My Mama's Bread

So, I don't remember my mom making bread very often when I was growing up. (Sorry, Mom!)  I have a good friend who taught me how to make bread about 5 years ago and I have been making it ever since.  In those 5 years, I have tried several different recipes, and really liked most of them.  I have posted a few on my blog (at least 2, I think--I didn't check).  But sometime in the past year, I got my mom's bread recipe and finally tried it.  It is by far my favorite!  It takes the least amount of time (which is precious!) and turns out great each time.  Sigh. . .

Since we have been living on the BRAT diet at my house (see previous post--by the way, I think we are over it, whew) for the past week, I really needed to make some more bread.  So, I thought I would share my mom's recipe with you all.

Whole Wheat Bread

5 1/2 c warm water

1/2 c honey

1/2 c oil

*mix*

In a small bowl mix together:

1/2 c gluten flour

1 1/2 Tbsp salt

2-4 Tbsp dough enhancer ( or if you are grinding your wheat, add a couple vitamin C tablets to your wheat as it is grinding-they are a dough enhancer)

Add this mixture to the water/honey/oil and mix

Then I just leave it mixing and start adding flour  11-15 cups.  Once the dough is pulling away from the sides and bottom of your mixer, stop adding flour

THEN ADD 3 Tbsp yeast  (I have forgotten this a couple times :)

Let mix for 10 minutes and then remove, shape into loaves (by the way, this recipe makes 5 loaves and I use oil on my counter as I am shaping them), let rise and bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.  Don't forget to grease your bread pans!

It turns out great every time!  As long as I don't forget the yeast! :)  But seriously, this is so fast and easy with no waiting periods here and there that drag out the process.  Just mix, raise and bake.  I can have bread made in and hour and a half, easy.  Most of that is raising and baking time.

My kids also love to help me make bread and it is nice because they can just sit there adding flour and I tell them when to stop.  It doesn't have to be measured super accurately, just as long as you stop when the dough is pulling away from the bowl like I said earlier.

Oh-I almost forgot.  This bread recipe turns out fantastic with hard red wheat.  I know most people like hard white, but the red wheat bread turns out softer and nicer.  White wheat works great, too, but I prefer red.  Just FYI.

Anyway, happy bread making!





Pin It

Have you tried this?

So, after the preparedness fair (see previous post), I had a few leftover wheat nuts and some granola that I wanted to save. I used this vacuum sealing method to vacuum pack my food into quart size canning jars. It is awesome! You can seal and save so many foods that you cannot preserve otherwise (wet pack canning, dry pack canning, etc.). Foods like brown rice, raisins, chocolate, nuts and things that normally go rancid will stay good for years sealed in a jar.


So, me and my little helpers went to work. Kayla (2 years old) was busy filling up my jars.


Lily (4 years old) put on the lid (just the flat lid, not the ring) and then the handy sealing top that you see connected by a tube to my food sealer (it's just a generic version of a Food Saver).

I worked the sealer and here you go-- granola and wheat nuts sealed in jars ready to be stored for a long long time.

The girls and I were having so much fun that we ended up sealing a few jars of chocolate chips and craisins while we were at it. It is addicting! I am excited to start sealing up more food!

More Wheat Recipes

I am behind on posting the recipes from our recent classes, so I am going to catch up on a few of those now.



Whole Wheat Tortillas:


1 c wheat flour

2 c bread or all purpose flour

1 t salt


Combine in a mixer or with bowl and spoon.


Add 1/3 c oil or shortening


Stir or cut into flour. Add 1 cup warm water. Stir with a spoon, or in a mixer with dough hook on speed 2 for 3 minutes. If not using a mixer, knead for 3 minutes on a floured surface. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Cut dough into 12 golf-ball sized pieces.. Flatten into discs and dip in flour. Roll out to 10" diameter on a well-floured countertop. Heat a 10-12" saute pan on medium heat. No grease needed. Place tortilla on pan and heat each side for 1-2 minutes. These may be frozen till needed or refrigerated for a couple of weeks.

They are so yummy, I don't know how I can every eat store bought ones again!





Wheatberry Pineapple Chicken Salad

1 can (15-1/4 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 can (10 to12-1/2 ounces) chicken, drained

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 cup cooked whole wheat

Mix together the pineapple, mayonnaise, and salt. Add chicken, almonds and wheat. Stir well. Chill several hours before serving. It is delicious!!!





Wheat Cinnamon Rolls


3 c hot water

2 cubes butter

1 c honey

6 eggs

1 1/2 t salt

2/3 c powdered milk

3 T yeast

15 c wheat flour


Combine all ingredients and just 2 cups of wheat flour and mix on low speed until moist. Continue adding flour one cup at a time until dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Increase speed to medium on mixer and let knead for 10 minutes. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and let rise until doubled. Punch it down and divide in two equal pieces. Roll out each piece in a rectangle and heavily spread with butter, sprinkle with brown or white sugar and cinnamon. Roll into a long roll and but into about 1 inch pieces. Place them on a greased baking sheet and let rise again. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until done. (I don't think I baked them for a full twenty minutes, they were about done by 10).


Caramel Frosting


2/3 c butter

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c evaporated milk


Heat all ingredents in saucepan until it comes to a boil. Turn heat to low and cook for 2 minutes. Removed from heat and cool for 10 minutes. Beat in 3 cups of powdered sugar.






