Using Fresh-Ground Whole Wheat Flour (and some highlights from book tour)
The flour on the left (the browner, coarser one) is an organic fresh-ground (aka fresh milled) whole wheat. On the right, the commercial whole wheat flour is obviously finer-ground and lighter in color (it’s the Dakota Maid brand, a very consistent and tasty product). So many of you have asked about grinding your own wheat to make whole grain breads, that I decided to try it myself.
OK, I didn’t really grind it myself, I sourced fresh-ground wheat from a local miller. The flavor’s terrific.
It’s not an absolute requirement for whole wheat bread, but here’s a little on my first experiments with this great flour. Considering how different the fresh-ground product looked compared with commercial whole wheat, I was surprised at how easily this stuff was able to be used in one of my whole-grain Master Recipes— with no changes. After some whole wheat talk, a little about the West Coast leg of book tour (Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco).
I loved the gorgeous whole wheat loaf that the fresh-ground flour made. It developed a very firm and crisp crust (oftentimes, oils in the wheat germ make it difficult to get a crisp result on a whole wheat loaf). The flavor was terrific– the difference from commercial flour was subtle, but very nice. It had a certain brightness and sweetness, which was a neat trick since there were no added sweeteners. I used our plain Whole Grain Master Recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
The big surprise was that this coarse, fresh-ground flour had almost exactly the same density (ounces per cup) as the commercial whole wheat in the top picture– it weighed in at 4 3/4 ounces per cup, while the Dakota Maid weighed 4 1/2 ounces per cup. So I was comfortable just swapping it in exactly for commercial whole wheat flour. The resulting dough was a touch wetter than my usual, but I just ignored it (in the first book we said “… if you worry about the bread, it won’t taste good”).
But be careful: Your own fresh-ground may be of a different density, moisture content, or bran content, and you may need to adjust the liquid up or down, to achieve a result like you see in our videos for the whole grain breads. If you want to use these great flours, be prepared to experiment.
Why the wetter result, even though this flour’s a little denser? Makes sense to me–it’s more coarsely ground despite being denser, and those larger particles present less surface area for water to bind onto and absorb. Or something like that. Next book we should write “… if you turn this into chemistry, you may not have any fun.” And even though this dough was a little wetter, it held its shape nicely through a 90-minute counter-rest under plastic wrap, and slashed well with a bread knife (see videos for more details on forming and slashing):
The result was great: a superior whole grain crust and a terrific flavor:
I’m going to post more about the dough that this flour made in the next 10 days, to see how well it stores compared to commercial whole wheat flour (click here to view).
OK, on to the book tour. After Chicago and Milwaukee (WGN-TV, a podcast with ABC-TV’s Steve Dolinsky, and two TV segments in Milwaukee–WITI-TV Fox and TMJ-TV NBC), there were a couple of days home before heading off to Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco–with book signings along the way.
In Seattle, an appearance on Channel 13’s morning show, in a great segment with budding home baker and news anchor Mark Wright (on left) and co-anchor Lily Jang (right):
In San Francisco, there was a live studio-audience broadcast of KGO-TV (ABC-7)’s “The View From the Bay,” with hosts Spencer Christian and Janelle Wang, who helped us mix the Whole Grain Master Recipe.
When not working (which was almost never), there was eating. A sample platter:
At Tom Douglas’s Serious Pie in Seattle, there was fantastic beet salad with anchovy, pistachios, and fresh mint:
… and then the guanciale and arugula pizza. Though you can’t see it, there’s an egg cracked onto the top of the pie before baking, and it was sublime. This may look like salad sitting on top of a pizza crust, but it was perfect:
I met Tom at an event in Seattle and asked him about recreating this topping for my next book (on pizza and flatbread, in 2011). Answer was something along the lines of yes, but he wasn’t open to supplying his crust recipe! Fair enough. Now where do I find that guanciale (a very fatty and crazily delicious pork product)?
