and I have access to a grinder...so i'll have ground wheat berries... HOWEVER...I cannot find a recipe online for wheat berry bread... and I do try to stay healthier; which means cooking with less oils... so the recipe that I'd use for the breadmaker (YES BREADMAKER!!! I prob wont do it the normal way..just sayin')... has to have a lower oil content..but my SIL uses a recipe that uses a TON of oil and butter..or butter and shortening.. anyone?
Have you ever made bread with freshly ground wheat? If you have then you know that you need to soak the wheat flour before you use it to make bread or the bread will turn out tasting like the main ingredient is sawdust. I have a large 2 paddle bread machine that I make bread in and the "soaker" rises all the way to the top of the pan. So if your bread machine is one of the smaller you will need to mix up your soaker in a larger container. Edited to Add:You will need to add some oil or the bread will be dry. The whipped butter is mostly water and I put it in to get a butter taste without having to use a lot of butter. I also make one very large loaf that I cut in two and put in two separate bags, I don't have any regular loaf pans. Growing up my mom always used to cook our bread in a cast iron skillet but I prefer a sheet pan with parchment paper. I order bread bags from http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/bread_bags_plastic_poly.aspx if your interested. Honey Whole Wheat Bread Makes 2 loaves 1 heaping tablespoon sugar 2 tablespoons oil 3 tablespoons honey 3 ounces whipped tub butter melted 1/2 heaping cup powdered milk 1-teaspoon salt 1-1/2 cups very warm water 1 large egg 4 large egg yolks 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten 3 cups all-purpose flour 1-tablespoon yeast 3 cups bread flour Place all the ingredients (except for the last 3 cups of flour) in bread machine in the order listed. Turn machine on just to mix well then turn the machine off and allow mixture to sit in the bread machine for 4 hours. Then add the last 3 cups of flour to the machine, select the dough cycle and turn the machine back on. When the dough cycle is finished remove the dough from the machine. Divide the dough into two loaves, shape and place in prepared bread pans to rise. Allow dough to rise until the dough is 2 inches above the pan. Then bake in a preheated 375° oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 180°. Remove bread from the pans to a cooling rack and cool completely before slicing. Store at room temperature in plastic bags of some other airtight container.
I've never used fresh ground wheat but with regular flour you don't have to add any fat. My favorite bread has nothing but flour, salt, yeast and water.
You didn't mention what type of wheat berries. I use soft white for pastry, cookies, muffins & pancakes. I use hard red ( sometimes hard white but can get red locally) for breads. If I grind flour in advance I freeze it. I usually don't grind in advance on purpose but sometimes things come up. Google whole wheat bread machine reciepes. You should find several. I use a bread machine during the summer. I can't even consider cooking bread in the house when it is suppose to be at least 105 everyday this wk!
I have no clue...didnt know there were diff. types... This wheat berry flour was given to us by my BIL..he says walmart has a 25lb bag of wheat berries he buys and grinds up for breads..
I mill all of my flour and make 95% of all the bread from it that my family eats. We have come to prefer a 50/50 blend of hard red and hard white wheats. Not quite so strong tasting (for the kids) and still has good color (for us adults). How fine the flour is milled has a big impact on how well the bread will come out. Some mills make fine flour, some will only make about a medium fineness meal. I don't use additional gluten in my bread nor "dough enhancer" but I do use dry milk and eggs. The most important thing I can say about making your own from flour you milled yourself is simply - keep doing it. There's a learning curve even if you are already experienced with making bread from store bought flour. Fresh-milled flour acts differently. Even changing mills can sometimes make a difference. The flour I produce with my Retsel Mil-Rite behaves differently than the flour I make using my old Grainmaster Whispermill even though I use the exact same wheat berries. Good bread can be made from both, but you have to handle it somewhat differently from each other to do it. The second most important bit of advice I can give is that dry, stiff doughs usually make for poor bread. Keep the dough soft, just a bit sticky, and let it rise at least twice and don't try to hurry it too much. You can make good bread. A batch of sourdough I made with flour from my Mil-Rite: A batch of sourdough I made with flour from the Whispermill: Just keep doing it. Eventually you work out what works best for you.
Once you have it adjusted properly a KitchenAid will make acceptable flour. They are prone to overheating though so don't mill more than 9-10 cups of wheat at any one time then let it cool for an hour or so before doing more.
http://sicilianosmkt.blogspot.com/2011/04/recipe-no-knead-bread-with-winter-wheat.html 12-oz (340g) natural premium white flour 4 oz. (115g) fresh-milled hard red winter wheat 12 oz (340g) Water 2 teaspoons (10-11g) purified sea salt 1/4 teaspoon (1g) Saf-Instant yeast
