Red or White?

We have talked about the different types of wheat grinders and the types of wheat, now I'm going to give you some visuals on on the difference between hard red and hard white wheat.

On the left is the hard red wheat and on the right is the hard white wheat.

I ground the wheat and here is the flour. Hard red on the left and hard white on the right. As you can see, you hardly tell a difference.

And here are the loaves of bread (I used this recipe). Once again, hard red on the left and hard white on the right.

Can you see the difference?

I let Michelle be the taste tester. We agreed that the hard red had a definite wheat taste to it and the hard white tastes more like a regular white bread. The great thing is, if you don't like wheat bread, you can use the hard white wheat and get all the great nutrients that you would get from the hard red wheat without the wheat taste. Great huh? So, that's basically it. If you all have any other questions or what to see anything else on the blog, let me know!

Get into the Grind!

This post is all about grinding your own wheat into flour. One of the best things I ever invested in! I love it and there is nothing like slicing off a piece of homemade bread that came from wheat your ground yourself. Very rewarding and the flour is out of this world! Not to mention all the nutrients you get!


So, let's just jump right in shall we? I'll be linking the models to Amazon just so you can see what they look like and their prices.

Manuals:

Pros: 

1. Easy to store

2. No noise

3. Cheaper

4. Can use if the powder is out

5. You can do nuts to make nut butters!

Cons:

1. Slow! It will only go as fast as you do.

2. They do not get as fine of a mill as electric ones can

3. Can only do a small amount of wheat at one time

Models:

The only one I can vouch for is the wondermill junior deluxe hand mill, as I own it. It's an excellent hand mill. I used it for about 8 months before I bought an electric one. I had to run the wheat through it twice to get the wheat as fine as I like it for bread, but I must say my arms got into great shape! hahaha I still have it and keep it with our food storage supplies in case the power does go out or our electric mill breaks and I need some flour.

Electric:

Pros:

1. Super fast!

2. Can do a large amount of wheat at one time

3. They have a settings dial that you can set the mill for how fine or coarse you want the wheat to be.

4. Clean up (I'm putting it in pros because it's minimal, which you might not think when you are first looking at mills)

Cons:

1. Price! They can be extrememly coastly, but most good quality ones have a lifetime guarenty on them

2. Loud! Don't run it when little ones are sleeping.

3. You can not do nuts in them, so no fresh nut butters.

4. They are larger and take up more storage space.

Models:

1. Kitchen Aid attachment - I have heard good and bad about this attachment. Good things are that it's cheaper and your flour will go right into your KA bowl. Cons, is that you will have to run it twice through to get a fine flour and some people have said it burned out the motor in their machine. I have never used it so I can't say if that would happen or not, so if you are looking at getting this attachment, be sure to do a lot of research first!

2. Ktec - I had this wheat grinder and it does the job great! This one you do have more cleanup then other models, but it's not to bad. Also, you can flip the motor/hopper upside down and put it into the clear flour container and it takes up little space stored this way!

3. Wondermill - This mill is awesome. Wonderful reviews! *My newest wheat grinder! I'm in love with it! Hardly any cleanup at all and a lot quieter then the Ktec.

4. Nutrimill - Another awesome mill with great reviews! There isn't much difference between the wondermill and nutrimill. Except the nutrimill container can hold more flour at one time then the wondermill, so you can grind more wheat at one time without emptying it.

5. Vitamix - Now, don't quote me on this, but I have read/heard that a vitamix will grind wheat. I have no idea how fine it can get or anything but if you are looking for a top of the line blender that can also grind wheat, then this is for you.

There are other models out there in both manual and electric, but these are just some of the more popular models that I know about and they have great reviews. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. Also, if you get any of these mills, be sure to read your instruction booklet first! You don't want to mess up your mill because you didn't read it!

Wheat

Alright, so you got your wheat grinder and now you need some wheat. What kind should you get? Hard or soft? Red or white? Here is some information to help you decide. 

Hard or soft?

Hard: Has a higher protein level then soft and is better for breads, pastas, pancakes, etc.

Soft: Has a lower protein level then hard and is better suited for pastries.

Red or white?

