The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Trying to bake with whole wheat flour and cornmeal from my farm

rvander1's picture
rvander1

Trying to bake with whole wheat flour and cornmeal from my farm

Hi,

I have a small farm in Western NY, and I grow commodity field corn, soybeans, and winter red wheat.

It occurred to me several months ago that, as a farmer, I can't eat anything I grow on my own farm-- it's all trucked off and sold.

--So I'm trying to bake with whole wheat flour and cornmeal/cornflour/grits from my farm.  I motorized a Wondermill Jr which takes the effort out of converting the corn and wheat to flour.

I'm looking for simple recipes and techniques using only the whole wheat flour and cornmeal/flour from my farm that taste good.

I've made some "bricks" out of whole wheat, and finally a couple loaves of bread that taste pretty good-- but I think there's room for improvement-- thats why I'm here.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Bob

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Many swear by Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book for whole grain recipes, Bob.  You might want to have a look at that. 

Here on TFL, you can use the Search tool at the upper right hand corner of each page.  Type in "100% whole wheat" for a wealth of posts on that topic (you don't need the quotation marks).  I haven't seen nearly as much on using corn, other than as one of several different flours/meals in a bread.  Anadama bread is a good example of a bread that utilizes cornmeal. 

Dive in!

Pau

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Welcome! Talk about fresh!

Whole wheat is not difficult but there are some unique things it needs. As Paul suggested, start in the search box and see what you get with key words like "soft whole wheat" or  "shreddable whole wheat". You can take a look at my posts,also-just click on my name and follow from there. I have talked a lot about WW in the past. The 2 main tricks are:

1. A soaking time of some kind. WW needs plenty of moisture (esp fresh milled) but it especially needs time for all the branny bits to absorb it. Otherwise, they rob the crumb of moisture after i is baked and your sandwich just crumbles as you eat.

2. Knead to windowpane. It can be done! Txfarmer has iconic posts here that used to have beautiful pics. I'm not sure they are still available (search box,again) but at the very least, look for "windowpane" pics in dough.

I make a great cornbread but I haven't made a yeasted corn bread. I follow the recipe on the back of the Corn Meal box and add brown sugar and oil. I always bake in a well oiled iron frying pan for that crispy crunch. Grits is a great hot cereal that can be jazzed up with cheese or other flavorings. Polenta can also be made and is greatly underappreciated.

Let us see what you come up with!

 

rvander1's picture
rvander1

Thanks for the reply,

The things I read on the internet are all very confusing to me-- some say "don't knead ww dough too much-- because the bran will cut the gluten", and others like in your post-- say: knead to a windowpane.

I am letting the dough rest, (I think they call that autolyse), and that seems to help--

I'll look at your posts from the past and do some searches on this site--

Thanks for the help.

Bob

 

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

Welcome to TFL.

" I grow commodity field corn, soybeans, and winter red wheat."

A lot depends on if your winter wheat is hard or soft.  Bread requires a flour that comes from mostly hard wheat.   All Purpose flour is usually a blend of hard and soft.  Bread flour is either all hard, or a blend of mostly hard with some soft.

 Based on your location, I'm guessing your wheat is soft wheat.  That would be good for pastries, pie crusts, biscuits, muffins, tortillas, chapattis, pancakes, scones, and other flat bread. Maybe fry-bread, as in Indian fry-bread that is deep fried.  

But, by itself, soft wheat likely won't make good loaf bread.  Though I don't want to discourage you from experimenting.  You may find something that is close enough.

Soft wheat could make a pizza crust, but the "chew" won't be what you normally expect in a pizza. It will feel more like a pastry.

If you're gowing hard wheat, then you're going to get great loaf bread.

Congratulations on the home mill. I have a Wondermill Jr. Deluxe, but I don't use it. Instead, I run my grain through a 3-roller manual mill that just cracks the grain. Then I run the cracked grain, 8 ounces at a time, through a Vitamix blender for 30 seconds.

 

rvander1's picture
rvander1

Thanks for the response

Actually, I forgot to grab a couple bushels of wheat from the combine last July, so I had to buy some wheat and the menonites around me (about the only people who sell whole wheat berries), had hard white wheat-- so I bought a couple bags of that.  I'm not sure whether I grow hard read wheat or soft red wheat. 

As for the corn-- I have to simply take back a couple bushels of corn from the elevator after it's been dried.  I combine corn at about 20-22% moisture and the elevator dries it down to about 14% for longer term storage. (same with the beans)

So, to be truthful, I don't use the actual grain that comes off my farm-- but it's as close as I can get.

I'll be searching the site for tips-

thanks again,

Bob

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy
  • with the seed's product# or catalog#, I would suppose the seed company's (or the reseller's) web site would have info on whether it is hard or soft.
  • I've gathered some tips and "things to know" about home milled flour here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64863/7-things-about-freshmilled-flour
  • Hard white is actually good bread flour. It has less tannins than red wheat, so is less bitter (for lack of a better word) and does not need a sweetener like most people think hard red wheat does. But then... some folks here like the grassy taste of red wheat in their bread.
  • How much does your combine clean the wheat?  From what I've read, it's the miller who does most of the cleaning, getting rid of foreign material, and any shrunken, dessicated, black-pointed, smudged, broken,  or unhulled kernals.  I always hand clean and sort my wheat before milling, spreading 1/4 cup of kernals at a time on a white paper towel. Some bags are cleaner than others. 

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