I've enjoyed Bob's Red Mill products for a long time. This just gives me another reason to purchase from them. And whether you buy grains from Bob's Red Mill or not, their website has many healthy recipes, including a whole section on gluten-free, for those of you struggling with that challenge. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Bob's Red Mill Recipe Archive

Thanks, Ann. I will definitely try to find the old cornmeal, but fortunately, the stuffing tastes okay - I only just finished cooking it this morning. I let it sit in the fridge last night unbaked, and then I baked it tightly covered this morning. It came out just a tad salty and I put a bit too much oil or butter in it, but I do not think peole will mind. I didn't measure the oil - I just poured what I thought was the right amount into the pan. I may have put too much butter in the cornbread because it tasted very buttery and was not dry at all. I've made cornbread that has wheat flour in it, but the one with all cornmeal is my favorite. It's very dense, but it's what I was used to in Texas. I noticed on my last trip to Austin that there are quite a few flavors that I associate with Texas that I particularly like, and it's probably just the way I was conditioned. The stuffing is for a potluck lunch at work, and I'll let you know what kinds of review the stuffing gets, if any. For the bread, I used some very hard whole wheat/whole grain bread that was very crunchy, but that part worked out well, I think. I used 2/3 whole wheat bread and than added some soft French bread for the other third because I had it in the fridge and did not have time to toast it. Lars

1. What you are probably experiencing are rancid oils in the whole wheat flour from exposure to oxygen and heat, combined with an odor from over-proofing. Wheat as a grass and wheat as the hard seed, have nothing in common for flavor. Trust me on this one - I grew up in the middle of wheat fields and participated in wheat production from seed to harvest. I grow wheatgrass for juicing and 25-years of milling my own flour and making all our breads and baked goods with it, and I've never experienced any flavors or aromas like you describe. Try another loaf using a dough rising bucket to control your first rise and see if you get different results. Dough can over-proof during the first (second, optional rise, although it's not often used anymore) and the final proof/rise (after it's formed for baking). 2. Purchased commercial flour isn't "fresh". It may have been recently purchased, but the only way to get "fresh" flour is to mill it yourself, or purchase it at the mill as soon as it's been processed and bagged. We have no idea when commercial flour was milled, conditions during transporting and warehousing (temperature/humidity) and how long it's been sitting on the shelf in the store. Depending on how it's bagged and stored, flour can also absorb strong household, refrigerator or freezer odors. --If you are considering adding bulghur, that's another wheat product I would suggest making yourself from whole wheat berries - fresh is best. It's susceptible to quickly going rancid from exposure to heat, light and oxygen; and it's mainly adding "tooth" (a grainy, chewy texture, as well as additional fiber), but not a lot of flavor. I do have a good recipe for Bulgur Wheat Loaf if you want me to post it. You can't mask rancid oils or that vinegar scent from over-proofing dough. As a foods judge at fairs, smelling the bread is an important part of judging, and can tell you a lot about it. 3. "Artisan Bread" means it's made by hand. After that, it's up for interpretation, and that interpretation gets very broad. What you are describing is a lean, light wheat bread, free-formed into a boule (ball). The term "artisan" is more commercial than anything else. Up until bread was made with some kind of machinery, it was all "artisan" bread - made by hand. Some claim an "artisan bread" has to be made with a starter, not baker's yeast. Another interpretation may mean it's formed by hand, but the dough can be made with the assistance of a machine (stand mixer or bread machine). Panned soft sandwich bread can be an "artisan" bread. It doesn't have to be formed into a boule. 4. Poking dough with two fingers after the first rise in the bowl is an inaccurate method for testing dough for reaching "double" - use a dough rising bucket instead. For the final proofing (after the dough is formed) to show the loaf is ready to bake, testing it by gently pressing it with a finger and leaving a slight indention on the surface is not much better for accuracy. You really need to be able to eyeball the dough, and make sure you are using the correct size pan for the correct amount of dough, and know the dough's rising characteristics. For instance, using a no knead - Bread in 5-minutes a Day recipe, those loaves generally don't "double" in bulk before they are ready for the oven. You'll also get a big difference if you form a flat-ish boule instead of a high dome. They also take different baking times, so bake bread to the correct internal temperature, not by time, looks, or the ever inaccurate - tapping on the bottom. --Cover formed dough for the final proof with plastic wrap - it's not possible to put it in a dough rising bucket. The dough rising bucket is used for the first (and second - if using it) fermentation of the bulk dough, not formed for baking dough. --Where many people go wrong -- they allow the dough to rise to the size they want the finished loaf. In an approximate, rule-of-thumb measurement, the dough represents 1/3 of the finished size, you allow the dough to double in bulk and that = 2/3 of the finished size. The last 1/3 is accomplished through oven-spring when the dough finishes rising in the oven. 5. Since bleached/unbleached flour is no longer bromated (added chemicals), it doesn't have the extensibility it once did and it doesn't stretch as far before over-proofing as it once did, so just UNDER double is actually a better gauge, and just UNDER double is nearly always a better gauge when using 100% wholegrain flour, or a mixture of wholegrain and bleached/unbleached. Whole wheat flour isn't as extensible as bleached/unbleached flour because of the bran. 6. A dough rising bucket is nothing more than an opaque plastic tub with straight sides and a tight fitting lid. They are available through King Arthur Flour, but I got mine from the local restaurant supply store for about half the price, where they are considered - food storage containers with a lid. I like those with graduated markings on the side, but a recycled plastic ice cream tub will work just fine. --Just make sure the container you use has straight sides. A slant-sided bowl is also an inaccurate gauge because it's smaller at the bottom and flairs out at the top, so it's very difficult to gauge "double". --I have these plastic food storage containers in several sizes to accommodate different amounts of dough, and also have round as well as square containers. It's all about the straight sides. The one I use the most is 2-quarts. My standard recipe for 100% whole wheat bread makes about 1-quart of dough. I know it's double when it reaches the 2-quart line. --If you use an unmarked container, just use a ruler to measure where the dough is in the container. You could also tape a 6-inch ruler on the side of the container. Double the measurement of dough pressed in the bottom of the container and mark it on the container. So if the dough measures 2-inches, it will be "doubled" when it reaches the 4-inch mark. If you mark it with a piece of masking tape, mark whether the top or the bottom of the tape is the measure, or you can accidently be adding the width of the tape and over- or under-proof the dough. Beth Hensperger's "Bread Made Easy" - A Baker's First Bread Book - shows step-by-step pictures and includes pictures proofing dough in a dough rising bucket (pg. 32), with the two-finger test as the option. Keep at it.... Bread is the most humbling food we make :-). A trip to your local library may also provide books and videos that can help. Information and experience..... -Grainlady

