Hi, Lisa.
You are right where I was a few years ago and I totally understand
your needing to make your way slowly. That's good, but if you're
like me it won't be long until you're in it up to your eyeballs and
loving it. I started for health reasons in my family. I made my own
bread from white flour for years and knew I needed to change, but
didn't want dry, tasteless brown bread that no one would eat. I
started by getting a 'new' coffee grinder and began adding whole
wheat flour to the white flour. (You can only grind 1/2 to 1 cup at
a sitting. It overheats easily.) I got the hard red wheat grain
from the health food store and over many months increased the
amounts, but I still wasn't happy with the texture. It was still a
little courser than I wanted for sandwich bread. A friend introduced
me to using Prairie Gold wheatberries and it makes awesome whole
wheat bread. I bought the Ultramill for grinding. It was about $130
and has a lifetime warranty on it. It has served me well. I also
get pastry grain and have ground oatmeal in it, as well. I have
since switched to Golden 86 (I think is the name) and get it from
Walton Feed. We were able to get a good price and low shipping
because a truck driver brought it to us cheap on his way back. I got
250 lbs about over 2 years ago and everyone thought I was
nuts. Well, I opened my last bucket a few weeks back and hope to
order more. I bake cakes, pastry, cookies...everything with my
pastry and golden wheat. It takes a little practice to adjust the
recipes a little, but it's not hard.
My bread recipe is:
2 T quick yeast
1 1/2 cups flour
2 T honey or agave
1 to 1 1/2 cups warm water
2 cups buttermilk
2 T butter
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup sweet whey powder
whole wheat flour as needed
Mix the yeast into the flour, then add the honey and water. Mix well
and let it sit until you see the yeast activate (bubble). In the
meantime I put the buttermilk and butter in microwave for 3
minutes. It separates and looks funny. No problem. After yeast is
activated and buttermilk is just warm, add buttermilk/butter to yeast
mixture and blend. Add gluten and whey powder and begin adding whole
wheat flour 1/2 cup at a time until it is slightly sticky. Knead
until you can stretch a pinch of dough a little without a break (that
window test). Don't add flour until it's dry, but a nice playdough
consistency. Put in a large bowl to rise double. Put your hands
around edge of dough and gently deflate, stretching dough under
itself and rounding into a flattened ball. Leave in bowl to rise
again. Deflate again and divide in two loaves formed and place in
greased pans. Rise until a couple of inches above pan and place in
hot oven (350 F). Bake 40 minutes or until golden on bottom of
loaf. *** The amount of flour it takes depends on moisture content,
humidity, etc. So just practice until you're satisfied. My last two
batches have been so perfect I can't keep it around. Good Luck!
Linda