I am in search of GrainLady. I've read your posts here and on other forums and would love to talk grains with you. I am venturing into grinding/cracking my own grains and need help. There is so much conflicting information and you seem to be a wealth of knowledge.
How to do I create my own bulgur?
I would greatly appreciate any and all information you would like to share. Thank you so much!
I am a member on The Fresh Loaf and there are many, many views regarding flours, processes, millings, mixing, etc. They take it to next level. Some say wait for the green flour to age, some say don't. I say don't because I want to make it simple and I don't want to have to think that hard in this heat!
I have had really good success with high heat dry milk. I get great rise from it. I have yet to try all fresh milled flour. I will order ascorbic acid soon, do you have a source?
Do you have a recipe for a really light, fluffy loaf of bread? During the summer we eat tomato sandwiches and I love them with a light bread.
Sally- No personal experience using a Kitchen Aid mill attachment, but I have a number of on-line comments I've accumulated over the years about them in my file. The few people I know from classes I've taught who had them and then purchased a quality mill (Nutrimill or a Wonder Mill) wish they would have spent their money on the impact mill instead of the KA mill attachment.
Two people burned their KA motors out using the mill. It's suggested you only mill small amounts of grain at a time, and you have to run the flour back through once or twice after the initial milling to get it fine enough. That's not necessary with most electric mills, but sometimes necessary with hand-mills.
I generally mill 2-3-pounds of wheat at a time (3# - approx. 9 cups of wheat or approx. 12-cups of flour). I need 5-cups of flour for my regular everyday bread recipe, let alone all the other baked goods I make.
So make sure your KA is large enough because a mill really puts a lot of stress on the motor.
I hope this message comes through. It is not letting me respond now.
Sally, I also have a kitchenaid but opted to go with mills that are separate. I've heard others say they burned their KA up milling, but they were milling larger quantities and more often once they got started.
I am in my baby steps with milling and working with freshly milled grains. I have to tell you it is very rewarding and addictive!
I just love saving money, having everything at my fingertips when I need it and not have to worry about storing flours or the bugs they can bring on. I have oat groats, hard wheats and popcorn coming in a few weeks and I am psyched, how pathetic am I!
Favorites? Their like my children...I can't have a favorite! They do have their different characteristics and uses however. Wheat is so versatile - ground into flour, cooked whole, fried for wheat nuts, extract the gluten and you've got high-protein "wheat meat", grown into sprouts and wheatgrass as a source of fresh food. I grew-up in the middle of wheat fields - literally. To this day harvest is an important time of the year and I'm not content until I see the first combine in the field.
Amaranth (although technically not a grain but an herb or a pseudograin) is fun to grow. Such a beautiful plant with it's plume of seeds, and the leaves are used as fresh greens. I add amaranth seeds whole to lots of baked goods. It looks like golden poppy seeds and adds a lot of nutrition and a bit of "tooth" and crunch. Milled into flour, cooked alone or with other cereal grains for a breakfast cereal, a real nutritional powerhouse.
Spelt/einkorn/kamut - the ancient grains add interest to plain-old wheat. While the durum wheat/rye hybrid triticale, a high-protein grain, works well for making pasta/noodles.
Sorghum - my go-to flour for developing gluten-free recipes.
You're right on the difference between soft red and soft white - the bran color, which also means a huge difference in flavor. There are three genes that determine bran color in wheat and the oldest varieties of wheat, such as Turkey Red had all three genes and is a very strong, almost acidic-flavored wheat. Today's varieties of red wheat usually only have 1 or 2 of those genes and are more mild flavored than the old traditional varieties. White wheat, the albino of the wheat varieties, doesn't have any genes for bran color, was developed through selection. White wheat products will be mild in flavor, sweeter tasting, and lighter in color. A great choice for the eye appeal and a good choice for people who hate that acidic flavor of whole wheat products.
Ah, now I see the deep connection. Does your family still produce wheat, now that's a source! I envy you and your knowledge. I get the "favorites" that is how I feel about my dogs and kitchen appliances!
