Challah made with Honey and Fresh Ground Wheat!

I have recently discovered Challah.  Oh YUM!  Let me just say that I could easily live on this bread!  It is an "eggy" bread and a sweet bread; or at least I make it sweet.  I have worked on this recipe for a while to make sure that it is as simple as possible.  You'll notice in this picture that I applied the egg wash and then let it rise. That is why you see dry spots. So let your bread rise and then apply the egg wash so the whole bread looks nice!

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water...at least 125 so it will not take as much time to rise
4 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup honey
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs, plus one to brush on the bread
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 to 5 1/2 cups fresh milled hard white or hard red wheat

Directions:
Combine water and honey in a pot and warm on a stove.  Once it is warmed good, add that to your mixing bowl and turn on mixer.  I use a DLX, but a bosch will work just fine.  Add the eggs one at a time being sure not to cook the egg.  When the mixture is at approximately 125 to 130 degrees, add in your yeast, two cups of flour and then the butter and salt.  Mix well.  Let it rest for 20 minutes.  Turn your machine on again and add the remaining of the flour and set to knead for 8 minutes.

Remove from bowl and rub with oil.  Place back in the bowl and put a damp towel over the bowl.  Let it rest from 30 minutes to 3 hours; depending on your needs.  Honestly, this is very forgiving bread!

Remove from bowl and place on a cutting board with flour.  Knead it for about one minute and cut into three equal pieces.  Roll into logs about 12 to 16 inches long and then braid them together on stoneware.  Let it rest for another hour or two.  Brush with an egg.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and enjoy!

Pumpkin Loaves

I cook with whole wheat every day. Here is a favorite of my family. I often make this for breakfast as it is easy to whip together and is healthy!

3 1/2 to 4 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 cups honey
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 can (15 ounce) pumpkin
1 cup Extra Light Olive Oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup water

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Comine the pumpking, oil, eggs and water; mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Divide evenly between two loaf pans that have been buttered. Place in a pre-heated oven of 350 for 45 minutes. Cover with foil and drop the temp to 325 for another 25 minutes or until knife stuck in the center comes out clean. Cool for about ten minutes before removing from loaf pan.

ENJOY!

Cheese Sauce for Brocolli

You may divide this recipe if you would like. I have a large family and this makes enough sauce to cover six large florets of broccoli. We love fresh vegetables and a healthy sauce to dress them up, makes for a great side dish!

Cheese Sauce for Broccoli

1/2 Stick of butter
1/2 cup of fresh ground flour
1 1/2 cup whipping cream or fresh cream from your cow
4 to 5 cups grated cheddar cheese

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over a medium high heat. Slowly add the flour to create a thick paste. While still on the heat, slowly add cream...whisking the whole time. Once the sauces is smooth, add all of the cheese. Whisk until smooth. Taste to make sure you have enough cheese, if not, add more. Feel free to add Worcestershire sauce for added flavoring!

Add to broccoli or cauliflower or even mashed potatoes...and then let me know how you enjoyed this recipe.

Happy Cooking with Fresh Flour!

Homemade Granola!

Making homemade granola is so EASY and you will save a ton of money if you buy granola on a regular basis. And with today's economy, saving money is important! So how do you go about making your own granola? Use the following recipe and a little creativity and you are set!

Homemade Granola

If you are going to 'roll' your oats, go ahead and roll about 15 cups worth. If not, then make sure you have 15 cups of your favorite rolled oats.

1. Change your racks so you can do two or three trays at one time.

2. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees

3. Combine the following in a pot and warm until the oils and honey blend:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup Extra Light Olive Oil (EVOO) will impart too strong of a flavor for most people
1 1/4 cup honey, try and use raw if possible
2 tsp cinnomon, add extra if you really like this spice

4. Remove from heat and add 4 teaspoons vanilla, Pampered Chef Brand is best...whisk together

5. Add the following ingredients to a LARGE bowl

15 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup millet
1/2 flax seed

If you don't have millet or flax seed, no worries! Just add an extra cup of rolled oats.

6. Pour liquids over oats and blend well.

7. Divide evenly between two or three pans. I like 11 x 15, but you can use 9 x 13 if you would like, but make sure you don't use a cookie sheet as you will likely end up with a mess.