--Whole wheat pastry flour is milled from low-gluten, low-protein, soft wheat varieties. I use soft white wheat for pastry flour, or anywhere I don't need a lot of gluten development. Spelt is another good wholegrain choice when you don't need a lot of gluten development. Spelt has a gluten level that is 5,000 parts per million; compared to wheat which begins at 50,000 parts per million and go up from there. --Technically, "all-purpose" flour was developed commercially for bleached/unbleached flour from a mixture of hard wheat and soft wheat. There's enough hard wheat so it has enough gluten to make yeast breads, and enough soft wheat flour so it makes decent quick breads, pastry or cakes - so it covers "all purposes", but it's NOT the optimum choice of flour for most things, other than soft dinner rolls. We've just developed our flour use from the most common commercial flour available - all-purpose - with occasional moves to Southern all-purpose for biscuits and quick breads, and the even more elusive cake flour for beautiful tender cakes. Even in the world of commercial bleached/unbleached all-purpose flour there are great differences... Northern all-purpose flour (King Arthur and Robin Hood - 11-12) have a higher protein level than National Brands (Gold Medal and Pillsbury 10-12). Southern all-purpose flour (7.5-9.5) is milled from soft wheat, so it's best used for quick breads, biscuits, muffins, pastry, cookies, cakes - foods where you don't want a lot of gluten development. A mix of 3:2 hard wheat to soft white wheat is a great "all-purpose" mixture when you want soft yeast rolls. Otherwise, choosing a mix of hard wheat and soft wheat is less than optimum for other baked goods. --Whole wheat "bread" flour would mean a high protein level milled from hard wheat. Bleached/Unbleached bread flour has a protein level of 13-14. I've milled wheat that was 16% protein and made yeast bread with it, but it takes a lot more kneading to develop the gluten and you find you have tough bread as a result of the high protein level. This also happens when you add too much vital wheat gluten to a recipe, so more (protein/gluten) is not necessarily better. The protein levels of wheat I purchase is generally between 13% and 14% protein, which is more than enough to raise a lofty loaf of bread. If you tend to get short squatty loaves of 100% whole wheat bread, there are other factors you need to address besides protein/gluten levels - such as stop using a (quick mix) direct dough method and switch to a sponge method. A sponge will help soften the bran - the sharp edges of bran can cut the gluten strands. A sponge method also helps develop the gluten without kneading. Adding an acid ingredient (vinegar, lemon juice, ascorbic acid, etc) to the recipe has a positive effect. There is a substance in wheat germ called Gluthione which breaks down the gluten strands. Adding an acid, such as ascorbic acid, counteracts the negative effects of Glutathione. Ascorbic acid helps to prevent the gluten bonds from breaking down and will repair the gluten bonds, so you'll get a high-rising loaf of 100% whole wheat bread. I generally add 1/8 t. ascorbic acid per loaf of bread when making bread that includes wheatgerm (as a single ingredient or from whole wheat flour). -Something we tend to forget, or possibly didn't even know, hard wheat wasn't even available for milling until the late 1870's when the German Mennonites arrived here in Kansas and brought the granddad of all hard winter wheat varieties, Turkey Red, with them from Europe. Prior to the developing of the hard winter varieties of wheat, all flour was milled from soft wheat. The mills liked soft wheat for milling into flour because it was easy to grind in one pass through the mill, and had a much larger extraction of flour. Soft wheat tends to be a plumper seed with more endosperm, while hard winter wheat is small and rather wrinkled with more bran and less endosperm. You can tell the difference between hard and soft wheat when you mill it at home - the hard wheat flour is more coarse and gritty from the bran, while soft wheat renders a very soft, talcum powder feeling flour. --"Bread flour" or high protein flour milled from hard wheat, was available to commercial bakers and they referenced it by calling it "strong" wheat flour. Strong and weak wheats indicate a wheat or flour's baking strength. It wasn't until the advent of the bread machine in the 1980's that high-gluten bread flour became available for home use. Up until that time all-purpose flour, which is a medium-protein level flour, was about the only kind of flour available for home use. If "whole wheat bread flour" is called for, it means use a "regular" whole wheat flour which is milled from hard wheat, instead of "pastry" whole wheat flour, which is milled from soft wheat. -Grainlady