Onward to Boston and Orlando…
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I am so excited! I just bought both of your books (waiting on them to come in the mail). I grind my own wheat and I have been wondering how your recipes will work. So today you post the first one with success! I can’t wait for the others!
Thank Ramona! Enjoy the books and all the bread! Zoë
I’m always glad to see a new post and such a yummy-looking one, too! That pizza sounds like a great breakfast idea- minus the salad but with some crumbled (cooked) sausage and maybe some feta after it comes from the oven…. MMMM!
That pizza looks and sounds great. You could probably substitute with prosciutto, right?
Hi Nate,
Oh yes, prosciutto sounds like a fabulous idea! Go crazy with the toppings!
Thanks, Zoë
I got my new book yesterday plus one for a gift and mixed up the master recipe today. I have two fresh loaves from the old book I baked today. (One is gone already) I love all the breads I’ve baked from the first book, but my favorite is still the Deli Rye. I look forward to exploring the recipes in the new book. Congrats on the new book…I look forward to taking another class at Cook’s. Cheers, Marvyl Grinney
Thank you so much Marvyl!
Enjoy all the new breads you bake! We will look forward to seeing you soon in a class!
Cheers, Zoë
Did you still have to use vital wheat gluten with the freshly ground wheat? Could you make the bread without it?
Hi Laurie,
Yes, you still need to use the Vital Wheat Gluten with fresh-ground flours. The problem is that you won’t be able to store the dough if you don’t use it. It provides the whole wheat dough the strength it needs to store for up to 2 weeks. The recipes will also be too wet if you leave it out.
Thanks, Zoë
What great inspiration! I remembered a “Back to Basics” manual grain mill I had in my storage cabinet from back in the old bread machine days (circa 1991). I had some farro (emmer) in the pantry so I ground some up for the white wheat portion of the quinoa bread. I’ll be baking it later this week and will report back!
WOW – that bread looks AMAZING – like I can just grab a piece from the screen. I know you said it’s not a requirement, but, maybe I should try fresh ground WW flour – it just seems like it would be that much better.
It was fun to read about your tour! MMMM ~ Beet salad – I LOVE how vibrant your pictures are.
Thanks for the link love! It was fantastic meeting you all. Good luck with the rest of your tour.
Hi – I am going to try the Pumpkin Brioche today. Wondered if I could leave off the raw sugar or sprinkle with Splenda?
Sorry I missed you in Chicago; I was in the process of moving. Hope you’ll come back to the area sometime in the (near) future.
Can’t wait to try more recipes!!
Regards,
/s
Michelle: Break out that old mill and let us know what you find. Emmer, by the way, is available from Bluebird Grain Farms (https://www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com/)
Danica: Thanks! Hey, vibrant food partly the miracle of photoshop, partly because Serious Pie mixed up one fantastic salad dressing on those beets.
Suzan: The question is how Splenda will do in the oven heat. Will it scorch? That’s the question; neither Zoe nor I have tried it so just can’t say. Should be worth an experiment?
Jeff
Thanks so much for this post! I grind my own flour and put the release date of your book on my calendar so I could go out and buy it right away.
Unfortunately though, I’m not having much luck with the bread (delicious breadsticks with the dough though, great recipe thanks!).
The bread isn’t rising much, beforehand or in the oven. It gets wider but not taller. Based on the photo of your uncooked loaf, I’d guess mine is too wet. Does that seem like it could be causing my difficulty?
Hi Lisa,
Yes, if your dough is too wet it will do as you describe. Just to make sure, you are using the vital wheat gluten with the recipe? Without it the recipe would be way too wet. The other culprit can be how the flour is measured, be sure to use the scoop and sweep method, as apposed to spooning the flour into the cup. If you are already doing both of those things it could be that your flour is just a much courser grind than the one Jeff used and it will require a bit of play to find the right amount. You can certainly add more flour to your dough, until it looks like the one in the video. When you mix in the new flour you will need to allow it to rise again before shaping, resting and baking.