Amaranth is not the cheapest in the bunch, here anyway but I want to try it along with other grains. I am eating them more these days out of the rice cooker, which I adore! I want to experiment and find tasty grains eaten whole.
I am also going to get soft white in the next co-op. What about barley?
I've been told oat groats have a shelf/bucket life of 1 year, do you find this to be true? I order in smaller amounts due to this.
White wheat has the same nutritional value that red wheat does, it only differs in color, is this correct?
I have lots of wheat farmers in the family, and occasionally I'll get some free wheat. The funny thing is - you'll have to look long and hard to find any of them who consume their own wheat. They buy flour from the grocery store like most other people.
I agree about the price of amaranth... A few years ago I thought "nothing ventured, nothing gained" and took some amaranth seeds I purchased from the local health food store and decided to sow it. I harvested enough seeds from 12 plants to provide seeds for 2-years.
Barley- I consider barley, as well as buckwheat and oats, warming foods, so I stock-up on those grains late fall and use more of them throughout fall, winter and early spring. Although I have these in storage, I try to rotate them out every 12 to 18-months. I vacuum-seal all grains in FoodSaver bags (or a canning jar). Oxygen-free storage, as well as cool temperatures for storage, will help the storage life of these more sensitive grains.
The plant characteristics and nutrition is very similar for red and white varieties of wheat. The difference is the color of the bran.
You might enjoy the information at the link below.
I've been buying 20# bags of organic flour from a mill and don't buy from a grocery anymore, way too expensive for those who bake/cook a lot and use different flours/grains. I am now buying a whole lot less since I am acquiring grains.
Buckwheat has gone out the roof in pricing, something must have happened. I am using gamma lids at this time and have not vacuum sealed anything yet.
2 years holy cow! I'm not certain I could get amaranth to grow here. Anymore our weather is so unpredictable and now we are entering hurricane season with spawning tornados. We're in a drought right now and have been for months. My garden has withered away due to extreme heat and no water.
Do you find as big a difference between red and white in both hard and soft wheats?
I live in Kansas and this HAS been a rotten summer for growing anything due to heat and drought here as well. I have 1,000 gallons of rain water in my rain barrels to work with for watering. Amaranth grows best in the heat and is fairly drought tolerant. If you live in a colder climate, you grow quinoa and the two plants are similar and have similar growing traits.
I buy buckwheat groats (50# - $89.99 from Honeyville Grain) and I'll roast them myself if I want kasha and coarsely mill it for cooked cereal and fine milling for buckwheat flour.
I buy vital wheat gluten from Honeyville Grain in #10 cans (3.5 pounds). Once I open a can, I'll vacuum-seal it in a canning jar to extend the shelf-life, but it has a shelf-life of 7-10 years unopened. Freezing also works well, but I don't have a lot of freezer space to share with things that can store in the pantry - the freezer on my refrigerator is all I have. I buy 6-cans at a time when they have a sale. I use it for making "wheat meat" (which I mix 50/50 with ground meat as an extender) and as a high-protein/low-carb granola-like "cereal", and I go through a lot of it making low-carb bread for a diabetic friend of mine.
Wheat Montana (Prairie Gold and Bronze Chief) generally have the highest amount of protein - 16%. I purchase this wheat at Wal-Mart. The hard white winter wheat I buy from the mill just outside of town is the same wheat they mill for King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour for this region. It's usually between 13-14% protein. The finer you are able to mill your flour, the more available gluten there is and you'll get a fine-texture to your bread. If you can only mill coarse flour, expect coarse bread.
Do you roast all your buckwheat before you use it? How do you roast yours?
I will never see what at a Walmart or anywhere here, too citified. I used to use KA exclusively and the prices kept creeping up. I am jealous you get first hand picks.
I don't roast all the buckwheat - just as needed. It doesn't keep as long if it's roasted. The link below will give you more information about how to roast it as well as other methods for cooking buckwheat.
I did a double-take when I saw 25# bags of wheat on the bottom shelf at Wal-Mart. Especially since it's a northern-grown wheat (Spring wheat) and I live in the middle of Winter wheat country.
