Bread Day!

Today was bread day! Bread day happens about every 3 days here! I have been sharing my bread a lot lately it seems, so I thought I would put a post on my blog showing the process! I started milling my own wheat about 8 years ago...for a lot of reasons. I could go on and on about the health benefits alone, but I'll save that for another post.
To start, I store it in these large buckets, because I buy it in bulk. The next picture shows 2 types of grain that I use for our everyday bread. The grain on the left is Hard White, which is used for your breads and is long and thin in appearance much like brown rice. The grain on the right is Soft White, which is used more for pastries and is shorter and more plump. When I am ready to mill, I make a 50/50 mixture of the two grains to make a flour that's similar to All Purpose. I find that this mixture makes my bread softer and fluffier, which my oldest son and hubby prefer! My youngest two children were started off on this bread and actually prefer it to store bread...I told you that I would share the health benefits in another post, but since I mentioned my little ones, I thought I should mention that neither of them have ever been on an antibiotic! I truly believe it's the bread! You say, "No way!", well let me tell you, my oldest son hasn't been on an antibiotic since I started making it either!
So, getting back to bread, next is a picture of my mill. It's pretty compact, but literally sounds like a jet engine in my kitchen. When you put the grain (it can mill almost any grain or bean) into the hopper, as the wheat is milled, the flour is then deposited into the bucket that's attached by a small tube. Next it's time to mix my ingredients. The recipe I use is really simple and can be found at The Bread Beckers. After I mix everything, I let it rise till it's double in size. Once it's double, I punch it down so I can shape it to be put into the pans. Let it rise again until it's double in size. Then bake for 30 minutes! The aroma would make your mouth water...YUM! The whole process takes about 3 hours, but most of the time is letting it rise!
For some interesting facts about the benifits of fresh milled wheat bread you can visit Health Banquet.