My Breaducation

I have been making my family's bread now for about 3 years, on and off, as my travel schedule allows. Sometimes I work from home but I do tend to travel quite a bit for work. In the past, I have made dough ahead of time for hubby so he can just rise-and-bake a loaf if I'm not there to do it.  Luckily for me, I've been at home for most of this summer and could really learn a few new things to add to my "breaducation". Can't take credit for it, although it made me laugh when he said it, because my husband has really nailed down the experience. At least for me.  I'm a constant student.

This year's focus, aside for French Macarons and learning to make cheese, has been on the finer points of bread making.  When I say "finer" points, I may be delving a bit too deeply for most folks, but what I'm really talking about are the raw ingredients used to make bread: water, yeast, flour, etc.

Now, this came about naturally so it wasn't out of any obsession really, but more related to my ongoing quests for sourcing locally grown and produced goods, such as flour.  During my quest to find pasture-raised and organic meat, I also began to understand this state's storied and historical past in the grain industry, primarily in milling.  Falling down a rabbit hole kinda describes it.  Locating Cazzi for my piggie was just the first step into my local sourcing project I began at the start of this year.

This is how I stumbled upon Sunrise Flour Mill, run by Marty and Darrold, whom I had the pleasure to meet in August.  They sell their flour at the Mill City Farmer's Market in downtown Minneapolis so one summer weekend, the hubs and I paid them a visit to try out their flour.  Marty promised me an epiphany by using freshly milled flour and her enthusiasm flooded me with excitement, too.  Darrold was too busy discussing the finer points of milling with hubby, but I couldn't hardly wait to get home with our loot to see this for myself.

What I have come to truly understand is that flour, when bought from commercial ag businesses such as Con-Agra, etc. is essentially dead, robbed completely of the nutrients and minerals.  Not only is it dead, but flour companies do not bother to tell you a thing about the flour you buy, such as WHERE the grain was grown, WHERE the grain was milled, WHAT kind of grain was used, WHEN the grain was grown, WHEN the grain was milled and WHAT ELSE was used in the milling of this grain. Don't even get me started about BLEACHED flour... think about it a second and see if you agree with putting bleach on any food you eat just to make it whiter. This ain't laundry, folks. This is nutrition, sustenance for your belly and minds...

Talk about thought provoking.

Needless to say, Marty was right. An epiphany is really quite the understatement as now my eyes are as wide open as my mouth. LOL!  I mean, really, why has it taken me so long to get in touch with this simple truth?  Especially when you look at how much "grain" most Americans, indeed most humans, now consume.  I'm not quite ready to give up on grains and go Paleo, but I am committed to learning more about the foods my household consumes regularly and for us, that means taking a deeper look into wheat.

Without boring the heck out of you who don't have this deep of an interest, suffice it to say that not only does freshly ground wheat make a significant difference in the taste of the baked goods, but it is worlds apart in texture and the bread's ability to rise properly. The texture is incomparable. And the nutritional content is actually in tact.

I had such an enlightened experience.  My first experience was a whole wheat and oatmeal bread, made with 100% whole wheat (Heritage Turkey Red) and I became very excited just as I started to mix the dough because it behaved differently!  When the dough stretched, you could see gluten strands developing right in the bowl. When I put the dough in the proofing container to rise, it was fluffy, not heavy and brick-like as my typical whole wheat breads often appear.  Within an hour, the dough had risen majestically, fully doubled.  When I put the bread into the Pullman pan, it had re-risen within a half hour, ready for baking. Truly, a first for me. My experience is that whole wheat breads never quite have the lift and rise of white flour and somehow, because of this consistent yet poor performance, I was just resigned to this as a fact of wheat.

Boy, was I wrong.  Not a fact at all, but pure fiction derived out of using very poor flour.  Oh, it looks ok... But nutritionally, it is as dead as a cardboard coffin.  Previously, I had blamed a sensitivity to wheat for my sometimes-grumbly belly just after eating bread, but in reality, I have a sensitivity to dead or rancid wheat.

Without going into the gory details, wheat products, ALL wheat products, go rancid after a period of time. It has a lot to do with processing (how little or much), storage (light and air exposure) and how much of the bran has been left in tact.  The bran is the part that makes wheat good for you and provides fiber but it's also the part that goes bad the quickest.  When wheat is "cracked" and processed, this bran begins to react with light and oxygen and starts to deteriorate quickly. This is the reason that most of our wheat is stripped of it's fiber, bleached and refined so heavily. It is an attempt by flour providers to extend the product's shelf life, but what do most Americans know about wheat's shelf life?  Did you know that your flour can go bad? I didn't. At first.

Just like olive oils, vegetable oils and animal fats, grain products can go rancid when not properly stored away from light and oxygen. Grain products actually have a relatively short shelf life. As with most food products, fresh is not only best, it provides a healthier, more nutritious product as processed grains begin to deteriorate rapidly. Take a whiff of your flour next time and see if you detect a "staleness" to the odor.  

Because of the relatively short shelf life, buying in bulk, while cost effective, is probably a big contributor to the declining nutritional content we are seeing in most of our bulk food items.  Grain products are especially sensitive, no matter how much or little processing is done.  And it happens to be widely acknowledged and scientifically proven that this whole industry has given rise to gluten intolerances and serious diseases such as celiac disease where "bad grain" is to blame and that is because our whole diet revolves around grain.

A different kind of "fast food" issue has been brought to my attention, but one must have an interest in these things and more importantly, a willingness to look beyond fast when it comes to food.  It doesn't have to mean slow, either, it just has to mean more...  To me, it means everything, including a long, happy life making bread for a hubby that really, truly appreciates my endeavours even if it sounds a bit wackadoodle at first.

So, before this post becomes my next Amazon e-book, I will close by encouraging everyone to look a little bit closer at what is probably dead in your pantry.  And likely causing havoc with your gut.  If you don't bake bread, all of this will be meaningless to you. If you EAT bread, pasta, cookies, cakes or any of your favorite flour-laden recipes, maybe this will just encourage you to look a little closer. And then a little closer. And then... maybe you will also become excited about local, freshly milled flour, too.