I’m a huge sourdough fan and all the bread I make now is sourdough. I learned last year that many gluten intolerant individuals can tolerate sourdough because the gluten gets hydrolyzed by the sourdough medium. I have 3 gluten intolerant family members so this is mostly the only bread they eat. (Well, one is on the GAPS diet right now so she is not eating any bread at all, because she is grain free.). It has been a very good choice for them and the rest of us go along as well knowing it is much better for us. I have also found that it is the easiest way to make bread. I do not not even really have to knead the bread and the texture comes out very nice.
My favorite bread recipe comes from The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread by Jessie Hawkins, a wonderful primer on all things bread and sourdough. It has a nice mix of recipes and discussions about the nature of wheat and how and why things have changed with bread. It is well worth reading.
I have taken Jessie’s recipe for sourdough bread and made it my own. One of our favorite variations is where I use a mix of whole wheat flour, millet flour, oat flour, and white flour. My son tells me it is his favorite way to eat it.
This was my first time to use the Wondermill and I was very impressed. I have used other grain grinders and in fact do own another one already. But I now have one designated gluten free grains and one for gluten grains so as to avoid contamination in my kitchen for my gluten free folks.
I found the Wondermill to be easy to set up and use. It was quiet and did not puff flour around the kitchen, another very important point with my gluten free family members who can react negatively to that. (The 2nd time I used it I did not set it up right and it did puff flour around the kitchen. Since then I have been very careful and we have had no more trouble.) It ground the flour to a nice consistency. I used the setting for bread flour but there is also the choice of pastry flour or coarse. There was no problem grinding all the different flours that I used either which is not true with all grinders.
Millet going into the Wondermill.
Oats going into the Wondermill.
Wheat grinding in the Wondermill.
Mixing the dough together.
Bread out to rise, 12 hours after mixing and raising in my big yellow bread bowl. It is 12 more hours in the bread pans and then into the oven.
The finished product.
- 1⅓ cup sourdough starter
- 4 cups room temperature water
- 4 cups whole wheat flour, freshly milled if possible.
- 1 cup millet, freshly milled
- 1 cup oat flakes, freshly milled.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-3 cups white flour
- Mix all ingredients together in order given in a large bowl until well mixed. Flour should be added until dough is no longer sticky. When dough is firm and not too sticky or too dry let sit and cover with a dish towel. Let sit for a minimum of 12 hours but it can be longer. Dough should be doubled in size.
- Put into 3 loaf pans as this recipe makes 3 loaves of bread.
- Let rise another 12 + hours until doubled in size. Cover with the same towel while rising.
- Put into a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and bake for 30-35 more minutes.
