Challah, also known to many as a Braided Bread, has a rich tradition for each Friday night in the Hebrew nation of Israel.  I enjoy the braiding and decorating of the loaf, because it sets it apart from the regular loaves of bread I make thrthroughout the week. As usual the recipe makes enough to have two loaves of sweet and fluffy bread. One we eat with our pizza and the other makes us get through the weekend without having to bake again! So Mama gets a little break.

This tradition us not only found in the Bible, but the smell and texture of this special loaf of bread helps us to memtally prepare for a restful weekend to enjoy our family!

You don’t have to be Jewish or Hebrew to enjoy this tradition…give it a try.

I made these for a dear DEAR friend who was allowing three of us to invade her home for four straight days!! She and her husband were so gracious to allow us there!

They are easy and fun to make…..

Just a variation of my practically “Fool Proof Whole Wheat Bread” Recipe… here

Just add 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 2 more TBS organic sugar to the dough – be sure the oil is not a strong olive oil…I like coconut or canola. Then make as usual in bread machine.

Before shaping…melt 3/4 stick of butter then remove from heat. Add 1/4 C pecans, 1/4 C brown sugar (or sucanat) and 1/4 C organic sugar and 2 TBS fresh milled flour. Mix.

Roll dough out in a rectangle. Spread goo on all but about the last two inches of the horizontal (longest) side…this is your end.

Roll in upon itself until you come to the ‘dry’ two inches. Pinch and seal. Slice and place in a greased pan. Rise 30 mins. Bake on 350 for 15-18 minutes.

Then just enJOY!

Here are a few more little tips I have learned to show myself ‘why to bother’:

• It takes no more time than grabbing a bag of dead flour. Throw the grains in the Nutrimill, turn it on and by the time I’ve gathered the other ingredients for the recipe, the mill is done.

• Even the Nutrimill has saved us money! We eat pizza every Friday night. We used to order 3 Large pizzas from Papa Johns, Dominos or Little Caesars. At the tune of between $30-$40 any given Friday. Now I make pizza crusts ahead of time and use fresh ingredients (and I might add less fats/grease) and make 3 16 inch pizzas for $10.00 total! In less than three months, we had paid for the mill on pizza nights alone!

• Last but not least, you don’t have to start our as a purist. If you HAVE to add, change or substitute a pinch here and there to get your family to eat the freshly milled grains that are so packed with nutrients, then just do that until you have experimented enough to use only the grains you mill. Using even 3/4 of a cup of freshly milled wheat vs. the usual ‘dead bagged flour’ gives your family more fiber, E and other phyto nutrients than they can get from fast foods or frozen waffles.

Relax. EnJOY it!

Now not only are you convinced because of these little tips, but your friends and family will see the confidence in you and not worry that you will soon begin brushing your teeth with sugar or go back to believing the world is flat, just because you mill grains at home. Milling grains at home is not old fashioned, it just makes good sense.

Best Blessings!
Donna

http://www.millersgrainhouse.com/store

Go Green with the WonderMill Jr. Deluxe

Play with your food!

Sure there are some hard and fast ones like: Yeast breads need yeast. Too much salt is pretty gross. But for many ‘rules’ there are acceptations.

Take things like altitude and humidity into consideration. A loaf of bread baked at 3500 feet above sea level will not be the same as one baked AT sea level. Tweak a recipe.

Most recipes are written for sea level and adjusted for differing altitudes. Don’t let that keep you in a box though, break out of the rules of recipes and tweak. Just keep good notes (that’s my downfall, I often play but forget what I did when it worked!).

Have fun. Learn by playing with your food.
Just be prepared to be VERY creative if it doesn’t work out and not waste it by tossing it in the trash.

Best Blessings and enJOY learning more!
Donna

The Wonder Mill

Here is a breakdown of wheat types and which recipe to use them:

~ HARD wheat is best for breads and items that require high rising.
~ SOFT wheat is best for pastries and flat breads such as pancakes, tortillas and biscuits.
~ Both types can be mixed equally to make a light texture for all purpose flour.