I hope this helps, please keep us posted! Zoë
Just following up on how I’ve been doing with an overnight refrigerated rest. I think that I like it even better than the 90 minute counter rest. The dough seems to rise more up, instead of out. And it’s easier for me to slash because it’s firmer when it’s cold. I’ve found that the standard 1 pound loaf takes about 5 minutes longer to bake. When I made a 1.5 pound loaf, it was more like an extra 10 minutes. The one thing that I tried that I wouldn’t recommend is letting the refrigerator-rested dough come to room temperature before baking — it spread so much sideways that the end product looked more like biscotti than bread.
While I’m at it, I’ll share my experience with the beer bread. I know that all of your doughs are supposed to develop sourdough flavors over time, but haven’t really had that happen to me until I tried the beer bread. I used a good brown ale and the dough got sourdoughy almost immediately. People loved it.
Hi Suski,
Thank you so much for the update. I’m so glad that you are experimenting with the doughs and figuring out how to get the best result.
I love the beer bread, so glad you tried it. You are the first to give us feedback on it and I’m so thrilled you like it!
Thanks, Zoë
Jeff – here’s my followup using freshly home-ground farro for the white whole wheat portion of the quinoa bread recipe:
The best tasting bread I’ve made to date! The nuttiness and subtle sweetness were wonderful, and the crust had a delightful crispness. I used the disposable foil pan method of generating steam.
The Back to Basics mill is quite a workout. I wouldn’t want to grind the 5 cups needed for the master whole grain recipe. I’ll probably try a half or 1/3 recipe and if the flavor is also that much better, I’ll invest in a better, powered grain mill.
My copy of HBi5 just arrived- I am beyond thrilled with it! I’ve already filled it with sticky notes, and I think I may be subsisting solely off bread for the next month! I think the carrot and banana recipes are going to be my first picks.
Does anyone know where I can get White Whole Wheat flour in Canada? I bounce between Toronto and Calgary, and haven’t been able to find it anywhere. I’ve checked lots of heath food stores, and all I get are strange looks and people insisting that ‘white’ whole wheat is an oxymoron. I always bring up a 5lb bag when I go to the States (and get some strange looks from the security people), but that means I ration my WWW pretty strictly. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Marie,
So glad your book arrived and you will be baking from it! You can substitute whole wheat for the white whole wheat, it will just have a stronger flavor. I’ll look around to see if anyone knows where to get WWW in Canada?
Thanks, Zoë
I think this Saskatchewan grows white wheat–check with them. https://www.schmidtflourinc.com/CONTACT_US.htm
Thank you for trying the fresh flour for us. I will be very interested in how well it stores.
Since I am new to home milling, I have been looking up information on the web and have run across people who soak their flour to rid it of phytic acid (which I think binds up minerals). Seems like storing wet dough would accomplish that task well. I am a little confused about phytic acid, though. Is it that bad for you? One post made it sound like phytic acid is actually good for you. Any thoughts on any of this? Does it matter?
Thanks.
Dana: My quick research on phytic acid yields the same conflicting story that you’ve found. I’ll keep my eyes open for any new information. I’m not seeing any reputable information source that considers this plant-based chemical (naturally-occurring in the hull of the wheat) to be a health risk. Seems to be more of a problem in societies where they’re absolutely dependent on the grain for certain nutrients and minerals, which generally isn’t true in Western society. Thanks for the heads-up! Jeff
Hello from Finland! Got your book 5 days after release. GREAT! Quinoa bread was really tasty. Can´t wait to test others.
Your latest post – I did not even read it through, my eyes just caughtin one sentence two words:” next book”.
Yes please!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Aren´t we ever satisfied? 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
No, we want more!!!!! 🙂
Seriously, what you have done by now is just great. Your entusiasm inspires us. And although I am quite far away I can feel that you really honestly enjoy what you are doing. And that keeps me going also! Thank you and all the best to you both and your families for the coming season!
