Honey Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread

FRESH GROUND WHEAT

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

It's only been about a year or so since I learned about the LIFE that comes in fresh ground grains and lack of it in processed grains in store bought flours, breads, and other packaged goods, and I never want to go back! I bought THIS inexpensive mill and love everything about this journey of learning the biblical blessings and ways of fresh grains!

"Of all the foods God has given us, bread, or food made from grain, is the most altered by man. For our ancestors of 100 years ago, whole grains and real bread were the staples of their diet. They did not suffer the cancer, heart disease, or diabetes as we do today. In fact, in 1900 America was the healthiest of 93 countries surveyed. By 1920 it had dropped to 2nd and thereafter America’s health continued to rapidly decline. Today, America is the world leader in chronic sickness and disease as well as obesity." Sue Becker, Becker's Breads

Sue is the expert that I learned from, she's seriously amazing. She is the one that taught me that when people got rid of their home mills, that's when health went south, and America became SICK. Three servings of whole grain/day reduces the risk of stroke, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and digestive system related cancers. Whole grains provide essential nutrients such as fiber, vitamins (especially B vitamins) and minerals (zinc, iron, magnesium, manganese). (If you'd like to learn more, here is a fantastic video by Sue!)

WILD SOURDOUGH YEAST

I am still learning my favorite recipes and perfecting them so they can be duplicated easily

again and again, and to throw a monkey wrench into the process, of course, I have also been learning the ins and outs of sourdough over the last couple of years because I am not going to go through all of the trouble of grinding my own grains only to throw in commercial yeast. No way!

I've had so many fails but then a big aha moment that has made everything come together and here it is, it's so simple but in all the recipes I've read, it was reading it said like this that made it click, and I don't even remember where I read it! When you are ready to USE your starter, remove a small lump, then mix it with equal parts flour, and water, then let it bubble and rise and do it's thing for about 3-4 hours. It should double in size. If it doesn't, remove a bit and feed it again until it does. Once it can double itself with feeding in about 4 hours-it is ready to be used in your recipe!

That's it! Don't try to use your starter right out of the jar, it doesn't work. You need to activate the chosen lump for your recipe until it shows signs of strong life, THEN it's ready to go!

MAKING BREAD FOR ELLA & ZOEY

Now that I understand the necessity of whole, fresh-ground grains, I want to make sure my grandbabies are eating them. They love Smucker's Uncrustables, (unfortunately), so I purchased a sandwich cutter and sealer on Amazon for cheap, and decided to come up with the perfect bread recipe for the job. First try out of the gate and it is PERFECT. Wonderfully softtexture, and a slightly sweet flavor with a hint of tanginess from the sourdough. After we make the sandwiches for the week, I will use the cut off crusts for stuffing, or bread pudding so that nothing is wasted. The recipe is adapted from Su Becker's recipe called Slightly Sweet Whole-Grain Bread. I used HALF fresh ground red hard wheat, and half white. As my grandkids adapt to the new flavors I will be lessening the white flour and increasing the whole wheat until it is fully fresh ground. She uses traditional yeast so that is different in her recipe as well. And for a dough enhancer, rather than using rice bran, I learned that a 1/4 tsp of ground ginger does the trick! My best advice, BE PATIENT with the dough. Pull your starter out in the morning and feed it, when it's ready make your dough, let rise, punch down, let it rise again, punch down, let it rise a third time, punch down and shape, put in the fridge over night, then bake it in the morning. Hands on time should be not more than 20 to 30 minutes total. I hope you and your family enjoy it! God bless you!