This fall has been a hectic one but included the very fun task of making food for my friend who just had a first baby. Nursing moms (as well as pregnant ladies) are so fun to cook for because they eat a lions share, seem to especially enjoy eating, and really put that food to good use.
I had fun showing off my artisan multi-grain sourdough bread but it took three days of my visit to prepare and was gone in a few hours. Wanting mama and all to have the most nutritious bread I decided to try a more quick and dirty recipe.
I prepared a quart of my starter and then mixed it with about 6 cups of spelt flour, the recipe (from Nourishing Traditions) said to rise from 4 to 12 hours depending on the temperature. I let it go overnight, which was probably too long as it got a bit deflated. I didn’t have loaf pans, so they were kind of batard style loaves. The shap of the slice wasn’t ideal but the flavor was wonderful and went great with the raw cream cheese spread I made.
As soon as I got home I started on another batch. This time I started with spelt berries and ground the flour myself. It sounds like a job for a toiling little red hen, but it’s just an electric gadget and doesn’t take any effort, but yields the freshest flour you can get, ensuring no rancidity. Spelt is a nice grain for home grinding because its gluten level perform like an all-purpose flour, which is actually a mix of soft and hard wheat. So, unless you want to grind two different grains, spelt is a lot simpler.
In my first go at grain grinding I just followed the directions and ground the whole berries on the finest setting, which gave me two distinct layers of flour, a fibery hull and a fine powdering flour. I used it as it came for the bread, which turned out delicious and hearty. After some expert advice, on the next batch I first ground the berries on a coarse setting and then ran it through again on the smallest setting which gave me a much more even flour and more flour per cup of berries (which seems to be about 2.5 c. of flour to 1 c. berries, but it depends on your grind- I am still working out that ratio)
The recipe called for the dough to be soft and easy to work with. To knead Sally says to stretch and fold, a different kneading process that I usually use.
I have now made three batches of the bread and the best results actually came from making the dough in my Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook. The pictures below are from the batch made by hand, and it turns out beautifully, but the mixer does allow a wetter dough since you dont have to add more flour to be able to handle it. This was my fist time making dough with a machine and it left me standing there watching it, sort of wondering what I should do while it worked. It was strange to not be able to feel the dough change. So, I am still a bit conflicted about the thing. I was also hesitant to do sourdoughs in metal, but apparently it makes no difference.
Cooked in a loaf pan, this bread makes a great homemade substitute for sliced sandwich bread. Not the handsomest, but probably the freshest, healthy bread you can get in your mouth.
3 Comments
Wow! This bread looks delicious. I’m pretty impressed that you ground your own flour. Even though you say it’s a machine’s job, I think most people wouldn’t think of including that step into their baking. I’m wondering what kind of machine you are using to grind grains into flour? Was it a Kitchen Aid in the picture? What other functions does the machine you own perform? I’m hoping to invest in a kitchen machine sometime soon and I’d love to know what other people are using and the pro’s and con’s. Cheers!
Danielle!
I got the grain grinder that attaches to the Kitchen Aid mixer (a very exciting wedding gift), it just grinds grains that’s it. But there are a lot of grains to grind for lots of different things, like cereals. I have heard good things about the Vitamix mixer that makes everything, juice, ice cream, grinds grain…I don’t quite get it, but Nathan’s mom has one and swears by it. I like the kitchen aid and its attachments because then you only need one electrical thing and you just add on mechanical things to it. I am learning to use the kitchen aid mixer to just get in more “handmade” things that I would otherwise, because it makes it a bit faster. It makes quick mayonnaise, good at bread, batters… I think its a happy medium, especially if all the ingredients are good and whole. But actually I am having a hard time adjusting to it and find making things by hand faster because that’s how I know how and the dishes are less as well. A blessing and a curse, these machines are I suppose.
Also, Danielle, this is not the “official” kitchen aid grinder, it is made by a different company. Kitchen aid makes one to go with their machines, and I don’t have experience with it.
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[...] else you can buy. This is a pretty similar recipe as the Nourishing Traditions loaf made in this post, but you can see how it’s lightened up a bit. This has to do with an even wetter dough and [...]
[...] once you try it, you won’t be able to go back. I also haven’t made pie crust from flour ground at home. I did make a crust from sprouted spelt flour and was really pleased with the results. It is very [...]
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