Vika
05-30-2008, 12:03 AM
It is my thinking that anyone who is serious about long term survival/independence planning is probably wise to make whole wheat berries (kernels) a significant part of food stores. I’m sure most of you know all of this, but wheat (and other whole grains) is cheap, easy to store, has great shelf life (20 to 30 years easy), is very nutritious, and can be prepared a fair number of different ways from breads, to cookies, to hot cereal, to sprouted greens. I’m not Mormon, but Mormon ideas about food storage are worth respecting, and whole wheat is one of their basic four foods for storage.
There are a couple of things that are inconvenient about using whole wheat. First, you have to have a wheat grinder, and a good one is expensive. I have a “Country Living” grain mill that I motorized myself at a total cost of about $450. I also have a set of spare parts. The second inconvenient thing about whole wheat is that once you’ve ground the berries into flour, it is a not easy to make really good tasting whole wheat bread. It tends to come out heavy and strong tasting, with little natural sweetness.
However, I recently bought a great new book dedicated to the art of making good tasting whole wheat bread. (WHOLE GRAIN BREADS, by Peter Reinhart) The author is a bakery chef and professor, and he hooked me when I read the introduction where he admitted that it is darn hard to home-make whole wheat bread that tastes anywhere near as good as store bought, or as anywhere near as tasty as bread made from bleached, refined flour (that is, flour that has had the bran and the germ removed). He even explains WHY it is hard. But then, his book is devoted to teaching us how to do it, as a result of several years of research and experimentation. I have made several loaves now with his recipes, and I can testify that they are they best I have ever done, by far. They are just as tasty as store bought whole grain breads. That is, they are just as good as the expensive ones, like Orowheat, not cheap whole wheat, like Walmart bread.
The book is kind of expensive, at $35, but it has 51 different whole wheat bread, roll and cracker recipes, all incorporating what he says is (and I tend to believe him) his real unique discovery about how to make whole wheat flour into good tasting bread. The book is worth the money if you are seriously interested in storing whole wheat as a matter of preparedness. He does a nice job of explaining why his approach works, and even the basic science of bread making, in addition to the recipes. In case you would like to try out his basic approach, before buying the book, I am including below the recipe for his "100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread” which ihe describes as “The foundational loaf for all the 100% whole grain breads in this book.”
The key detail incorporated into his approach to making whole wheat bread, is what he terms “delayed fermentation.” It is a two day process, but not at all difficult. In fact it is rather easier than traditional recipes, except that it stretches over two days. On the first day you make what he calls a “soaker” with nearly half of your flour, and a “biga” with most of the other half. On day two you combine them together with some more ingredients for the final rise and baking.
To Make the Soaker:
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons of milk, buttermilk, soy milk, or rice milk
Mix the above three ingredients in a bowl for about 1 minute, until all of the flour is hydrated and the ingredients form a ball of dough. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours.
To Make the Biga:
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon instant (quick rise) yeast
¾ cup pure water (bottled water or spring water)
Mix the above three ingredients in a bowl to form a ball of dough. Using wet hands, knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes to be sure all of the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flour is fully hydrated. The dough should feel very tacky. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then knead it again with wet hands for 1 minute. The dough will become smoother but still be tacky. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
Making the Final Dough on Day Two
Two hours before starting the final dough, remove the biga from the refrigerator and allow it to warm up to room temperature. Then, chop the soaker and the biga into 12 smaller pieces each, and put them in a bowl after lightly dusting them with flour to keep them from sticking together. Add the following ingredients to the bowl with the chopped soaker and biga:
7 tablespoons whole wheat flour
5/8 teaspoon salt
2-1/4 teaspoon instant (quick rise) yeast (this is a ¼ ounce packet)
2-1/4 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Stir vigorously with a mixing spoon until all of the ingredients are evenly integrated and distributed into the dough. It should be soft and slightly sticky. If not, add more flour or water as needed.
