Mom, Can You Make Your Bread? (Using Freshly Milled Flour)

Submitted by Sweet Diva MJ

"This is my bread recipe that I make twice a week - makes great sandwich bread and toast! If I get too busy and buy bread from the store, it's not long before my children protest and make the above request. No kidding - one has even told me at the store, "You can buy that bread, but I'm not going to eat it! I want YOURS!" There's nothing like the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven - guaranteed to bring the kids running in from outside trying not to miss the moment when I pop it out of the pans. They know if they're there at the right time and ask with those big blue eyes, they're sure to get a warm slice spread with butter.....talk about comfort food!!! Posted for safe-keeping - made public at the request of a friend who calls me "The Bread Lady" - anytime we have a field trip with a picnic, she is always inspecting my kids' lunches trying to figure out my "secret".....she brings her kids over and says, "See how good that bread looks? If I could get my bread like that, wouldn't you eat it?" I don't even know what my secret is.......but here's the recipe for you! Good Luck! I mix and knead this with a KitchenAid stand mixer using the dough hook attachment. **NOTE** Flour amounts will not be the same if using store bought all-purpose or wheat flour."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 2 loaves

ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1⁄3 cup oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1⁄3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 4 1⁄2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 6 - 6 1⁄2 cups freshly milled flour
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons dough enhancer or 1 1/2 tablespoons lecithin powder
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons gluten

directions

1. Combine water, milk, oil, honey and salt in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Microwave on high for approximately 2 1/2 minutes. (Temp should be between 130 - 135°F) If you do not have a thermometer, it is easy to get it too hot. and it will kill your yeast. Microwaves can also vary greatly in how fast they heat. Adjust as necessary.
3. In mixing bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, dough enhacer or lecithin, gluten and yeast; mix together.
4. Add liquid ingredients and mix until well blended.
5. Continue to mix adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time.
6. When the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl enough flour has been added.
7. Allow to knead 8-10 minutes, or until the dough forms a smooth ball .
8. Form into 2 loaves.
9. Place in greased loaf pans.
10. Let rise until at least doubled in size (about an hour). Yes, that's right - I only let the dough rise once.
11. Bake loaves at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.
12. *Note: One package of yeast is about 2-1/2 teaspoons of yeast.
13. *Note#2: Once, when I was rushed, I skipped the first rising time and just put the dough into my 2 loaf pans, let them rise and then baked. I couldn't tell any difference in the bread, so now I often do it this way.
14. *Note #3: I also often substitute another cup of water for the cup of milk.
15. *Note #4: I use a combination of the following: 1 cup soft white, 2 cups hard white, and 2 cups hard white BEFORE grinding.

Reviews

[mariposa1104]

Great Recipe! I use 2 cups spelt, 2 cups Khorasan (the un-trademarked Kamut) and 1 cup soft white wheat. Also to share a little secret, I use 2 tablespoons of ground flax and 2 tablespoons of water mixed together to replace the gluten and dough enhancer. I add the flax/water mix to the wet ingredients as I am adding to the flour mix and the bread rises beautifully every time! And you get the extra flax goodness in your bread :) Happy Baking!

 

[kgarcia4]

Love this recipe! I just started milling my own wheat berries with my kitchen aid grain mill and I use my stand mixer with the dough hook. Once I switched to home milled flour all of my loaves were very disappointing - hard bricks. This recipe changed that! I attribute the success to a great recipe, the addition of dough enhancer, I added a little extra water until I got the dough consistency I liked then let the KA do all the work on speed 4 for the full 10 minutes. Initially the dough is grainy and stiff but this recipe showed me how home milled dough really needs to be kneaded well! The dough finally succumbed to a softer, more supple dough. Wish I had read this recipe before I invested in a ton of home milled cookbooks on amazon!<br/>I am still debating to get the bosch mixer and nutrimill to handle larger volume and get the weeks worth of bread making done faster!<br/>Thank you for the recipe.

 

[mkeys5000]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!<br/><br/>I registered here just so I could thank you and rate this recipe. I have a kitchen-aid stand mixer, and I was so excited when I bought the grain mill attachment to start making breads with my own flour. Until now I have been so disappointed by the quality of loafs that I have been able to make, they were flat, dense, not very soft. This recipe on the other hand, produced full loafs with tender bread and crispy crust, and on the first try! Just amazing. Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[grfox33]

I made fresh milled grain for the first time today. It looked different. It mixed different. The dough felt a little gritty. The Bread was dellicious!! It came out wonderful, With one loaf I made several small loaves to share and left them plain. With the other I cut in half and added Cinnamon and sugar and rolled up as cinnamon bread. Was also great. Will use more cinnamon nexr time, whole wheat flour needs more cinnamon. With the other half I made round rolls in a muffin pan. Cooked in 18 minutes. They were very good. I think what I used was winter wheat, but I'm not sure. It IS my first time. The texture was good, it sliced good. And Hubby liked it. It is healthy and good for you what more can we ask for. Thanks for sharing.

 

[sprite70]

I haven't made this recipe yet but it asks for the water temperature to be 130-135 deg. F. I've seen other recipes that are at this temp. I thought the water temp was too high and spoke with a baker at KAF (King Arthur Flour) they think that the water temp is too high. They think the water temp should be about 110 deg. I usually have the water temp at 105 deg. F. I've never heard of soft white and hard white. Is soft white the bleached and the hard white the whole wheat? Thanks.