BREAD! Wheat: Red Hard or White Hard or White Soft... and other thoughts.

[Rmplstlskn]

BREAD! Wheat: Red Hard or White Hard or White Soft... and other thoughts.
I have been getting convicted of my LACK of serious kitchen experience with my stored wheat grains, so lately I have been making efforts to "use what I store," which in the case of BREAD, is not usually a "store what I eat" situation (store-bought breads). And just like gardening, weapon use, and other survival skills, success only comes from PRACTICE and doing it LEARNING.

I store in super-pails three different wheats:
1. Red Hard Winter Wheat (bulk majority due to availability and long storage life)
2. White Hard Spring Wheat (somewhat shorter storage life)
3. Soft White Spring Wheat (only one pail ~ much shorter storage life)

I use a WONDER-MILL electric grain mill (awesome tool!) It puts out beautiful flour...

Here is what I have learned so far...

Red Hard Winter Wheat makes a DARK brown bread that is very dense and does not rise as well as other wheat flours and processed flours (store bought). People who screw up their yeast rises often call this bread "BRICKS" due to the dense nature of the bread. It has the strongest wheat taste of all the other varieties. It is very tasty when done correctly (well mixed, sweetened with honey, good yeast rises), but nowhere near the type of bread my family is used to, so it tends to not get eaten as quickly (in good times).

The keys I have found (I am still learning with this grain) are additives (honey, even yogurt) and letting the yeast work (minimum two rises and then a pan rise before baking). When done right, you can smell and taste the NUTRIENTS and HEALTHINESS of this bread. But for a more enjoyable eating experience, the real key is MIXING GRAINS...

After several loafs of good, thick, dense, red winter wheat bread, I have decided that some HARD WHITE and SOFT WHITE is needed to temper the "put hair on your chest" red wheat bread.

I will post further in this thread as I experiment with different ratios, and I plan on some videos once I find a recipe I like and get more organized (not look like a kitchen idiot)... But I do see where I will be adding much more HARD WHITE and SOFT WHITE wheat to my storage inventory...

Rmpl

[JStor]

I have eaten those wheat bricks before. They aren't real appetizing, but it does help to use a strong mixer like a Bosch. Also, make sure the yeast is fresh. We used to do a half and half mix of wheat and white flour that turned out pretty decent.

I haven't ground any wheat for quite awhile, but I keep plenty of it on hand for when I do need it. I have been using unbleached store bought flour in a bread machine. It is so easy to just measure the ingredients in and let the machine do the work.

Today's loaf was some fragrant herb bread with dried onions, parsley and oregano in it...delicious. The 2 pound loaf is already gone, and a french loaf is nearly done. One of these times I'm going to try baking it in a cast iron dutch oven inside my wood burning stove.

[500grains]

Hard red wheat lasts longer when stored. It also has slightly higher protein.

[RiggerGod]

Rmpl,
Great post and great idea! I am really looking forward to your videos! I have often wondered exactly how prep and bake w/ hard red wheat; your post has certainly started my gears a grinding (literally and figuratively!)! Thanks!

[Rmplstlskn]

Rmpl,
Great post and great idea! I am really looking forward to your videos! I have often wondered exactly how prep and bake w/ hard red wheat; your post has certainly started my gears a grinding (literally and figuratively!)! Thanks!

Thanks... Rather than break open my mylar & O2 sealed pails of WHITE hard & soft wheat, I had ordered some 25# bags through Whole Foods to do some wheat mixing BREAD tests... I pick it up Tuesday, so I hope to start grinding and baking soon after...

I had more of my hard red wheat bread for breakfasts the last few days and if you put butter on it, and even some jelly, it really is quite good... It's a taste that grows on you...

But I think MIXING the wheats is the REAL TICKET to tasty bread with long-term storage foods...