TiV
Welcome back TiV! Such a sweet note, thank you. Yes, we are already thinking about the next book, it’s been announced by the publisher. Focus will be on pizza and flatbreads from around the world. Is there a Finnish one you can recommend? Jeff
Flatbreads, sure!! Let me get together some material and I will email it to you. This might take a week or two, but dead line is not right ahead, is it? 😉
One more thing. I forgot to thank you that you made a note of my comment and included Fahrenheit/Celsius chart in the new book. Great help!!
Hi TiV,
I can’t wait to see what flatbreads you find out about! It really was great to hear from you again, hope you enjoy the new book!
Happy baking, in celsius! Zoë
Jeff, Thank you for your quick reply. I will relax about phytic acid.
Your new book is just what I was hoping for–even better!
I am super excited about trying the Gluten Free recipes. However, as I looked at the GF Olive Oil Bread recipe on page 238, I noticed that it calls for A LOT of cornstarch. Is this a typo? Can 3 1/2 cups be right? I just wanted to check before I tried to bake it.
One more question: Do you think the master recipe could be baked as an even larger loaf in a “commercial” size loaf pan? Maybe with a 3 pound portion of the dough? Has anyone tried this?
Jeff–it was lovely meeting you at the Boston/Northeastern demo. Love the little chocolate breads. That will probably be my first foray into the new book. I have a dear friend who is gluten intolerant and I can’t wait to make bread for her.
Thanks to you (and to Zoe) for getting this out into the world.
best,
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Jeff said he had so much fun at that event! I wish I had been there to meet you!
Enjoy all the new breads, Zoë
We have just started to grind our own flour. So far we have only tried wheat. It has been fabulous. We just bought an assortment of whole grains and are excited to see what we come up with. Thanks for the book. We love it.
I’ve also been unable to find white whole wheat flour here in British Columbia. But, I wonder how well Nutri Flour Blend by Robin Hood will work?
https://www.robinhood.ca/product.details.asp?pid=122&prodcid=9
I’ll have to give it a try some day.
It says it can be substituted 1:1 for all purpose flour which makes me think that the amount of liquid might need to be adjusted.
Hi Marianne,
The Robin Hood flour you mention is AP with bran added back in. I think that the protein content is lower than Whole wheat and therefore you will probably have to adjust the amount of water. Not having tried it, I’m not sure by how much but I’d start with 1/4 cup less water and you can always add more if it feels too dry.
Please let us know what you think of the flour! Thanks, Zoë
Hi you guys! My copy of HB arrived yesterday, and today I mixed up the dough for the potato rosemary rolls (for a big dinner I’m making tomorrow). There’s a ton of potatoes in the dough…I’m nervous about it! I’ll let you know how it comes out.
Hi Sue,
I love this bread, the potatoes bake up to be nice and tender. The trick is getting them to be small enough cubes and it will work just fine!
Enjoy, Zoë
Hi Jeff and Zoe,
I am a big ABin5 fan and have asked for your new book for Christmas. Meanwhile, I am looking for tips to convert standard recipes to refridgerated recipes.. I found a couple of roll recipes on epicurious.com that I want to recreate the ABin5 way!
Hi Carrie,
The dough needs to be nice and wet or it will not store well. The rest is trial and error. If you find one you like I hope you will share with us!
Thanks, Zoë
Hi sweetie,
Just saw your latest post — did you really pour flour all over my beautiful tablecloth (the one Elaina brought us from Egypt)? While the cat’s away… Hope you’re having fun in Boston. xox
Hey Laura, are you spying on me here? I’ll have you know that in fact, the cloth in question is Jon and Lisa’s, brought back from Paris and much more washable. If you must know, it is a dishtowel, though a very nice one.
Er, is that OK?
xoxox
For my fellow bread baking Canucks, I did some checking and I found Anita’s Organic which has organic white whole wheat flour.
https://anitasorganic.com/products.php?p=2
The company is based in British Columbia, but they will ship the flour nationally. Could get a bit expensive. Fortunately for me, I know a local retailer who sells products from Anita’s Organic.