Dust a work surface lightly with flour and toss the dough in the flour to coat. Knead by hand for 3 to 4 minutes, incorporating as little extra flour as possible, until the dough feels soft and tacky, but not sticky. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 5 minutes. Prepare a clean, lightly oiled bowl.
Resume kneading the dough for 1 or 2 minutes to strengthen the gluten. Make any final flour or water adjustments. The dough should have strength and should pass the “windowpane” test, yet feel soft, supple, and very tacky. (The windowpane test is to pull off a small piece of dough and see if you can stretch and pull it gently into a thin translucent membrane without the dough tearing.) If it doesn’t pass the windowpane test, knead for a few more minutes until it does pass. It is almost impossible to knead the dough too much. Form the dough into a ball and place it in the oiled bowl, rolling it to coat with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until it has increased 50 percent in volume (about one hour).
Again, transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and form it into a loaf pan shape. Place the dough into a greased 4-inch by 8-1/2 inch loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until it has increased 50 percent in volume (about one hour).
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, place it on the center oven rack, and immediately reduce the oven temperature setting to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the loaf in the oven 180 degrees, and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the loaf is a rich brown on all sides (30 minutes has worked perfect for me, but YMMV). Alternatively, the loaf should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom, and should register at least 195 degrees in the center of the loaf.
Transfer the bread to a cooling rack, and allow it to cool for at least one hour before serving.
I don’t think I am committing any great crime by sharing his recipe with you, because I am pretty sure that most who are interested enough to try the making this loaf will like the result enough to want to add the book to your library.
The book includes many variations, such as how to make any of the recipes with wild yeast, rather than store bought.
The ingredient cost for the finished one pound loaf is about 70 cents if you buy your yeast in one pound packages. If you cultivate your own yeast starter, the ingredient cost drops to about 50 cents per loaf.
I prefer to use hard white wheat (winter or spring variety doesn’t really seem to matter) because it has a milder flavor than hard red wheat. I prefer white even though white wheat tends to be more expensive than red. The white is a fairly new strain, not nearly as widely grown. Where it is grown, it has so far tended to organic practices, so mostly you can expect to pay the organic price premium. The stronger taste of the hard red is fine for commercial flour producers who remove the bran and the germ, which removes the strong taste. Commercial whole wheat bread tends to really be a mixture of whole and refined flour, which also tempers the taste.
I would be very interested to read of other experiences using whole wheat.
There are a couple of things that are inconvenient about using whole wheat. First, you have to have a wheat grinder, and a good one is expensive. I have a “Country Living” grain mill that I motorized myself at a total cost of about $450. I also have a set of spare parts. The second inconvenient thing about whole wheat is that once you’ve ground the berries into flour, it is a not easy to make really good tasting whole wheat bread. It tends to come out heavy and strong tasting, with little natural sweetness.
However, I recently bought a great new book dedicated to the art of making good tasting whole wheat bread. (WHOLE GRAIN BREADS, by Peter Reinhart) The author is a bakery chef and professor, and he hooked me when I read the introduction where he admitted that it is darn hard to home-make whole wheat bread that tastes anywhere near as good as store bought, or as anywhere near as tasty as bread made from bleached, refined flour (that is, flour that has had the bran and the germ removed). He even explains WHY it is hard. But then, his book is devoted to teaching us how to do it, as a result of several years of research and experimentation. I have made several loaves now with his recipes, and I can testify that they are they best I have ever done, by far. They are just as tasty as store bought whole grain breads. That is, they are just as good as the expensive ones, like Orowheat, not cheap whole wheat, like Walmart bread.
The book is kind of expensive, at $35, but it has 51 different whole wheat bread, roll and cracker recipes, all incorporating what he says is (and I tend to believe him) his real unique discovery about how to make whole wheat flour into good tasting bread. The book is worth the money if you are seriously interested in storing whole wheat as a matter of preparedness. He does a nice job of explaining why his approach works, and even the basic science of bread making, in addition to the recipes. In case you would like to try out his basic approach, before buying the book, I am including below the recipe for his "100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread” which ihe describes as “The foundational loaf for all the 100% whole grain breads in this book.”
