Friday, January 16, 2009

Adventures in Milling

I used my wheat mill for the first time yesterday. I decided to set aside a day to just grind flour and bake. Excitedly (and wisely), after the quick and easy setup, I moved it into our laundry room/pantry/utility room so I could close the door and wouldn't have to hear it grinding. It is pretty loud and Tommy freaked for a second but then he remembered our family rule - no freak outs. So he was fine. Anyway, pour 7 cups of wheat in, get about 12 cups of flour. A trained monkey could do that part.

My first recipe I decided to try was pumpkin muffins. I'm not the hugest fan of pumpkin, but I figured these couldn't be all that bad. They're not all that bad, but they're not all that great either. A little dense for my liking (you have to cut them with a knife to split them apart), but with a little butter the taste is good. Then I did a loaf of plain honey wheat bread. My house smelled absolutley amazing while it was baking, but this too turned out really dense. And short. If I made sandwiches out of it, they would look like biscotti instead of basic pieces of bread. I know for a fact that I didn't add enough flour and wait long enough for it to rise. Finally I did a batch of dinner rolls that wound up turning out pretty good... slightly dry but better than the bread.

Bottom line, I'm still figuring things out. But I still have high hopes (as does Dean) and I'll just keep trying. In the meantime, I have a lot of baked goods to eat... between getting a mixer for Christmas and a wheat mill, this just may be why I've gained a rediculous amount of weight in the last few weeks. Oh well, at least I'm back to the gym now!

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