Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Switching to Whole Wheat Flour – making the transitions easier

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This post was originally published in February, 2011.

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I want to take some time to address some of the many whole wheat flour questions I receive from those of you making the switch from white to brown. So many of you email me to say “I wish we liked whole wheat flour…we just don’t. What ideas do you have?” or “When I bake with whole wheat flour, my food often feels and tastes heavy and grainy. My kids won’t eat it.” or “Laura, you look really good with flour in your hair, what’s your secret for getting it right there on your bangs?” Just kidding about that last statement. Thankfully.

My suggestion (and hear me out on this, because I think I know all of your arguments) is…okay actually I have two suggestions.

Switch to Whole Wheat Flour

  1. Use a Grain Mill to grind fresh flour.
  2. Use Hard WHITE Wheat.

Here’s the deal:  I have NEVER liked store-bought whole wheat flour. Still don’t like it very much. The idea of switching to whole wheat flour to me was NOT appealing and I DIDN’T want to.

Until I had a piece of my friend’s bread made with freshly ground hard white wheat flour. That was all the evidence I needed.

I really didn’t believe her when she said that the bread was 100% whole wheat. It didn’t taste whole wheat. It didn’t look whole wheat. It didn’t feel whole wheat. Oh, but did it ever smell and taste good.

It was at that moment (after she answered more of my questions and after I talked it over with Matt of course) that I decided that I would save any extra money we had toward getting my own grain mill. The problem was…we had NO extra money to save toward a grain mill.

What I Did:

I started buying Hard White Wheat and letting my friend grind it for me. She was so sweet to do this, and it worked, but it certainly wasn’t convenient. I then began making these soft pretzels to sell at our local farmer’s market to save for my Nutrimill. It took just a few weeks before I had enough money saved. I ordered my Nutrimill right away! That was five years ago, and I’ve gotta say that saving up for and buying my Nutrimill was SUCH a great investment. My whole family thinks so.

Why Freshly Ground Flour Made from Hard White Wheat is Different (and tastes so good):

Well, fresh flour is…fresh. It’s amazing the difference in taste you’ll notice when you eat bread and other goodies made from flour that has been freshly ground. The whole wheat flour from the store is a little on the old side and is likely even to be rancid. It is usually often made from RED wheat.

Which leads me to my second point about why freshly ground flour from hard white wheat is different and tastes so good:  White wheat is lighter in texture and color than red wheat. Whole wheat flour made from Hard White Wheat produces lovely bread, tortillas, pizza crust, muffins…everything you need flour for.

The Question of the Hour:

But Laura, doesn’t white wheat turn into white flour?

Ah, I didn’t get that at first either. But NO, it absolutely doesn’t. Hard White Winter Wheat is simply a different variety of grain.  Hard Spring Red Wheat has the same nutritional value as Hard White Winter Wheat…but white wheat makes (in  my opinion) a nicer and more palatable whole wheat flour.

I think you’ll notice a big difference.

(White flour that you buy at the store, by the way, is flour made by sifting out the bran and germ after the grain has been ground. This was originally done to give it a longer shelf life. Now, unless otherwise noted, the white flour is bleached to make it whiter. Yum.)

What Do I Suggest?

See if you can find someone who has a grain mill and will let you try out freshly ground flour made from hard white wheat. Hey, if you come over to my place, I’ll let you try some of mine! (I may even share my secret of getting flour in my hair.)

If you like it (the freshly ground flour…not the flour in my hair), I recommend doing a little something to save up for a grain mill. I love my Nutrimill!!! Here’s a video of me showing how to use the Nutrimill. I love Paula’s Bread as your go-to source for purchasing a Nutrimill. She offers great prices and offers wonderful customer service.

And…you may want to look into this online Bread Class offered by Lori. She teaches you to use freshly ground flour to make a perfect loaf of bread…and other great baked goods too! It’s a very helpful class!

