As I was mixing up some sourdough pancakes last night (I mix them up the night before and cook them in the morning) I was thinking about an area that I should have mentioned for my Real Food Challenge. In January I decided to quit buying white flour, at least for us to eat. I’ve always purchased some organic white flour to keep in the pantry. I do however have a beautiful grain mill and a variety of whole grains for grinding.
About 80% of the baked grain products we eat are made with 100% freshly ground whole wheat flour, but I often mixed in some white flour to keep the light texture. So our pancakes would be half white, most of the bread I made was about 20% white since I used to feed my sourdough starter white flour. In January when I ran out of white flour I simply quit buying it. I’ll buy any I need in the future in small quantities from my health food store (I still use it when making bread/baked goods for gifts and when we have guests).
Surprisingly we haven’t even noticed. The last batch of cookies I made were 100% freshly ground white wheat and you couldn’t even tell. That lemon pound cake I made was 100% freshly ground white wheat and the guests at the party I took it to didn’t even notice (I asked a few).
When you grind your grain fresh it doesn’t have that bitterness that preground whole wheat flour can have. That bitterness is actually the oil in the flour going rancid – YUCK! That’s why whole grain items often have a bad reputation of being bitter and bad. You also have to learn a little about the different kind of wheat and when to use them. I buy hard red wheat for bread and soft white wheat for cookies, cakes and other things. If you’re wanting to switch to whole grain bread I’d highly recommend Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor and Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours.
This choice is part of our effort to reduce our food down to the lowest possible denominator. As much as possible we’ve been trying to replace items with options that are as close to the natural form. So instead of rolled oats, we switched to steel cut oats, then we switched to oat groats. Instead of purchased pasta we started making our own, now we’re switching to homemade with freshly ground flour. One of the wonderful things about doing this is that you learn to appreciate each food as close to natural as possible. It’s amazing the differences you notice. The taste is often more complex and the texture is usually better as well. This year we are going to be able to use mostly maple syrup for our sweetening needs because of the great season, it sure does make a difference in chai tea and coffee!
Are you a whole grain or a white flour kind of household? Have you ever thought about the different levels of processing in foods?
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We’ve switched to mostly whole wheat from a local mill, but I keep white flour around for the reasons you mention. I have not been able to find white wheat (mostly because I refuse to shop at Whole Foods because of the way they moved into the market here), so for baked goods I switched my flour mix from wheat+white to wheat+oats that I grind myself in the food processor. This gives the baked goods a moist, kind of spongy texture.
And yeah, no one’s noticed that I make cookies with whole wheat flour.
I do have a question– does it have to be a flour grinder, or could you use a standard food processor to grind wheat?
If you’re interested in grinding your own wheat a lot of the time I’d recommend getting a grinder. I find that it does the best job at getting a good consistent grind. It’s kind of like a burr coffee mill vs a blade. If you want to make good espresso, you have to have a burr or ceramic one.
I think the kind you buy makes a difference as well. I have an old kitchenaid that was given to me and I was never satisfied with the grind, it was never fine enough and the final grind had a variety of differently sized pieces.
I purchased the beautiful wooden german mill for beauty and for a few other reasons, but you can find less expensive ones like the Electric Wondermill Whisper Mill the Worlds Best Grain Machine – I personally didn’t like the plastic casing and the metal grinding mechanisms, but my sister has this one and likes it.
It does take a few years to source out the different grains you want. I just found a local farm that raises hard red wheat (was buying from a farm out west) they also have rye, oats, spelt and a few other grains. Grinding your own also saves a good amount, especially if you can buy your grain in bulk. I get bulk organic red & white wheat berries for less than 50 cents a pound, that’s much cheaper than organic flour. I usually buy 50 pounds at a time.
I haven’t quite made the leap to buying a grain mill yet…I’m glad you mentioned the bitter taste that whole wheat can get…I think that’s the reason my family is so resistant to whole wheat. Even though I buy it from a local mill, I should freeze it (or just break down and buy a mill.)
Yes, you should store ground flour in the freezer. I’d recommend starting the switch to whole grain by replacing 25% of the flour with whole grain in each recipe. White wheat also had a less “wheaty” flavor than red wheat. It has less gluten though, so it doesn’t work as well in breads that require gluten for structure, but it works perfectly well in cookies and cakes. If you slowly increase the percentage of wheat your family will most likely not even notice.
I usually purchase my flour direct from the company so that it’s shipped fresh – and it’s all US grown. A flour mill will hopefully be in my future so that I can get even more locally grown and fresh products.
Especially during the Real Food Challenge my mind focuses on just how much processing goes into our “Real Foods”. Flour is sorted, threshed and ground; sugars are ground and somewhat refined; milk (unless raw) can be homogenized, pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized; and so on.
I’m all for convenience , but not at the sake of the freshness of my food. If my food is going to be rancid before I even purchase it… thanks, but I’ll pass!
When I can I’ll do what I can afford (timewise and monetarily) to help support local artisans and farmers. For example, it’s not always convenient to make your own cheeses – but it’s not always cost effective to purchase a local chunk either.
