Fresh Ground Homemade Bread

I have been making homemade 100% whole wheat bread since December when I got a bread machine for Christmas. In January I got a Vitamix and began grinding my own grains for my bread. It has been a challenge making fresh ground bread in the machine and I have been trying tips and tricks every since. This is made only partly using the machine. Even the "whole wheat" setting does not seem to knead the dough enough to get a nice smooth loaf with a nice rise. Finally I am getting beautiful bread that is super soft and rising very nicely without adding stuff like dough enhancers, lecithin's, or vital gluten. Only simple, whole grain ingredients. So, now that I have something successful I thought I would share. I have taken tips and have mixed and matched recipes here and there and will share those resources at the bottom.

I start out with Organic Bronze Chief Hard Red wheat and Organic rolled oats.

I also grind raw almonds for the recipe, along with the oats. I grind the flour by itself.

I sift the flour so it isn't packed. It really does make a difference. I do not throw anything out of it, if I have big pieces left I put them back in the grinder with the next couple of cups of grains.

Next I begin proofing the Active Dry Yeast, I use Red star. I have made a habit of temping the water because it really does make a difference. Anything above 110 and the yeast may die and reduce the rise. At least that seems to be my experience with this yeast.

I let it grow for about 5-10 minutes.

 In the meantime I  make sure to have some butter softened or melted slightly on the stove. (From Grassfed cows) And make my next two cups of water and make sure to get the temp to 110.

I add all the ingredients to my breadmaker, I add the salt very last while it is mixing. My machine has two paddles and makes a regular size loaf, so it may hold more than the machines with only one paddle. If you have a bread mixing machine, great! But this is working for me for now. Maybe someday I will have one of those fancy Bosch dough machines! I allow the machine to mix and knead 3 or more times, I just keep resetting it. This recipe makes 2 loaves so the machine will not hold the rising dough.

I oil up the table with some coconut oil for kneading. I use oil instead of flour. I do not add any more flour once the dough is to the right consistency.

See all the tears in the dough, we need to knead those out and make it smooth.

I cut the dough in half to make working it easier...

And I put the other half in the machine and turn it on again while I knead the other then I switch them.

Then I knead it into one big ball, and oil it and put it in a very large bowl to rise for 2 hours. I put it in the oven that is off, no light or anything, I want it to have lots of time to rise so the gluten can get stronger.

After about 2 hours I poke the dough and it looks about like this.

I cut it in half and try to get 2 even pieces.

See the dough appears to be torn again and I need to knead it out nice and smooth once again. So once again I knead one half while the machine kneads the other half and I switch. Once smooth I shape them up and put them in the pans.

Nice and smooth and oiled with Coconut oil. I never have an easy time getting my loaves out of the pan, so I use parchment paper and it comes right out so easy. I cook at 350 for about 35 minutes.

The finished product.

Recipe

1/4 cup water 110 degrees

2-3 TBS raw honey

1TBS Active dry yeast

****

2 cups water 110 degrees

4TBS Butter

1TBS lemon juice

1 farm fresh egg

1/2 C ground almonds

1/3 C ground rolled oats

6 C fresh ground hard red wheat

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

coconut oil for kneading and greasing pans

Proof your yeast 5-10 minutes.

Add water, butter, lemon juice, egg, almonds, oats and flour and begin machine then add salt.

Allow machine to knead the dough for about  30 minutes ( I put my machine on the dough setting and reset it to mix/knead 3 times, I do not let it rise in the machine.)

Oil your kneading surface.

Then I pull it out and knead it for a few minutes before I split it and put half in machine to knead and I knead the other half for about 15 minutes and switch. Then I knead them back together and allow them to rise for up to 2 hours in a large bowl.

Pull the bowl out, the dough should have risen to the top. I split it again and allow the machine to knead for 15 minutes while I knead the other half then switch for another 15 minutes. I wish I could tell you this was easy, but hey, it is a workout! I like to knead on the table because it is lower and I can use my body more and it doesn't hut my shoulders and neck as much.

Once the dough is nice and smooth, no more tears, shape it and put them into greased loaf pans, don't forget to oil the dough or the towel will stick to it and you'll have to start all over again. If I don't use the parchment paper, I make sure to sprinkle some light flour in the pan like you do for a cake to help it release. I allow the bread to rise covered until it is about an inch above the pan, about 30 minutes. Then I bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. I let it rest in the pan a few minutes before I take them out.

I used a book called No More Bricks where I learned lots of tips and tricks.

I also used several of these recipes before I came up with what works for me:

Food Doodles Whole Wheat Bread

My Healthy Green Family Whole Wheat Bread

Guilty Kitchen's Whole Wheat Bread

And others.