Lastly…I will recommend that if you just aren’t able to grind fresh flour right now, try to find store bought whole wheat flour made from white wheat, labeled, White Whole Wheat. King Arthur has a nice variety. It’s not quite the same (because it isn’t fresh), but it’s the best store-bought flour I’ve used.

Those of you who’ve been grinding your own flour…share what you love about it! How were you able to make the investment to get a grain mill? Which is your favorite grain mill and wheat to grind?

(You’ll find more posts I’ve written about grinding grain, where I recommend getting grain, which grain I recommend and ALL kinds of grainy questions answered in this section!)

Disclaimer:  No one here is going to force you to grind your own flour, eat white wheat or get flour in your hair. If you like flour make with red wheat, enjoy! If you can’t afford a grain mill, this is not a guilt trip. I’m just answering many readers’ questions. Hopefully you all found it helpful. And hopefully you are much cleaner bakers than I am. Not only is there flour in my hair, it is also on my kitchen floor and counter tops.  I need to go clean my kitchen. 

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Do We Need To Be Eating So Much Bread?

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My grandpa always held a slice of bread in his left hand while his right hand held his fork. A meal was not a meal to my grandpa unless it included my grandma’s homemade bread. He often used his bread to sop up gravy. Or he would slather his bread with Grandma’s homemade jelly or applesauce. If there was no bread – well, there just always had to be bread.

Let’s pause now to give three cheers to my grandma who had nine children, the tiniest kitchen I’ve ever seen, and never failed to provide homemade bread at every meal. She was a rock star.  Grandma made bread like a boss. (They’re compliments, Grandma. Really.)  

I also grew up with bread served at every meal, likely the result of having a dad who had lived with a dad who always needed to hold a piece of bread in his left hand – we’ve already been through this. Thus, I began our married life always including a side dish of bread with our meals, which Matt held in his right hand – if you can possibly imagine (because yes, my husband is a lefty).

Now, of course, there are all the experts who suggest we eat “low-carb” and others who insist we all need to go “grain-free” and someday soon like tomorrow there will be a new diet claim that suggests that if we all avoid eating (fill in the blank) we will all be healthier, skinnier, and have a perfect complexion. I am not interested in a one-size-fits-all diet, fad, or bandwagon because I believe in eating real food, in balance, in its whole form, according to an individual’s needs, for the sake of nourishment and good health, all the time. It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle.

We interrupt this post for some important disclaimers before I share my overall thoughts on eating bread:

  1. Some truly need to avoid all grains. If that’s you, then do it.
  2. Not all grains agree with everyone. This is a real thing.
  3. My grandpa probably needed more carbs (and food in general) because he was a farmer, doing hard physical labor for many hours every day. Most of us don’t work that hard on a daily basis anymore.

Now these thoughts:

Do We Need to Be Eating So Much Bread

I do not believe that bread is evil.

However, many of us eat more bread (and cookies and cakes and muffins and donuts) than we should. To say nothing of the empty (negative) calories we consume in white flour products which do very little to nourish us – I would suggest that many of us even eat more whole grain products than our bodies actually need. Especially if we compare it to the amount of other nutrient-rich food we are consuming – like fruits and vegetables.

Oh, you knew I would bring up the fruits and veggies. The good ol’ F&Vs. May as well shorten it to save time since we talk about it so much around here and simply call them freggies, don’t you think?

Bread (and pasta and rice) can really fill us up, leaving little room in our appetites for other necessary foods that our bodies crave. (Like freggies. There. I’ve used it twice, so that makes it a real word.)  Sometimes we even load our families with grainy foods in an effort to save money as they appear to be an inexpensive, filling food choice. I totally get it. I feed five hungry men 3 meals plus snacks every day, and they definitely like grain based foods. These foods have their purpose and they are filling. But…

As  you think about the food you plan to put on your table, consider the variety of nutrients in the meal. A spread of spaghetti, corn, and bread offers little compared to a meal of spaghetti, salad, green beans, and cantaloupe. See the colorful and nutrition-packed difference? If we’re already serving rice, pasta, or potatoes at a meal, we probably don’t need bread, rolls, or bread sticks too. But an extra side or three of veggies along with a delicious bowl of fruit – well now our bodies are happy.