Marianne: Thanks for sleuthing out white whole wheat in Canada, I’m sure a lot of people will be using this link. Jeff
Regarding Dana’s question about the phytic acid, I thought I’d link this article:
https://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/3/418
Soaking the wheat flour before (without the salt) will inhibit the phytic acid. Some acid is recommended to jump start the process. I just add 2 tbsp of cider vinegar in place of some of the water. I’m having fantastic results with freshly milled flour and this master recipe, adding a little vinegar and no salt.
The phytic acid doesn’t bother many people. However, some people are really sensitive to it (like my two youngest boys). I see a huge difference in their ability to digest it with soaking (ie no salt and adding just a touch of vinegar).
Thanks for the tip, Jeff, on just leaving the salt out. My family is missing it though. Could I stir it in later and let it re-rest before using the dough?
Cathy: I don’t think you’re going to be happy trying to mix salt into risen dough— it won’t be very uniform, plus you’ll knock all the gas out of the dough and it will be dense. Better to sprinkle salt on water-brushed crust to boost the flavor if you want to use this no-salt dough. Next time try just decreasing salt? Jeff
Are many of the recipes gluten-free? Is your table of contents available to review?
Barbara: I just posted it somewhere, but where! There are about five to seven new gluten-free recipes (can’t exactly remember and the book isn’t in front of me at the moment). The table of contents doesn’t have the detail you need if you’re looking for GF stuff). All of the new GF recipes store well, setting them apart from everything else on the market. Zoe, can you give Barbara an accurate count? Jeff
I’m also interested in Kristen’s comment (11/13) re: cornstarch amounts in the olive oil bread…. ??
Kristen and Barbara— that is the correct amount of cornstarch– if you want a heartier, less light result, make your olive oil loaf with the crusty GF boule but swap olive oil for the neutral-flavored oil and you’ll get a boule with olive oil but not such a light result. Jeff
As I have said before I love your books, I have enjoyed playing with the recipes. Could you please develop a stored recipe for those wonderful buttery, feathery light Parker House Rolls. Please!
Hi Jeff and Zoe! Isn’t fresh ground ww great? 🙂
Just wanted to let you both know that one of the two food items my sister requested for her 20th birthday was your Kaiser Rolls. 🙂
Thank you!
Hi CJC,
Happy Birthday to your sister, who has very good taste at 20!
Thanks, Zoë
My potato rolls came out great! Everyone loved them! Being able to see the diced potatoes was nice…usually with potato rolls the cooked potato is incorporated into the dough. So these are refreshingly different. And the salt crust….yum! This is the first whole wheat baking I’ve done in a long time, it’s amazing how 1 small roll can satisfy, I think I would have eaten 3 of them if they’d have been all white flour. Thanks!!
Sue: I’ve been thinking about this angle, put out there by the “Slow Food Movement” people (https://www.slowfoodusa.org/). They say that we eat so much because the food just isn’t satisfying or nutritious, just flavorless fluff. So we keep reaching for more.
I have friends who say “the better the food, the more I eat,” which goes against this. I don’t know, but I’d really like to study this. In another life, I’d have time to do and and start a research project through my University job. Not going to happen right now.
But I’m with you, hearty breads seem to satisfy more easily. Thanks for the comment, great to hear from you. Jeff
Hi Jeff and Zoe!
Thanks so much for the shoutout, you are both so charming 🙂
Am loving the book and there is an open door for you anytime you want to guest on my show!
A votre sante
Luna Raven
Hey Luna,
It was such a pleasure to meet you! We would love to be on your show! Any excuse at all to hang out again! 🙂
So glad you are enjoying the book! Zoë
Hi guys! Love the new book! Strangely the basic recipe is not printed on mine but it’s ok because I printed it and taped it into the page from your posts! The whole wheat loaf is great, in fact I made such a big loaf that I used half to make croutons for my husband’s salads. They’re fantastic! The seed mixture toasted up nicely and adds a lot of interest to our salads now!
