Whole Wheat sourdough bread from fresh ground wheat made in breadmaker!

I have been struggling with recipes for making whole wheat sourdough bread in a bread maker from fresh ground wheat. Combining the ideas of sourdough, fresh ground wheat, and bread machine is amazingly difficult. There seems to be practically no recipes combine all those elements.  Until now.....

Before I share the recipe, here's a bit of background on WHY combine these three elements:

1. Fresh ground wheat instead of store bought

I was raised on whole wheat bread, thinking it was good for you. It's whole grain just like nature intended, right? Well.. think again.. it actually isn't as whole and as healthy as you might think. The reality is that oils in the wheat kernel make the ground flour go rancid very quickly. True whole wheat flour has a shelf life of only 1 to 2 months before going rancid. This can be extended somewhat by refrigeration. However, have you ever seen a "milled"  or "use by" date on a bag of flour? Most don't have it. So, either they are selling food that goes bad quickly without telling you, or they have processed the grain somehow to extend shelf life.   The technology exists to extract the oil from the kernel, leaving what the government calls "whole grain" but increasing the shelf life.

Ok, wait you say.. if it says 100% whole grain, then it has to be 100% of the grain, right? Wrong. Here is the government regulations about labeling:

From the FDA website about food labeling:

Depending on the context in which a "whole grain" statement appears on the label, it could be construed as meaning that the product is "100 percent whole grain." We recommend that products labeled with "100 percent whole grain" not contain grain ingredients other than those the agency considers to be whole grains. Consumers should be able to look at the ingredient statement to determine whether the predominant or first ingredient listed is a whole grain. We note that wheat flour should not be labeled as a whole grain flour because wheat flour is a synonym of flour (§ 137.105), and thus, the bran and germ have been removed. However, whole wheat flour (§ 137.200) should be considered a whole grain flour because it contains all the parts of the grain, i.e., the bran, endosperm, and germ. We recommend that pizza that is labeled "whole grain " or "whole wheat" only be labeled as such when the flour ingredient in the crust is made entirely from whole grain flours or whole wheat flour, respectively. Similarly, we recommend that bagels, labeled as "whole grain " or "whole wheat" only be labeled as such when bagels are made entirely from whole grain flours or whole wheat flour, respectively.

Read carefully, the government considered only the presence of the three basic components of wheat: bran, endosperm, germ. It does not refer to the OIL. IT is the OIL that contains much of the nutrition and also what causes rancidity. By removing the oil or processing it somehow, the shelf life can be extended and still called 100% whole wheat, even though it is a different product than what you would get with fresh ground flour.

Here is a website describing in more detail.

Nutritionally, fresh ground flour looses its nutritional value in hours from milling, so it must be ground right before use to achieve the best product.  This is simply not possible with store bought whole wheat flour. So, we bought a small electric grain mill and mill our own flour in the kitchen on demand.  (another blog post could cover grain mills)

2. Sourdough instead of yeast?

Now that we have achieved flour that contains all the nutrition of nature in fresh ground... we have a new problem. Whole grain flour also contains this magic chemical called "phytic acid". In the world of seeds, this is a magical and necessary chemical. It is what makes the seed lay dormant for months until enough water comes along to support life, and then the seed sprouts with hours.  The phytic acid keeps the seed dormant until enough water soaks the seed to dissolve out the phytic acid, and life begins.

Great process right? Well, there is a side effect. Phytic acid, when consumed by animals including humans, is a negative in our bodies. Through processes I don't understand the phytic acid in seeds prevents absorption of many minerals, including calcium.  What that means is, if you eat enough  whole seeds (wheat) it matters not how much milk you drink, the calcium goes right through you and you suffer from calcium deficiency.

There are two answers to this... you can remove the outer coating of the wheat where the phytic acid is. This would be the wheat bran. There is then no phytic acid, but you also have no whole wheat and little fiber left.  This is what you find in standard all purpose flour.  The better answer is to soak the flour in water for enough time to dissolve the phytic acid, leaving the full nutrition of the wheat intact.  This is called "soaked wheat bread". Obviously those concerned with nutrition opt for soaking instead of stripping parts of the wheat away.

Ironically then, if you consume whole wheat bread that is unsoaked as it is commonly available, you are overall potentially worse off than eating white bread, but in a different way. White bread stresses certain parts of the body potentially increasing diabetes, heart disease, etc. Unsoaked whole wheat bread blocks absorption of minerals, increasing conditions such as osteoporosis and other mineral deficiency conditions.  Neither is a healthy lifestyle choice. Only soaking wheat makes fully nutritious and healthy bread.

Now, if your are going to soak your bread for hours, why not go the extra mile and let it ferment into sourdough naturally. Sourdough is a magic combination of bacteria and yeast that, along with destroying the phytic acid, increases nutritional value in much the same way yogurt is healthier than milk.  It is a nutritionally positive experience (beware again.. much bread called sourdough in the store is not true sourdough, it is yeast bread made to taste sour, which has no value over white bread)

So this is our choice, fresh milled whole wheat flour turned into sourdough and soaked at baking time long enough to destroy phytic acid. the best of all worlds and NO negative nutritional components.


3. Bread machine ???

Simply put.. I'm too lazy to manually make bread every day through mixing, kneading, etc.  As with most things on our farm, if it cant be automated, it doesn't get done regularly. I find comfort in the old saying "If you want to find a way to make something easier... find a lazy man to do it, he will figure out an easier way".

The challenge here is that most bread maker recipes call for yeast that rises quickly, much too quickly to destroy phytic acid. Wheat must soak for 8 to 12 hours to be mostly free of phytic acid, and most bread machines only rise for a couple hours.  We found one with completely programmable cycles, that fits the bill nicely!


Ok, so that is the  background of why this is necessary, and hard.  Nevertheless, here is a recipe that so far is the best yet. It comes out fairly fluffy, airy, tasty, and soft crusted.  More adjustment may be made to fine tune this.

1 cup fresh baked pumpkin
2 cups sourdough starter - i use a mix of fresh ground hard wheat and rye
2 cups of fresh ground flour - again a mix of hard wheat and rye
dash of salt

Just throw it all in the bread maker and hit a button. It is necessary to watch for a bit in mixing cycle to ensure proper consistency. The dough should NOT ball up, but should be pulled away and torn by the paddles. If it balls up, add a spoon or two of water. If it does mixes like pancake batter, add a spoon or two of flour.

The cycle times for this are :

20 minutes mix and knead
12 hours rise
1 1/4 hour baking

Be sure to take the bread out as soon as it is done. Sitting in the pan changed the crust texture.

I welcome all comments, especially if you try this and have success or failure.