Red: Has a stronger flavor then white and will make a denser bread. I always use dough enhancers to help it out when I use red wheat. It also had a darker color.

White: Lighter in color and has a milder flavor then the red.

* Red is typically a hard variety and white is typically a soft variety. You can find them as soft red and hard white though. In fact, I mainly use hard white wheat in my home and use it for everything (breads, cakes, pancakes, etc.). :-)

* If you are not sure what you and your family would like, buy a little of each and try them out. There isn't much difference nutritionally, especially since it's ground fresh, so just use what you and your family like the best.

Ok, so to help those of you need a visual, I'm going to take some hard red and hard white and make two loaves of bread. I'll post pictures when they are done so you can see the difference in the two. :-)

The Best Bread Ever!

So, I made some bread and thought I would share the recipe and some techniques with you all. This bread really is the best and we use it for sandwiches, buns, and rolls!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C warm water

2 Tbsp. yeast

1/2 C honey or 2/3 C brown sugar

5 1/2 C flour

1/2 C gluten

2 tsp. salt

1/4 C powdered milk

2 Tbsp. butter

1/2 C potato flakes

2 Tbsp. vinegar

Add your water, yeast, and honey/brown sugar into your mixing bowl. Let it sit for a bit and proof.

Next, add all the ingredients on top of the water/yeast/sugar mixture. Mix on low for about 10 minutes.

It should look something like this once it is all mixed.

Cover with a towel and let sit for about and hour, until doubled in size.

Once it has risen, punch and put on a floured surface. Knead for a few minutes and then cut in half for two loaves. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough.

Roll up.

Pinch your seams together.

And round out the ends.

Place into your greased loaf pans and cover with the towel again and let rise for 1/2 hour.

Looking good right? Now place into the oven for 20-25 minutes at 375*.

Once you pull it out, tap it on the bottom to make sure it is done. It should sound hollow.

And here you go, nice yummy bread! That wasn't to hard was it?

New Coupon Organizer!

So to keep with the theme of me getting more organized (#3 of my new years resolutions) I got a new coupon organizer. I still have my gorgeous binder which I love, but I needed something easier to take into the store, especially when the kids are with me. I can not take credit for finding this little organizer, Ben actually spotted it at the check out at Bed Bath and Beyond the other day. For $5, I will say that this is a great buy!

(stock photo from amazon) It came with tabs and stickers you can put on the tabs to label with things like: produce, dairy, frozen, etc. As you can see, the top will wrap around the handle bar of the shopping cart, which I really like, as I know Roz is tired of holding my binder for me, lol. :-p

As you can see, I did my own labels: Store names, refile, and checkout. I thought this would be easier on me. I plan to load it up with the coupons I plan to use on that shopping trip(s) and I will keep my coupon binder in the car in case there is clearance items I want to pick up that I have coupons for.

New Calendar

I am always looking for news way to make my life more organized, so I went on a hunt for a new dry erase board that I could do a weekly plan on for our schedules and our menus. I searched online first (as I personally would much rather just find it online and order it, as it usually comes out cheaper to do so for most things up here in Alaska, especially if I can get free shipping and www.ebates.com on top of that) So I searched and searched and was not finding what I wanted at all and had it set that I would just have to make what I wanted. I went to Target to get just a plan, large sized dry erase board and look what I found! A weekly dry erase board that is plenty big enough for what I was wanting to put on it! Go figure right? After hours of searching online and not seeing this board at all it was just sitting on the shelf calling my name. The only down side to this board is that is wasn't magnetic, but not a biggie at all. I had some extra magnetic strips left over from another project, so I just added it to the back and hung it up! All has been great!

On the left: I have a place for notes and color key (picture below) On the right: Days of the week starting at Monday (which I love!) I have more then enough space to write our our menus and schedules.

As you can see, here is a close up of the color code system I use. Makes things easier on me and that is the goal!

And here is the plastic drawers I keep next to the fridge for our dry erase markers, pens/sharpies, and batteries. This could easily be hidden in a cabinet, but we just don't have the space since we don't have a pantry, so on the counter it sits.

I'm LOVING this new calendar. It's nice that I now have gone from three separate calenders down to just two (my little $1 planner that I keep my diaper bag and this one)