Wheat bread

We arrived in China last year, and unbeknownst to us, so did our gazillion pounds of wheat. In another life when I'd have my own house, pantry, and cellar, I'd keep a year's worth of food on hand, including some whole grain wheat for long term theoretical use. But we're moving every two years, and it's just not very practical or economical to have the American taxpayer ship our year's supply of food around the world and back every time we move.

We do try and follow the prophet's teachings by keeping our kitchen and pantry stocked. But we plan on using everything we have before we move again. You're welcome.

So I bought myself a wheat grinder. There's no such thing as whole wheat flour in China, so I got this not only to use some of my food storage, but also to enjoy some hearty bread once in a while.

Once in a long while, it turns out.

I bought a hand-cranked wheat mill, as pictured below. There's a hopper that attaches to the top, but it's in Penny's toy bin right now, and not in the picture.

This beauty cost me about 13 dollars, and it weighs approximately 13 tons. This baby's solid cast iron. It took some doing to clamp it onto a sturdy surface, and even then, I got a blister on my hand when I used it-- not the hand doing the turning, but my left hand from trying to hold it still while I cranked. The flour came out very coarse. I made some bread with it, and it had the texture of a cracked wheat bread.... I don't wonder why.

Verdict: I'll keep it on hand for my future food storage in my future life. If I bolted it down and adjusted the grindstones, I think I could make it work in a pinch. I'd rather have this than pay $400 for one you can buy in the US, considering that I don't plan on using it often.

Yesterday I upgraded to this bad boy:

This should be called the Mixbuster 7000. It's actually called the Hao Peng Multi-Purpose Swing Disintegrator. I didn't make that one up. Most people here buy them to process Chinese Medicinal herbs and roots into powder, but they're also great for making flour. I put a cup of wheat in it, and in about 15 seconds, the thing had pulverized them into powder. This thing has an insane amount of power, and at that speed, the caddy heats up pretty quick with all the friction. But I got my wheat flour, and that's what counts.

I immediately made some whole wheat bread, using my Grandma's recipe. It's the first time I've ever made bread by hand, kneading it, shaping the loaves, and baking the bread without using a breadmaker. I'm really proud of my results.

Bread dough after rising:

Oooh, look. It's brown! It's whole wheat! I'm happy!!

The final product:

I've read on the internet how to make bread and shape loaves. They weren't kidding. It turned out great!

Kevin likes white bread, and I'm not sure he'll be as excited as I am that we now have whole wheat flour. So I'll try to curb my enthusiasm for his sake. But for today, we're enjoying our fiber!