Thanks for the link they are all useful and I am saving them. I am in love with my Zo rice cooker and that is where all my grains are cooked at this time.
That was my understanding that buckwheat needed to be roasted before using. Have you eaten un-roasted buckwheat?
I am reading that oats, buckwheat and barley have shorter storage life (1 year), is this correct? I am out of freezer space so gamma sealed buckets are all I have left. I'll have to order is smaller quantities if I want to play with some of these.
GrainLady, do you by chance have a recipe for dried cereal using whole grains. I saw a commercial for a boxed cereal that uses whole whole grains and wanted to make one. Thanks!
There are recipes similar to Grape Nuts if you are interested in something like that. Just do a search for - homemade grape nuts (whole wheat flour, sweetener, buttermilk, etc...). You'll find a number of variations to the recipe. I'd suggest making 1/2 or 1/4 of a recipe and see if it's something you like.
Another recipe you can look for would be - muesli.
I make a lot of granola (I actually make a low-carb mixture I call Nutola - more nuts than grain; and a high-protein "cereal" made with "wheat meat" (the gluten extracted from whole wheat flour and processed with steam, baked, or boiled (depending on the kind of texture you want/need), and then ground with a food grinder. It's similar to granola.
I've got an idea for making a "flake" cereal, but haven't given it a try yet. I honestly think it will be more trouble than it's worth.
Oh boy, I'm sticking my nose into this discussion. Grainlady, I just "HAD" to buy some rye, wheat, and barley flakes when I came across them at my local health food store. Do you think I could sub some of them for the rolled oats in granola? Or would I be better off adding them to yeast breads? Could you give me some other ideas? I remember years ago making granola from a combination of rolled oats & what flakes. But it was so long ago and as I've "matured," I'm finding that some foods I once enjoyed are harder on my digestive system. Would the rye, wheat, or barley flakes be harder on my poor aging system?
Thanks for your help, and pardon me for the interruption of this thread.
Need your help. The lowest protein content I have is 11% soft white wheat. This is a bit too high for pastry flour what can I do? Where do you find lower level wheat?
Sue- Your new best friends - rye, wheat and barley flakes - may or may NOT be processed like oatmeal (steamed then flattened). When I mill whole grains into flakes on my flaker mill, all I do is flatten it and they are pretty dang tough and generally would need to be soaked or cooked.
The reason the grains were flattened originally was so they cooked quicker. Then they decided to steam the grain before flattening for even quicker cooking (Old-Fashioned Oatmeal). The next generation, the grain was steamed, cut into smaller bits, and flattened for Quick Oats. You get the picture.... until instant oats are processed even more - steamed, cut into smaller pieces, flattened, pre-cooked and dried for a just-add-water application.
Are your flakes pretty thick and not as pliable as Old-fashioned Oatmeal? Then they may not have been steam processed, making them tough to chew and digest - best used in breads, soaked, or cooked - rather than in granola.
For pastry flour using wheat that is 11% protein, mix it with a low-protein grain - spelt, oats, rye. For cake flour I use a 3:1 mix of soft white wheat and oats or spelt, so try a 4:1 ratio.
If you commonly used national brand all-purpose flour for making pastry, that protein level is similar to your 11% protein wheat.
Another trick - besides milling a blend of grains to lower the protein - is to add a little more fat to your pastry recipe. The fat coats the flour preventing the water from reaching the gluten and developing it. Avoid over-mixing your dough.
My whole grain marble pound cake is in the oven. I did 3:1 (soft red wheat/oat groats). I have my fingers crossed, red is all that I have right now. The batter looked really good.
Grainlady, thanks for the quick response. Yes, the flakes are pretty thick. I think I'd be better use them in breads. I made AnnT's rye bread recipe yesterday. Instead of making bread, though, I made sandwich rolls. Because of lessening the sodium content, I find I have a lot more control when making smaller buns or rolls.Less chance of accidentally overproofing and collapsing. And I can freeze them easily. Anyhow, I added about 1/3 cup of the rye flakes to the recipe. The rolls were great. The rye flakes added a hearty texture that we enjoy. So I can see using the wheat flakes with whole wheat yeast dough applications. And I think the barley flakes would go well with just about anything.