8. Bake for 15 minutes, then stir. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes and cool. Add raisins or dried blueberries or anything else you like to make your granola extra special.

I store my granola in 1/2 gallon mason jars after it is completely cooled.

Enjoy and let me know how your granola turned out!

Mac, Cheese and Beef

Here is a great recipe that is large enough to share with your congregation or to have extra in the freezer. This recipe can be cut in half or multiplied with no problems!

Sauce Ingredients
6 TBSP unsalted butter
14 TBSP whole wheat flour
4 1/2 cups milk
6 cups grated cheese...I like Cabot's Cheddar Cheese and Jalapeno Jack (4 to 2 ratio)
3/4 Tsp Real Salt
1 Tsp chili powder
2 Dashes of Red Pepper
2 TBSP dried red sweet peppers

Beef Ingredients
2 Pounds Ground Beef
1/2 onion...diced
3 TBSP dried green peppers
1/2 TBSP dried minced garlic
1/8 TSP Real Salt

5 cups spiral pasta, not cooked

1. Prehead oven to 350
2. Prepare 1 9 x 13 pan and 1 9x9 pan with butter on bottoms and sides
3. Brown ground beef and next 4 ingredients
4. Make Sauce:
A. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add most of the flour, but if it gets too thick, start to add some milk...alternating with the flour. Add remaining milk slowly, whisking continuously, until thick. Cook about 10 minutes and then remove from heat.
B. Add cheese, salt, and remaining ingredients for the sauce. Stir until cheese melts.
5. To prepare pasta according to directions; cook pasta 2 minutes less than package directions. Rinse pasta in cold water and drain well.
6. Combine pasta, beef and sauce in a large bowl.
7. Transfer most to a 9x13 and the rest to the 9x9. Sprinkle with a little more cheese and chili powder.
8. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Feel free to add vegtables with the beef and pasta. If you are going to freeze the 9x9, don't cook it, just stick it in the freezer once it is assembled.

Enjoy this hearty meal!

What is Kamut?

Kamut is a unique grain. I consider it a 'wheat' as it looks like wheat and contains gluten. In fact, I think this is very similar to the wheat found 5000 years ago before man started to 'change' the grains for the 'better'. Kamut is not a high gluten grain, but yet it has enough gluten that you can make bread using just Kamut. From what I have found, it is always organic! So if you eat Kamut, you pretty much know you are eating an organic product.

Kamut is highly digestible. Kamut contains more B1, B2, niacin and vitamin E than your standard wheat. It is also higher in calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc and copper than wheat.

The flavor of Kamut is excellent...think nuts and butter.

Only let your bread rise once if it is the only grain in the bread.

And you need to remember that this is a heavy grain, so either cut back on the amount of flour you use or add some liquid. It is even heavier than red wheat in my opinion, so don't use this for cakes or any other bake good that you would prefer to be 'light'.

My favorite Kamut recipe: Mush! Yep, crack the grain, add milk and spices and cook over a medium low heat. A perfect breakfast on a cool morning!

Ezekiel Stew

This is a GREAT recipe! If you want LOTS of left overs, double it; or be happy with enough left overs for lunch the next day...and the next with the current portions. My family loves this stew, including the children. You know you have done well when they call you on your cell and ask, "What is there for lunch?" and you reply, "Left over Ezekiel Stew" and then you hear: GREAT!

There are two different ways to cook this. First, you can throw it in a large pot or crock pot early in the day and let it go all day long. If you want a hands off meal, put it in the crock pot. If you are going to be home and feel like stirring, put it on the stove. If you want all of the grains to be very tender, cook for at least six hours.

The second way of cooking this is on the stove top for a shorter amount of time. The wheat, spelt and other grains will be 'chewy' and the beans might have a slight crunch. I really like the chewy grain as it is different and enjoyable. You achieve this by cooking the recipe on the stove top at a good simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours. You will need to keep an eye on it if you choose this method and give it a good stir every 10 to 15 minutes so it does not stick to the bottom of the pot.