Fruits and vegetables are the most important part of our meals and snacks. The other parts are important too – we just need to make sure we aren’t going overboard with the bready stuff and neglecting other important food groups.

So less bread, more freggies. What do you say?

No seriously. What do you say? What are your thoughts on eating bread? And also – what do you think of the word freggies? I am so going to start saying that now.

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My Sourdough Has Been Revived!

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Ever since I read through GNOWFGLINS Sourdough A to Z eBook, I have been inspired to make bubbles again. Sourdough bubbles that is. I am excited to report that over the past few days, I have worked to revive my sourdough! (Actually, I just started over with a new starter because my original one was very…dead.)

These are my bubbles. Aren’t they simply gorgeous? (Just nod and smile.)

I shared about making Sourdough Starter about two and a half years ago and was very excited to make sourdough breads a healthy habit in my kitchen. Making a sourdough starter is stinkin’ easy (and by stinkin‘, I mean that the starter really does begin sporting a mildly sour funk after a few days). But I really had no idea what to do with my starter after it was started. I played around with making bread a few times, but never got anything more than a few dense loaves that my family didn’t like. And so, my sourdough starter died a long, slow death in my refrigerator because after a few months, I stopped feeding it or trying to do anything productive with it. It’s a sad story really.

BUT, I’m all excited about sourdough again, which is why I created a new starter.  I love that not only does Sourdough A to Z eBook have very thorough instructions about how to make a sourdough starter, it has loads of recipes and ideas with directions for what to do with your sourdough starter. We’re talking cakes and muffins and pita bread and pizza crust and all kinds of great goodies. I never knew there were so many things to make with sourdough! (Forgive me for sounding like I’m writing an over-eager book review. The GNOWFGLINS ladies didn’t ask me to write this. I’m just excited about my bubbles.)

Here’s the front view of my jar of sourdough starter on day three.
Again, see my cute little bubbles?

Because all of these items are made from sourdough starter, they are so much easier for our bodies to digest. I was kinda hoping you’d get excited with me and try getting a sourdough starter going too, if you don’t already have one. Let’s make bubbles together, wanna? Think of the fun we’ll have!!! (Yes, it would appear that I’ve gone a little sourdough silly.)

If you eat a gluten free diet, never fear – Sourdough A to Z eBook even shares how to create and use a Gluten Free Starter!!!!  Yes, we can ALL play at this game!!!

This happens to be a perfect time of year to get a sourdough starter going, as the weather is warm, making for easier and happier bubbles. :)  I was eager this morning and with my new sourdough starter, made delicious muffins based on a recipe in Sourdough A to Z. They didn’t taste one bit sour, in case you were wondering. My boys didn’t even know they were sourdough and ate their typical three to five muffins each. ;)

 Tomorrow I’m going to follow the eBook directions for making a loaf of bread. I’ll share the results whether it’s pretty or not so pretty. Here’s hoping for a successful sourdough bread making experience!

If you want to create a sourdough starter, but aren’t able to purchase the ebook, please click on this link and scroll down to the beginning of the series of posts that describe day by day instructions for how to make a starter. Since the recipes in the Sourdough A to Z eBook aren’t mine to share, I’ll only be able to talk about them and show you pictures of my results, but not print the recipes themselves. 

Okay, here’s hoping for a lovely loaf of sourdough bread at our house tomorrow!!! What’s been your sourdough experience? 