By the way, in my Greek family, my mom made bulgur wheat pilafi all the time. It was one of my favorite side dishes. She just browned the bulgur in some olive oil and added chicken broth. I remember making it for myself in college too. And, of course, I served it regularly once I was married and had children. I still love it. For a long, long time, I preferred it to brown rice because I thought it had better flavor. But here's the twist -- my family never made tabbouleh. In fact, I never had it until I was married and started going to Greek restaurants.
My grandmother used to cook whole wheat kernels and then sweeten them. Hers were plain and just a special treat. It wasn't until many, many years later that I discovered the sweetened kernels were a traditional Greek Orthodox funeral dish. My family was 100% Greek, but we attended a Greek Pentecostal church. So we were not familiar with many of the Orthodox traditions.
Oh my goodness, this pound cake is wonderful! Thank you GrainLady for the 3:1 ratio it worked great!
Sue, I am cooking more the mediterranean way and loving the grains and flavors. Thanks for sharing. Tomorrow is chicken tagine with couscous. I have to order nearly everything online. My area is not too culturally diverse and makes finding ingredients difficult.
klmhicks- I use high-protein Wheat Montana Prairie Gold for bread flour (it usually runs around 15% protein). You can customize the protein level of any flour by adding vital wheat gluten.
The ratio is: 1% of Vital Wheat Gluten (based on flour weight) increases the protein content of the flour by 0.6%.
A rate of 1-2 teaspoons for each cup of flour, which is 2-3% by weight of flour, is a common amount to add - it depends on the base amount of protein in the flour and the percentage you are trying to achieve. It could take as much as 1-2 tablespoons per cup - you'll have to "play" with it a bit. But always remember... Too much gluten makes bread tough, and it will take a lot longer to develop the gluten during kneading.
Thanks for the vwg info. What is the best way to know that you have developed the gluten? I've made bread for years but each flour is different now and all freshly milled.
Any way to get wheat germ instead of off the grocery shelf?
You'll have to enjoy your wheat germ in your 100% whole wheat flour. I don't know of any home method to divide the grain into germ, endosperm and bran. When you purchase wheat germ separated from the whole grain, it's basically old nasty stuff and very susceptible to rancidity, and something I'd consider anything BUT "health" food.
If it's raw wheat germ, it needs to be refrigerated or frozen from the time of production until it's sold, and even then the oil is sure to have degraded from exposure to oxygen, even in cold storage.
Studies have shown that vitamin loss begins as quickly as 3-hours after milling, and the natural oil in wheat germ is a good source for vitamin E - as long as you consume it soon after milling. BTW, rancid oils don't have to smell rancid to already be oxidized. If it's toasted wheat germ, that's done to disguise the rancid oils. I worked across the street from Kretschmer Wheat Germ plant in Manhattan, KS, and it was really funky-smelling stuff until they got it toasted.
I don't make very many loaves of bread by hand anymore, but when I do, especially a new recipe, I'll use the window pane test, but more often than not it's "by-the-feel" of the dough. Today, with carpal tunnel, lateral epicondylitis (otherwise known as tennis elbow) and arthritis in my fingers (damage from years of knitting and crocheting professionally), I leave the kneading to the Zojirushi Bread Machine, which does a better job than I can. I've converted most recipes to the bread machine. I use the Zo for mixing and kneading only. I control the fermentation in a dough-rising bucket, not the timed rise of the bread machine, and form and bake the bread outside of the bread machine.
All of my bread is made by my KitchenAid as I don't own a Zo yet, it is on my wish list. I never even thought of owning a Zo until we had weeks on end of intense heat, no rain and record humidity and I could not keep my house cool. It was miserable.
Therefore, no indoor baking or cooking was done for about a month. It was then I thought a Zo would be great. I wish they would come out with one that does all sizes of loaves instead of each model being limited to its own size.
