April 3, 2018 - 10:01am
re: Grinding own flour & using it with my starter
Hello, I recently got a vitmix blender & I started grinding my own organic flour with the special grain blender. I have tried making some sourdough bread with my starter but i am not having very good results. I was reaching out to see if anyone else grinds their own flour, and to ask for a recipe that I may try with my starter. I thank you in advance for any recipes, advice, & help.
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Could you post am image of the flour that you are producing. I’d like to see what the Vita Mix produces.
Dan
flour that you mill yourself? If so, try using some commercial flour with it. My loaves are usually around 40% home milled flour and 60% unbleached milk additives commercial flour.
This is a great reference post for baking with 100% home milled whole wheat. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33735/home-bread-fighting-gravity If I really want to adapt a recipe that uses bread flour or AP, I try to make it once with the flour called for, then substitute 25 or 50% whole wheat, and adjust the water to get a similar feel, then go to 75% then 100%, again adjusting the process, and time and temp, so that the results are somewhat similar, understanding that they will never be the same. The one downside of this approach is that compared to 100% home milled whole wheat sourdough, baking with bread flour is so much easier to get an airy loaf that it can get discouraging. It can be done with WW, but it is the difference between walking down a paved path in a park ( bread flour ) versus walking a tight rope suspended over Niagara Falls. ( home milled sourdough )
Pics (of the flour and crumb) and a recipe with ingredients and how you handle them are essential to giving you any help.
As for a recipe, use any whole wheat (if that is what you are grinding) recipe and pay particular attention to providing some form of soaking time. I entered "soft whole wheat" into the search box and got many hits.
This poster is no longer around and it is a shame her pictures are gone-gorgeous bread! But read her entire post-she teaches the reader all about whole grain bread. The trick to soft whole grain is adequate moisture, tie to absorb the moisture and knead to windowpane. Txfarmer talks about windowpane in whole grain doughs-very important.
TxFarmer:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21575/sourdough-100-whole-wheat-oatmeal-sandwich-bread-whole-grain-breads-can-be-soft-too
MangoChutney:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30285/nice-soft-sandwich-bread-soft-sweet-crust-and-no-crumbling
THIS (link) is an EXCELLENT recipe to use with whole wheat of ANY type of grind-coarse or fine. It builds in the necessary soak and the flavor is great! I pour my biga into 1 ziplock bag (1 gallon) and my soaker into another and massage the ingredients through the bag for the long soak. The next day, I use a mixer for the additional ingredients and the biga and soaker. Great loaf!
Good luck!