you can find here: http://catalog.fullpond.com/altonbrown/productdetail.aspx?CatalogName=General&CategoryName=All+Merchandise&ProductID=ABRN+AB1008
Enjoy!
7.31.2008
I am totally enthralled. I would love to know how to do this! Will you please come up here and give me in-person lessons?
7.31.2008
Girl, you have some healthy bread-making going on there! Those ingredients are awesome! Blessings!
7.31.2008
Would you also tell us where you find your other baking products (wheat,honey,etc.) in bulk? I am clueless where to find these types of items. Also, any advice on where to find more information about healthful baking? Thanks again, from one of your faithful readers that thought a grain mill was a food mill. I am still rather embarrassed about that.
7.31.2008
One of my friends recently gave me some of her homemade wheat rolls that she had milled and mixed and baked…super yummy! After reading your post I am so hungry.
7.31.2008
[...] Picking up where we left off… [...]