I also love that you mentioned the egg on pizza, my husband and I have been doing this a lot recently and I prefer adding a partially poached egg to the pizza about half-way through baking. That way the yolk stays runny but the egg has a better shape on top of the pizza. Whenever we crack eggs on top prior to baking they seem to get a little too hard for our liking. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Kylie: The “basic recipe” in “Healthy Bread” covers seven pages in Chapter Five (pages 63 through 69). If it’s truly not printed in there, something is very wrong with your copy of the book and it should go back to the bookseller. Is it possible that you’re just not recognizing this recipe as the one from our website? It’s certainly in a different (expanded) form. Let us know what you think after taking another look.
Thanks for your tips about the egg on pizza, we need to start experimenting with that. Jeff
We had a pizza in France with a raw egg on top. The egg was added after coming out of the oven, still very raw when it arrived at our table. We recognized the word for egg in the ingredient list on the menu, just never imagined that it would be uncooked. We will be watching for your egg on pizza ideas!
LindaDV: My mouth is watering just thinking about this. All depends on how runny you like your egges. Recently had them in restaurant this way and it was perfect, just the right balance. Jeff
Zoe and/or Jeff, I have a question about the rye bread. Would I get a good loaf baking it in an uncovered pullman pan so as to have lovely slices for sandwiches? I realize this is off-subject but I don’t want to buy the pan if it won’t work. Thanks.
Louise: Cheaper approach would be to just use an ordinary loaf pan like https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Metallic-Professional-Nonstick-1-Pound/dp/B00004R91A?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=arbrinfimiada-20&creative=380725. But the open pullman pan should work too.
In either case, may be 15% more baking to get it done in the center; fill 3/4-full to get a generous domed loaf. Jeff
Loving the book, loving the recipes. Next time you are in San Francisco, come a little further down the peninsula to San Jose. You have a lot of fans here!
Rosemary: Wish we’d had a month in the Bay Area, so beautiful. Jeff
I just bought your book and my question is this: If I make a batch of the master recipe and take orange size pieces out to bake on various nights but would like to vary the added ingredients, I will run into the problem of deflation when I add say, cheese, olives, etc. after two, three, or four days. Is it better to decide after the first two hours what the various batches are ultimately going to be and divide them up into little tupperware containers. By adding the extra ingredients and mixing I will be degassing.
Hi Dorothy,
When I add something special to the dough I usually just let it rest longer to compensate for all of the extra handling. Sometimes this will just be a few minutes more and other times it will be an extra 30 minutes. It depends on what I am adding and how much extra handling (ie kneading is done).
Hope that helps! Zoë
HI – I made the pumpkin pie brioche without using anything sweet on the top and it worked just fine! I did use the egg wash.
Regards,
Suzan
Hi Suzan,
The sugar on top is completely optional! You could even sprinkle the top with pumpkin seeds for an entirely different taste!
Thanks, Zoë
Jeff,
A question on your fresh whole wheat flour: Is the flour stone ground or ground on a roller mill? If it is stone ground, that might be a bigger difference in your fresh flour, more than if the flour is 1 or 101 days old.
Harry: Sunrise doesn’t say whether they stone-grind or use a roller mill, but given the coarseness, I’m guessing that this is stone-ground. Jeff
I’ve been using your bread recipe regularly for the last 2-3 months, and I just have to write and say thank you both so much. Now I eat fresh, wholesome, gourmet quality bread every day. It’s fast, easy and produces perfect loaves every time.
In your recipes where you call for unbleached all purpose flour can I just use all whole wheat flour as I am not in favor of using white flour?