Ezekiel Stew

3 quarts of water
2 potatoes, cubed
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 onion
1-1/4 cups hard red wheat
3/4 cups spelt or rye (Biblically spelt was used, Ezekiel 4:9)
1/4 cup barley (hulled barley)
1/8 cup millet
1/8 cup lentils (green preferred)
1 Tbs. great northern beans
1 Tbs. red kidney beans
1 Tbs. pinto beans
1 Tbs. salt
2 Tbs chicken or beef bouillon OR soup bones OR use actual broth replacing for water OR 1# stew meat
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 Tbs cumin

Either throw all of this in the crock pot and turn it on low for 8 hours or put it in a good sized pot, place on stove and simmer for 8 hours. I like to add a couple of carrots when I have them as well as any other herbs that my family enjoys. And if you don't have a fresh onion or garlic, used dehydrated onion and garlic. That works just fine.

This is really a recipe that you can't mess up. It will taste great and is a very healthy meal! Post a comment and let me know how your family enjoyed your Ezekiel Stew.

Converting Recipes to use Fresh Milled Flours

One of the most common questions that I am asked is, "How do I convert my favorite recipe to use fresh milled flour?" To be honest, it depends on the grain you are using and the type of recipe. As this blog develops, I will cover more in depth the different factors that come into play to help you make your good recipe, your best; but for now, let me share with you some simple hints.

First, if you are making a quick bread that will be 'light', use either spelt or soft white wheat. Use about 1.25 cups of fresh flour for every cup of all purpose flour. If you have made your favorite recipe repeatedly, you will know if you need to add more or less based on the thickness of the batter. I should also state that when I convert a recipe, I am not only changing the flour used, but the sweetener from sugar to honey. If you are not at that point, start with a one to one substitution for your flour, but expect to add a little more unless you use 'rounded' cups. Yep, that's right, with fresh flour, to get a good fill of a measure, use a rounded cup which is not what you were taught in Home Ec Class.

If you are making a bread that will use yeast, you will need to use a flour that has gluten. Good choices are hard red wheat, hard white wheat or even kamut. Again, if you use a 'rounded' measure, and do not change the sweetener, then use a one to one conversion.

For the Easy Peppermint Chocolate Brownies that I made, the original recipe called for 1.5 cups of all purpose flour. Since I changed the 1 cup of sugar to 1.25 cups of honey, I had to add one extra cup of flour due to the extra liquid. And remember, I ALWAYS use rounded cups; so I actually added more than one cup.

Simple rule of thumb for a starting point:

Use rounded measures when using fresh milled flour.

If you are not converting the sweetener, then use a one to one ratio.

If you are changing the sweetener from sugar to honey, you will need to add extra flour. A good starting point is 1.25 rounded cups of fresh milled flour to 1 level cup of all purpose flour.

Hope this information is helpful and happy baking!

Easy Peppermint Chocolate Brownies

I just want to welcome you to my newest blog which is all about wheat. If you have wanted to cook with fresh wheat, but have been scared...this blog is for you! I will share with you everything that I have learned over the last 12 years of cooking with fresh flour. Yep, that's right, I have not purchased pre-milled flour from a store in 12 years.

One of the many benefits you will receive from this blog is you don't have to make my mistakes! I will gladly share with you what I have learned so you don't have the learning curve challenge.

Tomorrow I will share more about fresh flour, but right now I want to share with you a recipe that I made the other night that my family loved. Unfortunately, it was one of those 'I did not measure' recipes and so duplicating it can be a challenge, but I think what I will share will be really close. And if there is a problem, I will adjust the recipe and let you know. So here you go...one tasty recipe that your family is sure to love!

1-1/2 cups honey
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup water
12 ounces of chocolate morsels
2 1 ounce unsweetened bakers chocolate
1-1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2-1/2 cups flour....I used hard white wheat
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs...scrambled

Cook first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted. Add all chocolate and continue to stir over medium low heat until all chocolate is melted. Let cool.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl. Slowly add chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and stir well. Add a little of the batter to your scrambled eggs and then add the egg mixture into the bowl with the batter. Mix well.

Pour batter into a 9 x 13 pan that has been buttered and floured. Place in a preheated oven of 325 for 30 minutes or until the center springs back with your touch.

Cool and enjoy!