Flour is scarce and yeast is even harder to find. We are fortunate that a friend gifted us a vintage grain mill years ago. At the time it was a wonderful novelty. Now it has become our life saver for being able to make fresh bread during the pandemic. We realize we may not always have access to even wheat berries. So we are very grateful each time we are able to break bread. Keep in mind if you are using your own yeast culture it can take 12-24 hours to rise.
Grind and Grow
Ingredients
Instructions
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We use our grain mill and scale to weigh 2 pounds of wheat berries and grind them on the finest setting. We also use a fine seive to remove some of the bran so that it is less dense and closer to an all purpose flour. We save the bran and keep it in the fridge to use for added fiber in cooked oatmeal or to make bran mug cakes!
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There are ample expert instructions on the web on how to grow your own wild cultivated yeast starter. When we use to have grape vines, I would use grape skins to start the culture. But my current starter is a simple flour and water base. No added sugar, fruit or anything to launch the process. There are enough wild yeasts in the air that flour and water will produce an active culture in a matter of days. If we are cooking every few days, we keep the cultures on the counter. If we are unable to cook but once a week, we will move the starter to the fridge. If we notice too much hooch being produced, we'll feed the starter more often (at least once a day, twice a day preferably.) We use about a cup of the culture in bread, or waffles or banana bread. For the most active yeast, we use it at least four hours after feeding.
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Since the amount of bran extracted from the flour will vary. The amount of water we need to make a good dough will vary. If using the food processor to kneed the dough, we add water little by little until the dough ball forms. If we have gluten flour in the fridge, we will add a half cup of that if we are making rustic loaves.
