The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

A new machine to achieve a perfect bread

staff of life's picture
staff of life

A new machine to achieve a perfect bread

I am a whole-grain kind of gal, but I find 100% whole wheat bread of any variety to be unpalatable.  It just tastes bitter to me.  I've tried many different variations of whole wheat bread, but I've always been disappointed in the results.  On RLB's website, she mentioned that freshly ground whole wheat does not have this bitter-taste problem, which is actually due to the slight rancidity of the flour.  Today I had someone grind me some fresh whole wheat flour (the red type) and I went home and made a straight dough whole-wheat sandwich bread with a bit of it.  What a difference!  There is none of that bitter taste, just pure sweet grain.  My kids even loved it, and they normally stay away from anything but white.  The woman who ground the flour for me used Prairie Gold wheat kernels, and though I've used that flour before and been unimpressed, this woman (a former bakery owner) gave me a slice made with the Prairie Gold and it was fantastic.  I've frozen about 5 lbs of this flour, and I'm excited to try the flour in different breads, especially sourdoughs.  I love this sort of experimentation!   Now I've just got to plunk down some money to get my own mill...but it'll be worth it!

Thegreenbaker's picture
Thegreenbaker

Thats good to hear.

 

You know, I buy my wholewheat flour off the supermarket shelves (havent found a good supplier yet that doesnt charge the earth for p&h)

and I never have the bitter taste problem. that says something about how long the flour sits a. on the shelves or b. at the wholesaler!

*cringes*

 

I find it tastes so much better than white anything and it is so much healthier for you as well as having so much more vitamins and minerals. :) I'd LOVE to grind my own flour. *drools* one day.............

 

Thegreenbaker

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

For over 20 years, I've always home-milled grains and legumes into flour (wheat, rye, kamut, corn, spelt, soy beans, etc.), milling just the amount I need for a baking. We all think home-milled flour makes tastier bread than store-bought whole grain flour.

For whole wheat flour, I prefer the taste of flour milled from hard red wheat (winter or spring) as opposed to white wheat (such as Prarie Gold). White wheat is supposed to have a milder taste than red. This is a matter of personal preference, but see if your friend can also mill some hard red wheat for you so you can explore the difference. (BTW, I always buy organic grain.)

There have been discussions on this site about aging your home milled flour for up to 4 weeks. See, for example, http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2228/home-milled-flour-v-store-bought-flour-breads or http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2165/flour-open-discussion-about-aging-and-enriching-flour for discussions of the effect of this brief aging period on your home-milled whole wheat flour

As you use your home-milled flour, do post your impressions. I, for one, would be really interested.

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

I would like to have a book with information about grinding grains at home. I have a grainmill and like it very much (Nutrimill) but I want solid information about the grains and how they are processed (are chemicals added to keep bugs out or for any other purpose?) and information about grinding for bread and how to grind for cereals and aging etc.. I bought the book FLOUR POWER but I'm sending it back. It's mostly about why we should eat whole grains and what kind of mill to buy but I already know those things. I've looked at lots of information on the web but I want something I can pick up and hold in my hands without having to search in lots of different websites. Any suggestions?                                                                            weavershouse

Susan's picture
Susan

Sheesh, that sounds awful. Picking a brain?!?!?!

  1. Is there any preparation before milling one's grains? As in picking over the grains for weed or other seeds, or heaven forbid, rocks? Or do you just throw it all in there and hope for the best?
  2. I've been grinding and substituting ~20% Prairie Gold to some of my loaves, and feel that the dough is much "looser" after fermentation. Sorry, don't know the right word here. Seems like whole wheat would take more water, not less, to get the same dough feel. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Susan

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

Susan on May 17, 2007 wrote:
Is there any preparation before milling one's grains? As in picking over the grains for weed or other seeds, or heaven forbid, rocks? Or do you just throw it all in there and hope for the best?

"Prepping" your whole grain prior to milling is entirely dependent on the source of your grain. I live in a large metropolitan area in the USA and buy my grain at local health food stores. I can rely that this grain is pure grain, free of of other seeds and definitely free of small rocks. If you buy grain from another source that is *not* destined for the home user, you should *at least* pick over the grain for foreign material (such as pebbles or small rocks). It would be very difficult for you to distinguish wheat grain from other seeds. My recommendation is to buy grain that has been "prepared" for milling.

Susan on May 17, 2007 wrote:
'I've been grinding and substituting ~20% Prairie Gold to some of my loaves, and feel that the dough is much "looser" after fermentation. Sorry, don't know the right word here. Seems like whole wheat would take more water, not less, to get the same dough feel. Any thoughts?

Whole wheat flour *definitely* absorbs more more water than the equivalent amount of white flour, even if the "protein value" is equivalent. The bran portion of the wheat kernel is the hardest portion of the resulting wheat flour; it requires *a lot of time* to absorb water.

You might explore using a "soaker" or possibly a "poolish" of your home-milled wheat flour. A poolish is simply equal quantities *by weight* of flour and water plus a very small amount of yeast.

Please feel free to continue this discussion. I'm happy to answer your questions to the best of my ability. Also, other members do home mill their own grain and I'm sure they would have valuable pointers.

CBudelier's picture
CBudelier

How much grain could a grain mill grind if a grain mill could grind grain?

Sorry.......I just had to get that out of my system!  :-D 

 

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

T4tigger on May 17, 2007 wrote:
How much grain could a grain mill grind if a grain mill could grind grain?

As much grain as the miller gets (if a grain mill could grind grain).

qahtan's picture
qahtan

 

 I never liked whole wheat until I milled my own, I read some where that whole wheat flour begins to go "off" after 72 hours,  but I mill as much as I shall use at a time.

 I bought a sack of white flour "Vienna" from the mill last year and that was too fresh, I had to keep it a couple weeks before using it.  

   qahtan