I have some alternative baking methods, including solar ovens; and I can bake 2 loaves of bread in my Sharp Convection/Microwave Oven in 25-minutes and NO preheating.
If you are interested, there is a small Zojirushi that makes a 1 or 1-1/2 pound loaf, while the large Zo makes 1-, 1-1/2-, and also a 2-pound loaf (and will mix a lot more that that). The problem baking a 1-pound loaf in the large Zo is that the loaf is really short and squatty. I did one when I got my first Zo. So I would suggest, don't waste the effort, make a 2-pound loaf and cut it in half and freeze half if you are going to bake in your Zo.
A couple years ago I baked a 2-pound loaf in the Zo and had the Kill-A-Watt Meter on it, and it took .35 kwh (which is 2-cents worth of electricity at our rate). I can bake 2 loaves of bread in the Sharp using .49 kwh (3-cents).
I've recently started baking in the Zo while perfecting a low-carb bread recipe for a friend, who will only bake in her bread machine. So far so good.... And it's nice that it doesn't heat the whole kitchen up. I just hate the holes in the bottom of the loaves....
I am so jealous that you are so "green". In my reading regular bread recipes don't work in a Zo but have to be converted - ugh and then add fresh flours to the mix and I start getting a headache.
Do you have a tried and true biscuit recipe with fresh flour that you wouldn't mind sharing. There is little info/recipes with fresh flours. I have bought a couple of books and will work my way through those.
It's not so much being "green", it more about being cheap - ahem - frugal. Nothing I do will save the planet, but the bottom line, the energy savings sure are nice ;-).
For a "tried and true" recipe for whole grain biscuits... I start with a wholegrain baking mix recipe I came up with a number of years ago (I usually make 1/2 a recipe and freeze it). I use this recipe whenever Bisquick is called for in a recipe.:
Good-For-You Baking Mix 2 c. freshly-milled spelt (or unbleached all-purpose flour) 2 c. white whole wheat flour 3/4 c. Morning Moo's Whey-Based Milk Substitute (powder) 1/2 c. quick-cooking oats 1/2 c. cornmeal 3 T. baking powder 1 t. salt 1 c. coconut oil (or softened butter) In a large container thoroughly combine all the dry ingredients. Add the fat, and using a hand-held electric mixer, blend in the fat until evenly dispersed. Store, tightly covered, in the freezer.
Good-For-You Biscuits 3 c. Good-For-You Baking Mix 1 c. kefir curd (or plain yogurt) Combine baking mix and yogurt just until moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake in 425-degree F. oven for 10-12 minutes, or until golden. Makes 16 drop biscuits. For cut biscuits, pat dough 3/4-1-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch squares (or size you like) using a pizza cutter. ---------------------------------- WHOLE WHEAT BUTTERMILK BISCUITS 2-1/4 c. soft white whole wheat flour 2 T. flaxmeal 2 t. baking soda 1/4 t. soda 1/2 t. salt 1/3 c. softened butter or coconut oil 3/4 c. homemade kefir or buttermilk Mix dry ingredients. But in fat. Add kefir or buttermilk and mix lightly, just until the ingredients come together. Pat dough out 3/4-1-inch thick and cut with a pizza cutter into 2-inch squares. Bake in a preheated 425-degree F. oven for 15-minutes.
I'm interrupting again. Grainlady, thanks for re-posting your baking mix recipe. I thought for sure I had saved it, but, of course, I couldn't find it when I wanted it. I want to make up a batch for my own homemade "Impossible Pies" and squash patties.
A question about using the Zojirushi for baking: I think you may have an older machine than I do, and, perhaps, yours is a better machine. I bought mine about three years ago mainly for the kneading. It does a great job on whole grain breads. I usually bake breads and rolls in my oven. Whenever I've baked a loaf in the machine, I've always been disappointed. The top crust comes out very pale compared to the much tougher, thicker, & browner sides and bottom. Does your machine do a better job on the low carb breads you're working on? Have you found a "secret?"
