Hooray, I finally made a loaf of 100% wheat bread that was tasty and everyone chowed down on. The trick was (as I mentioned earlier) to use whole berries, grind them as fine as the machine will go, use 50% more water than recipes call for, and bake at 400 vs 350.

Exhibit A

Nice crumb, hard crust, not dense. The white load behind it is from a bread machine, it’s like candy and the family eats it up as soon as it comes out of the machine.

The next big thing will be to try sourdough, in a crisis yeast will not be available so it’s a must. It is said the sourdough yeast works a lot better in whole wheat than the packaged variety, and you can make a firmer loaf that self supports (boule). I have the starter direction, will give that a whirl over the next few weeks.

Wheat Pancakes

I had a cup of flour left over from bread making, so I made whole wheat pancakes.  They were very good, my wife and son loved them but D2 wee’d on them. Figures, she hates anything whole grain.  They look and prepare the same as Bisquick versions, they have a little more of a wheat flavor but otherwise taste great. I didn’t know how the hard wheat would work in self-rising goods, turns out pretty well. I have the soft wheat berries but haven’t done anything with it, I’m not planning on that sort of refinement in my wheat farming.

Stay tuned for Operation Sourdough, that’s in the pipeline.