Color effects the flavor of the flour not the consistancy:

~ REDS will have a more ‘nutty’ (to me it’s almost a bitter) flavor.
~ WHITES are usually just lighter tan or almost golden and have a smoother taste.
~ Both can be mixed equally to make a deliciously light bread without a bitter result.

Muffins, pancakes, cookies and biscuits can all be made from blending types and colors.
Loaf breads have the best result by using a HARD (either color) type only. It contains the most gluten for the rise of yeast bread.

Happy Milling!!
Best Blessings,
Donna Miller, Owner of MILLERS GRAIN HOUSE

The moisture gets trapped more easily in the wheat or grain that has just been ‘cracked’ by milling. It’s more susceptible to absorbing moisture than dead flour that has sat on a shelf for months. So you may need to slightly adjust the water amount in your recipe or add more gluten to the mix to get the bread to rise. I personally avoid bread on rainy days and focus on tortillas and other flat or quick breads.

EnJOY the journey!
Best Blessings!
Donna

Donna Miller is an author, teacher and entrepreneur. Her favorite roles are that of wife and mother to three home-school graduates. The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

Freshly Milled Whole-wheat Hotdog Buns

The Basic “Fool Proof” Bread Recipe we send out second in our newsletter series can be shaped into:

~ Burger Buns
~ Hot Dog Buns
~ Hoagie Buns
~ Bread Sticks (filled and twisted or just plain, warm and toasty)
~ Bread Bowls for Chilli and Soups
~ and SO many more potentials….

Even once made they can become other things if not used up:
~ Croutons (any of the above)
~ Garlic Bread (best for the hot dog/hoagie buns)
~ Toasted Crackers (slice thin [if not split for burger or hot dog] and butter/toast)
~ Open Faced Cheese Bread (Top with mixed cheeses and broil) to go with soups

So even as simple as the ONE recipe may be. Don’t get stuck with it ALWAYS just being a loaf of bread! Shape and use it in multiple ways!

Best Blessings!~
Donna Miller

Donna Miller is an author, teacher and entrepreneur. Her favorite roles are that of wife and mother to three home-school graduates. The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

This could be either a really long post or a short and simple one. I’m not sure how it will turn out. What I mean is I could make it long, but the outcome is quite simple so it could be brief. Anyway, here goes nothing…. ?????? ????? ????

Several years ago I was diagnosed with gluten sensitivities and told to omit all gluten and wheat from my diet. Anyone who has had this diagnosis knows a couple of things: 1) the symptoms that brought the diagnosis and 2) the difficulty in giving up foods that contain gluten.

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The symptoms range from bloating, intestinal issues, and shortness of breath after eating, headaches, dizziness and foggy thought process. Sometimes the symptoms included are other bowel movement problems (ranging from both extremes) and skin rashes.

The choices? Well…there aren’t many…and what there are cost a bundle.

For 3 months, I purchased odd replacements for breads and went without gluten while absolutely killing our grocery budget. The truth is, the foods didn’t taste of feel (texture) good and they cost a LOT more than traditional foods that contained gluten. I was growing discouraged…and felt doomed to a life of restriction. ?????? ????? ????

Then I decided that to broaden my choices, I’d make things at home. After finding that most of the ‘fours’ I needed were either not available or were also too high in price, I decided to try milling at home to have access to the rice and bean flours needed. Some recipes were….okay….others….downright gross……but…..I gained one really amazing bit of relief!

I decided to mill my own wheat flour. I figured after several months of doing without, it was worth a try again. Much to my surprise, with my home milled, organic flour and only 4 more simple organic ingredients, I could eat bread with NO symptoms. NONE.

This leads me to my belief that it is not the gluten that is my problem. The problem is the PROCESSING of the wheat. The stripping of the flour or adding of synthesized ‘enrichments’ or the additives to the pre-baked bread or all three were what aggravate my insides.

To this day, years later, I can eat my OWN minimal ingredient home-milled bread with no problems, but have instant issues if I eat bread bought at the store or from a restaurant. This is just one of the reasons I keep home-milling.

My diagnosis of gluten sensitivity was key in leading me to eat healthier wheat!