I have a Zo V-20 and the newer X-20 (which is 3-years old now).
Have you tried adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of honey to your bread recipe? Honey browns quicker than sugar and that just may do the trick for a darker crust color.
The low-carb. recipe gets REALLY dark on all sides, and that's one of the things I'm working on. It bakes best in the bread machine (so far), not panned and baked in the oven. But that's a plus since that's the only way my friend will make it for herself.
The ingredients list: vital wheat gluten, almond flour, rye flour, wheat protein isolate, flaxmeal, egg or powdered egg, high-maize resistant starch, agave nectar (but I'm going to try palm sugar next hoping it doesn't get as dark), chia seeds, salt, yeast, water or water/kefir. This bread is rather spongy and tough, and works best toasted or grilled, although I took the heel off the loaf I made yesterday and had a roast beef salad sandwich on it for lunch. It's really not that bad, especially for someone like my friend who is very carb. sensitive.
When the dough is done kneading, I pull it out of the bread machine pan, pull out the paddles, spray the pan and the pins (where the paddles go) with the brand of cooking spray I get from Sam's Club. I can only suggest this brand because it resists darkening when heated, which is a benefit in this application over PAM. This eliminates the large holes from the paddles, but I still have the holes from the pins. With oiled hands I form the dough into a loaf and get it as smooth as possible on the top before placing it back into the bread machine pan and let the machine finish the cycle.
Thanks for your suggestions, Grainlady. I've done exactly what you described -- removing the paddles, etc. right after kneading. It helped make it easier to get the finished bread out of the machine.
I'm going to experiment with your suggestion regarding honey. Once I sprinkled the top of a loaf with sesame seeds. It probably didn't make much of a difference, but I didn't notice the pale crust as much. (Out of sight, out of mind.) I wonder about a light brush on the top with egg yolk and a bit of honey before baking. That's something I might try.
I'm with klmhicks regarding baking during the summer, so finding ways to use my Zo (to my satisfaction) would be great. I even bought a Panasonic bread machine just for summer baking. It actually bakes up better, but I don't like the weirdly shaped loaves.
If you get any other great ideas, please share them with me.
Hey GrainLady, hope you are well. I have additional questions.
I have a recipe calling for oat bran and oat flour. Can I just grind my oat groats and achieve the same thing?
I also have a recipe calling for barley flakes. I have a flaker but obviously mine are not steamed/cooked in any way. Is there a way the I can use my own flakes. The recipe is to be baked and one is for granola.
1. I generally substitute freshly-milled flaxmeal anywhere oat bran is called for (depending on amount and use in the recipe).
2. Oat flour can be milled from whole oat groats, steel-cut oats, OR you can use oatmeal (quick or old-fashioned oats). If you make oat flour with oatmeal use a blender or food processor. To make 1-cup of oat flour, use 1-1/2 c. oatmeal and blend it for about a minute until it's a smooth flour.
3. It depends on how the barley flakes are used in the recipe... Even though they aren't steamed before flaking, you can flake whole barley berries. They would be best used in baked goods or cooked as a cereal, rather than granola, because they are pretty tough to chew. You could try using some QUICK pearled barley in granola (which has been steamed and dried). Another thing you could do is to make the flakes from the whole grain and then steam it and dry it completely before using it. I've never used this process but think it would probably work.
I had a local mill operator tell me how they steam process (temper) wheat to produce "heavy bran" (which is often the base product used to make cereal flakes - such as bran flakes, etc.). I developed recipes using heavy bran for their open house, so that's how I got introduced to heavy bran.
Heavy bran looks like a grain of wheat that is butterflied open, and works in recipes something similar to old-fashioned oats. With a little more research, you could probably find a method you can use to steam oats or barley. Whether you steam the grain before or after flaking would be a choice (in my opinion). Tempering also helps keep the grain from going rancid quickly after it's flaked because it's been partially cooked.
I have stove-top pressure cookers and rarely use them. Sorry, I'm not a good source for information but you might check your local library for information in Consumer Reports or their web site - subscription necessary.
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grainlady_ks
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