These turned out surprisingly light and fluffy for being made from all wheat flour. Yummy!






Enjoy!!

Wheat Meat Class

So, last night we had a great class on how to make gluten out of wheat, or "wheat meat." Gluten is a part of the wheat that is mostly protein. It is a very healthy alternative to meat and our bodies can digest it very easily (unless you are gluten intolerant). Here is what we did:

First, you start out making a dough with whole wheat flour and water. I made a large batch 7 cups of water and 12-15 cups of flour. Mix and then set aside for 20 minutes. (If you will not be getting back to it for longer than 20 minutes, refrigerate).

Here is what my dough looked like:





Next is the rinsing process. I split the dough into small balls for the class so everyone could experience making their own gluten. Doing it myself, I would split the dough into sizes slightly larger than a softball. You need a large bowl filled with room temperature water. Then start kneading your dough ball in the water. Aren't these ladies doing a great job? :)






The dough will pretty much fall completely apart, get stringy, and then start to stick together again. This is the gluten. Once you have a small ball of gluten, the rest will start to cling to it. The bowl of water will be left with bran and starch from the wheat. Good job gals!






This is what your water will look like afterwards. White with bits of bran on the bottom. There is so much you can do with this water! Save it in a glass jar and put it in the fridge. Add the water to just about anything, and you can scoop off the starch for soups, thickenings and other stuff. You can use the bran to make cereal, muffins, cakes, and tons more. That will have to be another post.


Once you have your ball of gluten, take it back to the sink and rinse it off a little more under room temperature water. This is what it looks like when you are done:





Now you have a couple choices of how to cook it. You can steam it. This is my homemade steamer--just a stock pot with a metal colander. Just place your gluten pieces in the steamer for about 30 minutes. I turn them over after 15 minutes.



This is what they look like after they have been steamed:







My favorite thing to do with them is to ground them up. You can use either a food processor or a blender to easily grind up the gluten to look like ground beef.







It makes a great meat extender, or you can just eat it by itself. I made taco meat out of the ground gluten and didn't add any real meat at all. It tasted great!







Another cooking method is to simmer and bake. This is the raw gluten (straight from being rinsed). I rolled it out and cut it into strips.







Then I simmered some in chicken broth and some in beef broth. There are some great seasoning mixture recipes in "The Amazing Wheat Book" by LeArta Moulton. It really is an amazing book. I am looking into make a bulk order of it to get it cheaper, so if you are interested, let me know.









After simmering the gluten (and it absorbes the liquid really fast!) spread it out on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 for 30-60 minutes--until texture is chewy. Turn them over a few times while baking. You can also stick them in your dehydrator. They turn out kind of like jerky.


This really is just a small start as to what you can do to with wheat and gluten. You can make large batches of gluten and prepare it how you would like and it will keep in the freezer. I hope this insipires you!

Wheat 101: Wheat Nuts

Thanks to all who made it to our Wheat 101 class last night! Here is one of the things that we did:

Wheat Nuts

What are wheat nuts? They are like corn nuts, but made out of wheat. So, one thing you can do with all that wheat sitting in your pantry. : )


I had these for the first time last summer and have made them several times since. It is so easy and they are a yummy snack. Here's how to make them:


I use 3 cups of wheat (red or white) and about 8 cups of water. Put them in a pan on the stove and simmer for 1 hour. (Alternative: Put it in a crockpot on low before you go to bed and they will be ready in the morning)


When they're done, drain any excess water. This is what you get:

I take a medium sized pot and fill it with oil (about 2 inches from the top). I use a metal strainer ($2.50 at Wal-Mart) to create my deep fryer. Fry no more then 1/2 cup of wheat at a time. When the oil gets hot (this is tricky because I don't know what temperature my oil is at. I warm it up on medium-high (7-8 on my knobs) and then move the heat down to medium (6). Put 1/2 cup of wheat for 2 minutes. I then dump the kernels onto a paper plate to let dry and start another batch for 2 minutes. You have to fry them twice to get them crunchy, so after my second batch is done, I put them on a second paper plate and then put the kernels on the first paper plate back into the pot for another 2 minutes. Because life is kind of hectic, I put the lid over the wheat when it is the first time in the fryer so I can keep track of which fry time it is--first or second. . .

And the second time in the fryer, I leave the lid off. That way, whatever I do in the two minute increments I don't have to remember how many times the wheat has been fried.

This is what it looks like after one fry:

Ater the second time frying, I put them ont a large cookie sheet covered with paper towels and then sprinkle them with some seasoning. Our two favorites are garlic salt, and cinnamon and sugar. They are a great snack (don't eat too many at first. . . it's a shock to the body if you haven't been eating whole wheat . . . and whole wheat bread doesn't count. Trust me). I like to sprinkle the garlic ones on salads to give them a little crunch or add it to trail mix or granola.

It sounds kind of times consuming, having to be at the stove every two minutes, but I tend to do a lot of organizing in my kitchen while I'm waiting for the timer to go off. It's amazing how much you can accomplish in those two minute increments while you're waiting for the wheat to fry.

So, here's the bottom line in case you've gotten lost in my explanation:

Cook your wheat either on the stove or in the crockpot. Fry it twice for 2 minutes each. If they are not crunchy still, fry them a third time and maybe turn up your heat. Then season and eat. Good luck!