Debbie: No, that won’t work, whole grain flour absorbs much more water and can’t be swapped for white (all-purpose). You’ll end up with doorstops! In our new book, we address the question of how to get more whole grains, and about a dozen of the recipes are 100% whole grain. Jeff
I grind my own whole wheat flour and have just started with the recipes in the new book. I am finding the dough very wet and my loaves seem to just flatten. Is vital gluten flour the same ingredient the recipes call for?
Hi Mary,
It does sound as if your dough is too wet. If you are grinding your own wheat you may need to adjust the amount of flour to compensate for how fine or course it is being ground. It may be helpful to watch our video to see how wet our dough is. https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63
Vital Wheat Gluten and Vital Wheat Gluten Flour are the same.
Hope that helps and please keep us posted! Zoë
I saw you at the Borders in Roseville, and afterward, I thought of a question I should have asked. Jeff said that he started out storing dough for 30 days, and Zoe put a stop to that. What is the rationale for the 2 week time line? I know with he doughs that have eggs or milk, there is a spoilage problem (yuck), but what about the flour-salt-yeast-water doughs? Is it a quality issue or a food safety issue?
We have been grinding our wheat for years. The main advantage to baking absolutely fresh bread, is of course, nutrient retention.
However, your method also preserves nutrients so we (my husband and I) are rethinking our ‘daily grind’ approach.
Thank you so much!
I have been enjoying this thread – lots of good questions and information! We use sprouted wheat flour in our house and I wondered if anyone here had tried using it with the 5 minute technique?
Hi Rosalyn,
We have not played with sprouted grains yet, but there has been tons of interest and perhaps others will weigh in on their experiences!
Thanks, Zoë
Thanks for the fast response, Zoe! I will give it a shot in the next few weeks and let you know how it goes!
Quick question. I’m making my first batch of the pain d’epi from your first book. Right now I have bread flour for it. But I’m wondering, now that I’m stocking vital wheat gluten for the recipes in HBin5, is there a way to mix VWG and AP flour to make a usable substitute for bread flour for those recipes that require it? If so, any suggestions on proportions? It would be nice (if it works) to have one fewer flour to keep in stock.
Thanks again for all the help on this site.
Hi Elizabeth,
The only recipe in the book that requires bread flour is the Epi, so you won’t need to recreate that flour often for our recipes. In all truth I usually use the master recipe to create the epi, but you will get a bit more definition using the recipe as it appears in the book.
You can use a couple of tablespoons of the VWG to boost the gluten forming protein in the flour if you like, but you will also need to add a few more tablespoons of water to compensate for that.
Thanks an enjoy! Zoë
Hi there,
We just made our first batch of dough using the master recipe from Healthy Bread book. We put in a plastic container and I am wondering if you snap the lid when putting in the fridge. We didn’t and hopefully that is okay. Also thanks for mentioning Bluebird Grains for the emmer flour…I work there..small organic family farm so we appreciate the plug.
Hi Halley,
You did it just right, close the lid, but don’t snap it shut.
How wonderful that you have access to emmer all the time. What a wonderful place to work. It is a rare and wonderful treat for us!
Thanks, Zoë
You can grind your own whole wheat flour. I’ve been doing for more than 30 years. I buy wheat berries from my food coop in 50# bags and grind it in my very simple 30 year old electric grinder that has stones. Ummm. It’s so fresh and it takes very little time as long as you have an electric grinder. Now that hand grinder which was my first (a Corona as I remember) took hours and lots of muscle to grind enough flour to bake a batch of bread.
If I’d like to double or triple a recipe, do I just double or triple the amount of dough for a loaf and then bake it at double or triple the amount of time called for by the recipe? And at what temperature … the same or less than called for in the recipe?
Hi Jerry,
We often bake an entire batch off as one large loaf. It requires additional rising time and baking time. We recommend that you make the loaf lower and wider and not try to make it super tall. This will help the crumb from being too dense. You may have to let it rest as long as 2 hours and allow it to bake for about 50 minutes, depending on how large a loaf you end up with. You can keep the temperature the same as the recipe calls for.
Thanks, Zoë