Jenny, our amazing daughter in law started us on a few new adventures–grinding grains for baking and vermiculture. Vermiculture will be a future subject.
Freshly ground grains. Do you like heavy and dense breads with lots of seeds? Do you like baking to be fast and easy? This is the recipe for you. It is adapted to the freshly ground flour which absorbs less fluid:
3 Minute Spelt bread
3 1/2 c spelt flour
4 t yeast
1/4 cup flaxseeds (toasted)
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c sesame seeds
1/2 c dates (opt)
1/4 c walnuts (opt)
1 to 1 1/4 cups warm water
Preheat oven to 400 degrees letting it automatically readjust the temperature if you are doing convection cooking. Combine ingredients, adding water last. Add water slowly to get the dough to the right consistency. Mix well and make loaf.
Put in greased pan and either :
1. bake immediately for 1 hour in regular oven on 400 degrees. If you cook it this way then take the loaf out after an hour and return it to oven for additional 5 to 10 minutes
or
2. Bake for 40 min on 400 degrees ( it will reset itself to 375) in convection oven.
We bought the grinder attachment for our Kitchenaid Mixer. But if you are going to do lots of grinding, I would not recommend it. It is slow, and it bogs down. Ours was around $130 — we already had the mixer. Good grain mills cost in the neighborhood of $400 to $500. Apparently stone grinding is best. Obviously you want one powerful enough to meet your needs and fast enough so that it is not time consuming. Here is a link for comparison: http://www.everythingkitchens.com/article-grain-mills-flour-grinders.htm
