Got wheat?

So would you like to do some cooking with your wheat berries?

I have a wonderful bread for you to make. It's call pioneer bread because it uses basic ingredients and not a lot of them. This is a hearty, wonderful bread. The recipe makes only 1 loaf. Good for a test run. Let me know if you have problems. I made this bread all the time back in the late 70's. I was able to get hard red wheat berries from the church farm in Central California. My husband would go do work on the farm and in return we could purchase large amounts of wheat at bare bones prices. The date on the wheat that make the bread in these photos (baked this afternoon) says 2/10/74. It was stored in poly buckets with dry ice used in the bottom to exhaust the air. Today it is wonderful, gluten filled wheat! Amazing.

Pioneer Bread A good way to use wheat berries when you don’t have a grain grinder but you do have a blender

1 1/8 cup hard wheat berries.................

1 cup whole wheat/ white flour.................

1 tablespoon oil.............................

1 tablespoon of dry yeast...........................

1 tablespoon molasses or brown sugar........................

1 teas salt....................................

Take 1 1/8 cup un-ground hard wheat berries Rinse and soak in water to cover Soak 24 hours (yes 24 hours important) Remove ½ Cup soaking water and drain the rest out of the wheat. Warm (not hot) the ½ C. of soaked water and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of dry yeast over the warm water. Add 1 tablespoon sweetener, such as molasses or brown sugar. Allow to bubble up nice and high In blender or food processor grind soaked wheat in small amounts. This should be ground finely. (See note below) Continue until all wheat is ground. Add yeast, ground wheat, 1 cup whole wheat or white flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of oil. Mix well, knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise on kneading surface for 10 minutes. Shape into a loaf. Let rise until double in size. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Remove from pan and oil the outside of the bread. I just take a stick of butter and un-wrap the end and rub it all over on the loaf. This gives you a loaf with an even texture in and out. Cool on its side. I’m having some slices of this with dinner tonight….Yum yum!

Hints for grinding the soaked wheat berries. I have a vita mix and it has a grain container with grain blades. This was a fairly easy job in this blender but in the 1970’s I made this in a oster blender and it was more work. Be patient and notice how my photos look.

1. Work in small batches. Dough will form under and around the blades. Remove it and put it in your mixing bowl. That’s a sign of a good hard gluten filled wheat! If you need to add a bit of water to help the wheat berries move, do it in tablespoons and keep track.

2. Add additional flour to counter the extra water. This is OK to do. The water will make your job easier, just go lightly on it.

3. The dough will be sticky. If you are kneading by hand you will find it hard so keep dusting your hands. I do mine in my Bosch mixer so I don’t have to tough the sticky dough. Use white flour for dusting if you can.

4. It’s fine if some wheat berries don’t blend, but most of them should.