Rmpl

[Vic303]

Rmpl, I have found that I prefer to make Hard white flour, though I do have some hard red wheat stored. I use SAF yeast, dough enhancer, and vital gluten in all the bread I make. It tends to make the best loaves. I hand knead (no Hobart), and yes, the more rise times, the better the loaf, though for speed, you can make decent if coarse, loaves with only a single 30min rise in the pans before baking.

I think I am going to experiment with some hard tack recipes I downloaded too. Just something to play around with mostly, but may serve some long term storage needs too.

Another thing to consider in storing wheat--anyone sensitive to wheat products will typically be MORE sensitive to hard red wheat than to the hard white.

--Vic

[Rmplstlskn]

OK, I finally got a chance to do another bread test... This time I used 60% hard red winter wheat and 40% soft white winter wheat mix. Since manually making bread is very time consuming I used our bread maker instead. I made a Whole Wheat Yogurt Bread and put it on video.

My suspicions were correct... Mixing the heavy, dense red winter flour with a lighter soft white flour did indeed improve the non-SHTF, normal life quality and palatability of the bread. This loaf came out DELICIOUS! Hard, crunchy crust with a richly smooth and soft interior...

What does it all mean? Add some soft white winter wheat to your storage to compliment the hard red winter wheat so commonly used in long-term storage... You and your family will be glad you did!

Look for more experiments to come...

PART 1
Storage Wheat used in BREAD Part 1

PART 2
Storage Wheat used in BREAD Part 2

[13MPG]

Just had time to watch part of the first video. Good stuff so far and I will make sure to watch the rest. This has been something that I have wanted to try for a long time. I guess I need to start shopping for a hand mill.

[chadbag]

Hard Red and Hard White have pretty much the same protein range. The Red has more tannic acid (where the red comes from) which gives it its distinctive flavor. This is for Winter wheats. Spring wheats (usually red) have a little bit higher range of protein, which may be where the idea that red wheat has higher protein comes from.

As far as I can tell (from previous reading, so this is from memory) both Hard Red and Hard White store about the same as well on terms of length. Again, this is for the Hard, both Red and White.

The difference is the soft wheat. Lower protein. Also stores not quite as long etc.

Here is some info that I just found on use of the various sorts:
http://www.pastryitems.com/baking_information.htm

I have a small amount of Red Winter (Hard) wheat stored. Most of the wheat I have is White Winter (Hard) wheat. It simply tastes better in bread.

I have a nutri-mill (and a hand mill for SHTF) and I make what my kids call "Daddy" flour with it. This flour makes excellent bread and pancakes/waffles. I also use it mixed with white flour to make cookies and stuff. I add gluten when using it with cookies as well as breads.

I take 6 cups of hard white wheat. 1 1/3 cup of brown rice. 1 1/3 cup of barley. 1 1/3 cup oat groats. About 1/2-2/3 cups Quinoa. (If I have it I also add 1/2 cup buck wheat). I mix this up and then grind it on the finest setting on the nutri-mill grinder.

I am lazy and use a bread machine but the normal and wheat settings do several rounds of letting the dough rise before cooking.

I also grind beans (a mix of pinto, black, red, lentils, and whatever other dried beans I have) and make bean flour. The bread I make in the machine calls for 3 cups of wheat flour. I use 2 1/2 cups of my flour plus 1/2 cup bean flour and I double or triple the gluten amount the recipe calls for (I am at 4500 ft, aka high altitude, and some of the changes to the recipe come because of that). The bread has a very good consistency, is pretty light feeling, and very good tasting and good for you.

The barley, rice, and oats increase the amount of soluble fiber in the bread (wheat is mostly insoluble fiber) and the quinoa and beans greatly increase the protein content and the beans also lend fiber.

[Rmplstlskn]

Thanks Chadbag for the excellent info...

I'm new to baking, so what is the extra gluten for? Your high altitude? I have read that hard wheats have naturally enough gluten to form and stratch properly...

I'm also not sure about some of the other additives I see used, like "dough enhancer" etc...

Rmpl