So, until Santa, my fairy godmother, or Hubby brings me a nice mill I’ll be dealing a little bit with convenience, albeit organic convenience and slightly processed.
We are not there yet, but I wish we were!
I have been doing some experimenting with White Whole Wheat but lately we’ve been buying 50/50 from Frankferd Farms, where its grown, ground fresh and then I keep it in the freezer. http://www.frankferd.com/
25 lbs of local (for me), fresh flour for a good price. Baby steps for us!
I use a mixture. I grind my own whole wheat for use in most things (red and white), and some rye as well, but I am still using mostly AP flour for sourdough while I perfect my technique. Over time I will increase the amount of fresh ground flour (I’m using a little bit in it now) until I’ve replaced that as well. I love love love the taste of fresh ground flour and it’s so delicious in baked goods.
We have oodles of red and white wheat canned here for use when I make bread, but beyond pizza crust and pancakes I haven’t ventured further into baking with it. My big dilemma right now is my and my daughter’s wheat allergy – ugh! I’m SO hopeful that after following a strict anti-fungal/candida diet, including eliminating other foods we know we have a sensitivity to, we’ll eventually be able to enjoy some wheat products. I don’t know if it works that way, but a girl can dream!! The rest of my family doesn’t have a sensitivity, so Karlie and I can just look on forlornly as they enjoy that fabulous wheat bread.
I made the switch to fresh ground flour a little more than a year ago and am just in love with the results I get. It took a while to convert some of my recipes, but now almost all my bread is sourdough using 100% fresh ground flour. I never keep any “regular” flour around unless I am making food for others as I’m never quite sure how easy the fresh ground flour is to digest for people who don’t usually have it. I found that the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book (http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Flour-Whole-Grain-Baking/dp/0881507199/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1300298929&sr=8-1) has many wonderful recipes in it, particularly the spelt pancakes, and chocolate chip cookies recipe. I couldn’t believe how well the cookies came out, as I’ve never gotten cookies like that from whole grain.
What I love about the mill is that it has opened me up to lots of grains I wouldn’t have tried before, like spelt, barley, bulgar, etc, because I wouldn’t have used them up before they went bad, but when i can just grind what I need it makes me much more open to new grains. I have a hand operated one (the Wonder Junior Deluxe mill) that is quite a workout to use, but I kind of like the effort that I have to put in. Though at some point I might put a motor on it. It’s also nice to be able to make peanut, cashew, almond and all other sort of nut butters at home now, and pretty easily (you need stainless steel burrs for that, as you wouldn’t want to try that with stone burrs).
Chiotsrun: I live in western pennsylvania and I’d love to get the name of your wheat supplier as I think you are in eastern ohio right? I currently buy whatever is at whole foods or the co-op, but I’m sure that it is not local, and I have to pay more than double what you said you paid per pound. Thanks for any information you can give me.
Brian – just an FYI – I’m in Pittsburgh and I bet Frankferd Farms has what you’re looking for – and they supply some item to the East End Food Coop, like their 7 grain pancake mix.
Thanks tinepgh. I’m also in Pittsburgh and the East End Coop is my main grocery store. I’ll look into Frankferd Farms, I just saw their catalog and realized it was too big to take in all at once. Thanks for the help.
EEFC is our main store too. The Frankferd Farms catalogue IS insane, which I think may be why more people don’t know about it! Hope it helps you some.
Christine
I’m trying to transition to whole wheat flour only, but do find that I have to keep using some portion of white in most recipes so that things don’t turn out heavy. I’m really interested in eventually grinding my own flour. I just put the Peter Reinhart book on hold at the library (thanks for the tip). I’m still struggling to find a good bread recipe and/or figure out what I’m doing wrong.
I’d highly recommend trying the whole grain loaf that’s first in Peter Reinhart’s book. When I made it I was amazed at how light it was. I have never been able to get gluten to develop that well in whole grain bread. I did find out that you have to knead whole grain brain for longer than white bread as it seems to take the gluten much longer to develop.
I have done a similar thing. I have a nice grinder, and have been using about 50% whole wheat with white organic flour. I found originally the bread was too heavy (even by homemade bread standards!). After running out of flour I just used our home ground and the bread turned out great. I think sourdough can take a bit of time to get used to changes…. I think mine is very stubborn and does funny stuff if the routine is messed up at all!
We inherited an antique grain mill last year that my husbands grandfather built, and have been having wonderful results grinding out own whole grains. The whole wheat comes out so light and fluffy that I don’t have to add white flour to lighten it up. I also add barely, rice, oat, rye or amaranth flour to things as well to mix things up. I’ve found that rice flour is a good substitute for the lightness in white flour.
I have Peter’s book, but haven’t ventured beyond the ‘whole wheat sandwich bread’ as of yet.
What a fabulous gift from your husband’s grandfather – wow! I bet it’s nice to grind flour and think about all the people that have done it before you and about all the many loaves of bread that have been made from that flour.