So, I have one for you. And let me tell you. I was super surprised. I started making whole wheat bread a couple of years ago. I got a bread machine and every day or so, I would make 1-2 loaves of bread. Only on rare occasions did we buy store bought bread. I make all sorts of things in there. Hamburger buns, cinnamon roll dough, italian/french bread doughs, and regular sandwich bread. Needless to say we eat some serious wheat in this house. But I noticed that when I ate wheat, I felt like crap. It felt heavy in my stomach and caused some mild nausea. So I decided instead of jumping on the low-carb, no carb gluten free bandwagon, I was going to keep wheat because humans have been eating it since about 6000 BC when we learned we could use rocks to grind it up. So. Onto the bread.
Now, Here's the thing. All you have to do is mix your wet ingredients and your wheat. Here's my recipe. This makes a 1.5lb loaf in the bread machine.
3 and 1/3 cups of whole wheat bread flour
1 Tbsp and 1tsp of Coconut oil
2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 and 1/3 cup of water
3 Tbsp of honey
1 tsp of salt
2 Tbsp of Arrowroot powder
2 and 1/4 tsp of yeast
Now real quick like, I know you're like what the heck is arrowroot powder? (or maybe you know! I didn't). It's like Cornstarch but with cornstarch its of course, made from corn, and 90% of the corn in the US today is GMO and we try to stay away from all GMO's around here. So arrowroot it is.
So. You just mix up your wheat, oil, honey and vinegar and mix it. Now I have 3 and 1/3 cups of wheat. 3 cups is your starting place. On average I use 3 and 1/3 cups. But sometimes I use a little less, and sometimes a little more. It will depend on the humidity level of your kitchen how much wheat you need that day. What I do, is turn on the machine and then add the 3 cups of wheat and let it mix a bit. Then I add a little at a time until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the machine but it still a bit sticky.
I use the bread machine to mix it in. It doesn't have a mix cycle per se, but I just toss it in there and turn it on the first cycle and let it mix. Then I just turn it off. Iffn' you want to you could just leave the dough in there for the required 8 hours (or up to 48 hours). When I make two loaves I sit them out on the counter uncovered. Don't worry, it's completely safe. :)
Then, after it's sat for the amount of time, you simply add in the salt, the arrowroot powder and the yeast and turn your machine on "white bread" setting. And honestly, it's as simple as that! I thought soaking my bread would take me longer. I thought it would be extra work. It's really not. And let me tell you. Before, I switched us over to white wheat because even though I *love* the taste and texture of whole wheat bread and that dark caramel color it has, it wasn't rising right in my machine. Now I know why. The loaves rise beautifully now. They're also super yummy. Also also, they don't give my belly any issues now either! So what are you waiting for!!! Get to baking!
Looks good. I am just digging my toes into the world of soaked wheat, what do you use to grind your grains?
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa, currently, we buy organic hard red wheat from Great River Mills on amazon.com. They have wheat berries too if you wanted to grind you own, I haven't made that step yet :) As for grinders, I've been searching and talking to people, this one seems to be a really really good one.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Tribest-KM-001-Wolfgang-Grain-Mill/dp/B001DZ6TGA/ref=sr_1_4?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1377310584&sr=1-4&keywords=wheat+mill
its just *way* out of our price range right now. We have plans for growing our own wheat though and when we do, I will be saving up for that baby!
Very good blog! I really love how it is simple to read.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering how I might be notified whenever a new write-up
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do! Have a nice day and please excuse my bad english!
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