The key detail incorporated into his approach to making whole wheat bread, is what he terms “delayed fermentation.” It is a two day process, but not at all difficult. In fact it is rather easier than traditional recipes, except that it stretches over two days. On the first day you make what he calls a “soaker” with nearly half of your flour, and a “biga” with most of the other half. On day two you combine them together with some more ingredients for the final rise and baking.
To Make the Soaker:
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons of milk, buttermilk, soy milk, or rice milk
Mix the above three ingredients in a bowl for about 1 minute, until all of the flour is hydrated and the ingredients form a ball of dough. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours.
To Make the Biga:
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon instant (quick rise) yeast
¾ cup pure water (bottled water or spring water)
Mix the above three ingredients in a bowl to form a ball of dough. Using wet hands, knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes to be sure all of the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flour is fully hydrated. The dough should feel very tacky. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then knead it again with wet hands for 1 minute. The dough will become smoother but still be tacky. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
Making the Final Dough on Day Two
Two hours before starting the final dough, remove the biga from the refrigerator and allow it to warm up to room temperature. Then, chop the soaker and the biga into 12 smaller pieces each, and put them in a bowl after lightly dusting them with flour to keep them from sticking together. Add the following ingredients to the bowl with the chopped soaker and biga:
7 tablespoons whole wheat flour
5/8 teaspoon salt
2-1/4 teaspoon instant (quick rise) yeast (this is a ¼ ounce packet)
2-1/4 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Stir vigorously with a mixing spoon until all of the ingredients are evenly integrated and distributed into the dough. It should be soft and slightly sticky. If not, add more flour or water as needed.
Dust a work surface lightly with flour and toss the dough in the flour to coat. Knead by hand for 3 to 4 minutes, incorporating as little extra flour as possible, until the dough feels soft and tacky, but not sticky. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 5 minutes. Prepare a clean, lightly oiled bowl.
Resume kneading the dough for 1 or 2 minutes to strengthen the gluten. Make any final flour or water adjustments. The dough should have strength and should pass the “windowpane” test, yet feel soft, supple, and very tacky. (The windowpane test is to pull off a small piece of dough and see if you can stretch and pull it gently into a thin translucent membrane without the dough tearing.) If it doesn’t pass the windowpane test, knead for a few more minutes until it does pass. It is almost impossible to knead the dough too much. Form the dough into a ball and place it in the oiled bowl, rolling it to coat with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until it has increased 50 percent in volume (about one hour).
Again, transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and form it into a loaf pan shape. Place the dough into a greased 4-inch by 8-1/2 inch loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until it has increased 50 percent in volume (about one hour).
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, place it on the center oven rack, and immediately reduce the oven temperature setting to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the loaf in the oven 180 degrees, and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the loaf is a rich brown on all sides (30 minutes has worked perfect for me, but YMMV). Alternatively, the loaf should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom, and should register at least 195 degrees in the center of the loaf.
Transfer the bread to a cooling rack, and allow it to cool for at least one hour before serving.
I don’t think I am committing any great crime by sharing his recipe with you, because I am pretty sure that most who are interested enough to try the making this loaf will like the result enough to want to add the book to your library.
The book includes many variations, such as how to make any of the recipes with wild yeast, rather than store bought.
The ingredient cost for the finished one pound loaf is about 70 cents if you buy your yeast in one pound packages. If you cultivate your own yeast starter, the ingredient cost drops to about 50 cents per loaf.
I prefer to use hard white wheat (winter or spring variety doesn’t really seem to matter) because it has a milder flavor than hard red wheat. I prefer white even though white wheat tends to be more expensive than red. The white is a fairly new strain, not nearly as widely grown. Where it is grown, it has so far tended to organic practices, so mostly you can expect to pay the organic price premium. The stronger taste of the hard red is fine for commercial flour producers who remove the bran and the germ, which removes the strong taste. Commercial whole wheat bread tends to really be a mixture of whole and refined flour, which also tempers the taste.
I would be very interested to read of other experiences using whole wheat.