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Kitchen Therapy

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Would you like to hear about how I was on the phone all morning, mostly on hold listening to horrible elevator music because I was trying to resolve an insurance issue? And how after all of that, I’m right back where I started because insurance keeps telling me to call the billing company and the billing company keeps telling me to call insurance? And how while all that was going on my breakfast dishes sat dirty and my laundry sat unfolded and my littlest kids scattered without doing their schoolwork? And how I almost cried while talking to Greg, the billing guy?

No, you really don’t want to hear about all that.

But what I will tell you about is how after such a frustrating morning of feeling incredibly unproductive…I was very much on edge. My kids were at each other, some of them had bad attitudes about their school work, and three out of four didn’t want what I was making for lunch. It is times like this that I struggle with showing my kids how to be godly in the face of frustration. I would never allow them to scream and throw things when they are angry, so in a effort to be a good example, I decided against using their lunch plates as frisbees, and resisted the urge to wad up school papers and shove them onto the floor. 

I pretty much told them, “Guys, I’ve had a really frustrating morning on the phone so please work very hard not to cause more frustration. That school work needs to be done whether it’s your favorite thing to do or not, so you’re gonna need to just deal. This is lunch, eat it. And no one…NO ONE will touch each other right now. Is that understood?”

It was understood. In fact, I think we went through an entire five minutes without anyone touching anyone.

After lunch, everyone left the kitchen to finish work or make messes elsewhere and I decided that I needed something to help me get out of my funk. Trust me, I’d been praying since the phone calls began…now I needed to exert some energy on something positive. I flipped on my very much needed Christian radio station and did what I always do for therapy:  I cooked.

I had been feeling like we didn’t have any snacks and I was out of some basic stand-bys (like peanut butter) so I got out bowls and started taking out some frustration on bread dough. 

Now, not only do I feel like a new woman…I have food prepared for my family. I can’t think of a better therapy session, can you?

I ground some fresh flour in my Nutrimill and got some Honey Whole Wheat Bread started.

In the meantime, I made Peanut Butter, Rice Crispy Treats (with chocolate chips!), 
Cream Cheese Salsa Dip and Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.

I had found a good sale on cream cheese, plus I’m getting a lot of apples in my
Azure Standard order this week, so I made a big bowl of Caramel Apple Dip.

And then the Honey Whole Wheat Bread was done. And I felt better.

Now, when Matt gets home from work, not only am I going to be a lot less grumpy, the house is gonna smell like I’ve been baking.

The moral of the story is this:  When you are frustrated, work very hard not to take the frustration out on your family…do something productive with that energy instead. And then go eat some fresh bread with butter. Lots of butter.

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Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins

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Did I ever tell you about the time I almost forgot to put the bananas into my banana bread?

I have these finer moments in my kitchen from time to time. They mostly happen while I’m trying to cook and talk simultaneously. If I’m talking on the phone while mixing up a recipe, I tend to leave out key ingredients. Or add the same ingredient twice.  It’s ridiculous.  I think it’s crazy that I can usually multi-task quite well…but I can barely have a conversation with someone while I cook. Duh. Just be glad I type these posts after I’m finished cooking. Otherwise, these recipes would just be plain scary.

And so, because I care too much not to share, here’s a handy baking tip:  When making Banana Bread or Muffins, be sure to add the bananas. The final product tastes much better this way. I’m nothing if not helpful.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread and MuffinsYum

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, or puree them in a blender. Mix mashed bananas, honey, melted butter and eggs into flour mixture.

For Bread:  Spread batter into a well buttered bread pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

For Muffins:  Spoon batter into 12 buttered or paper lined muffin tins. Bake in a 400° oven for 20 minutes.

Speaking of finer moments in my kitchen…did I ever tell you about the time I made a lovely lasagna ahead of time so that I would be all ready for my company that night? Because, you see, it’s great to be prepared when you’re having company. Oh, and it also helps to get the lasagna out of the fridge and BAKE IT at dinner time. Being prepared doesn’t help at all if you don’t actually bake your lasagna. Yeah, dinner was a little late that night.

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