Best Blessings!
Donna Miller

Donna Miller is an author, teacher and entrepreneur. Her favorite roles are that of wife and mother to three home-school graduates. The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

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Please feel free to submit your own questions and comments about eating, and using whole grains.

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QUESTION: ???? ????? ? ???????? ?????????
Hello, Please tell me if white wheat is the same as soft white wheat? I’m trying to clarify the difference and its use. Is white wheat use to make white flour and soft wheat for pastry flour? Thanks, “D”

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ANSWER:
To help you clarify, let’s first talk about the color:

The color has nothing to do with the usage of the wheat – it only affects the taste and potentially the amount of niacin (which is not too lacking in most diets). Red wheats have a tiny bit higher niacin (a B vitamin) than white wheats, but that is about the only difference (based on color). They (reds) do have a more nutty flavor (almost bitter wheaty in my opinion) than white wheats.

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Bagged flour is often bleached either by natural or chemical bleaching and the husk has been taken out (along with the germ, etc) thus the ‘whiteness’.

White wheat when milled whole will not produce ‘white’ flour (like bagged flour white) because it is natural. It will be a very light golden color. It will bake to a golden yellow/brown color. It is the best transition grain (in my opinion) for those who are used to white loaf bread from the store. It is mild in flavor and aroma.

Red wheat when milled will be the more traditional ‘whole wheat’ color of a light brown. It will bake to a dark brown. It is stronger in flavor and aroma.

Again, color is not the determining factor of use, but will affect the taste. So it is taste and aesthetics (look) that determine what color you choose, what you want to use it for is a deciding factor in the type not color.

Now on to the type – hard or soft wheat:

This does affect the usage of the grain.

Soft wheats (regardless of color) have much less gluten thus are not as ‘spongy’ when used. They will not make very good loaf bread. Combine the soft wheat flours with hard for very good & fluffy muffins, pancakes, pie crusts, cookies (cookies can be all hard wheat too though) and more that does not require a ‘rise’ or elastic dough feeling.

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Soft wheats are used as a pastry four, but in my experience are hardly ever used exclusively alone (often combined with hard wheat) except in cakes (to which you must also sift the flour to remove some of the bran for a real cake like consistency). Cake flour alone is best as only soft wheat.

Hard wheats (regardless of color) are the grains that make the most all purpose flour. The hard wheat contains the most gluten (which is a protein) that helps the bubbles hold together in a loaf of bread. Gluten helps to give the spongy effect. If used in other recipes like muffins etc, it can result in a tough muffin if over mixed (mixing/kneading helps gluten form the bubble pockets).

So to sum up – color is a choice for taste and look, while hard or soft is a choice for type of recipe.

I hope this made sense, if not, just keep on asking! (o:
It’s a joy to help others learn this!!

Have a wonderful day!
–
Best Blessings!
Millers Grain House
Donna Miller, Owner

Deut 28:5 -
“A blessing upon your grain-basket and kneading-bowl.” ???? ? ???????? ????? ???????? ?????????

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Answers:
What this sounds like is one or more of the following:

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download Chasing Christmas

If it split somewhere in the top of the loaf (like the center ‘erupted’ at the top) it could be one of two things…
1. There was a bubble that was somewhere near the top of the loaf and it broke through the surface exposing the more bubbly inside. To avoid this, just make sure all bubbles squeak out when you are flattening to roll into the loaf for its second rise.
2. Or it could be too active of yeast. If you have recently opened a new package or are trying a new type of yeast it may be overly active compared to what you are used to using. Try cutting back by ¼ of a teaspoon in the next try.

If the loaf top split from the bottom (like a roof lifting off) it could be one of two things…
1. The yeast thing again but also add in this second one…
2. Too warm of a rising place. When the loaf rises too fast (in too warm of an area) the top tends to warp and then separate in the baking.

As to the lopsided loaf part, just make sure that the ends when tucked in are not bigger on one side than the other – this (or the ‘too warm/fast’ of a rise) will make a loaf with one end too high. ????? ?????? ??????? 3d ????? ??????

Last, but not least, sometimes weather can effect home baking. Moisture in the air and barometric pressure can play with it. Just remember, even if it’s not pretty, you can still eat it!