Saturday, June 5, 2010

Not exactly gluten-free

My new favourite toy.
For about twenty years, I have been unhappy with my wheat grinder. It was reliable, but fell sadly short in the fineness of the grind. All my baked goods were somewhat coarse in texture, which made me unhappy. New wheat grinders of good quality are expensive, so I was resigned to making do with my existing grinder till I died.
And then, happy day, one of the buying groups to which I belong got a great deal on these Blendtec grinders.
I am in Heaven.
It is fast and furious.
The flour is of commercial quality.
I may yet accomplish my goal of using all my wheat before I die.
And lest you laugh, you should see my wheat buckets.

I picked up an old issue of Backwoods Home Magazine at the library and I found an article with a master whole wheat recipe that could be used for bread, pizza crust and cinnamon rolls.
I was inspired.

On Thursday, the missionaries came to dinner.
We had two kinds of pizza for dinner and cinnamon rolls for dessert.

Pepperoni and olives.

Prosciutto and pineapple, which I make on purpose because Jeff will not touch any pizza that has pineapple on it. He calls it sissy pizza. All the more for me, I call it!

Cinnamon rolls, which were pleasantly, not overpoweringly, sweet and very delicious with some hastily concocted brown sugar/cream cheese frosting.
The missionaries approved.
So, if you dare, here is the recipe.

Basic Whole Wheat Bread 

2 Tbs + 3/4 tsp yeast
4 c hot water
1/2 c honey or molasses
1 Tbs salt
1/4 c olive oil
Stir together and let stand for 5 mins.

1 c oatmeal
1/2 c cornmeal
1/3 c wheat germ
1/3 c ground flaxseed
Stir into liquid and let stand 5 mins.
I didn't have wheat germ, so I ignored that one.
Work 9 or 10 cups of wheat flour into the dough mixture.
I substituted 3 c bread flour for 3 c of the wheat flour, because I was too chicken to go with 100% wheat this first time.
Knead the dough till it is pliable but not sticky.
I actually kneaded by hand for the first time in years. I've gotten lazy with my bread machine.
Cover and let rise until doubled in size. Refer to your own favourite recipes for baking temperatures and times.
I got a small loaf of bread, two large pizza crusts, and a small batch of cinnamon rolls out of this batch of dough. I think next time I will skip the bread and make more cinnamon rolls.
By the way, the article was called Whole Wheat for the Whole Week.
I don't think so!

The first time I tried organic wheat bread, I thought I was chewing on roofing material. Robin Williams.

3 comments:

  1. YOU MADE ME SALIVATE!!! I want bread now oh and a fun new toy!

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  2. Looks heavenly! Thanks for sharing the recipe. We will have to make some this week. Glad your new grinder works so well. It makes a big difference.

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