When you grind your own wheat.

[lynn]

Is the finished product considered all purpose flour. What do I need to add to make it self rising flour? Also, when using fresh ground wheat vs store bought is there anything I need to consider? Do I just grind what I need for a week or 2 or can I grind it all up and keep it well sealed.

[StaceyinLA]

I wouldn't call it all-purpose because you will not get anything that is totally devoid of all nutrients (which is what white, all-purpose flour is). You will get 100% wheat, and I'm not really sure if you can turn that into self-rising.

 

I know that you can turn regular white flour into self-rising by adding salt and either baking powder or baking soda, but I have no idea if wheat would work in that same manner.

[LauraL]

is just flour that has baking powder (leavening agent) and salt added to it during packaging. This ensures that the baking powder and salt are evenly distributed throughout the flour, as opposed to when you mix it yourself (or your kids mix it) and it may--or may not--be evenly distributed. You can make your own "self rising flour" by mixing 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt with every cup of flour.

 

And I treat my freshly ground flour as all purpose (which is generally made from a blend of high gluten and low gluten wheats). Bread flour, on the other hand, has extra gluten and additives (barley flour and vitamin C) to help the yeast work and increse the gluten's elasticity. You wouldn't, for instance, want to use it for a cake.

 

I live in an area of low humidity, and I've never had trouble with grinding a bunch of flour at a time and storing it in the pantry for use for the next weeks. (We've used tupperware, old peanut butter jars, ziplock bags.) Although, it usually turns out that we end up needing more than we think, and so we grind it more often. And I do think that freshly ground is the best.

[wenn]

When I used to grind my own wheat I used two different kinds. Soft wheat for baked goods that do not require yeast and hard wheat for those that do. For bread I always added powdered gluten.

[Ria]

The finished product would be considered whole wheat flour, not all-purpose. You can't make all-purpose flour from grinding your own wheat...all-purpose is white and has had all the good stuff removed, lol.

 

Ria

[FriedClams]

Other have answered some questions - but I wanted to address the mass grinding. I grind my wheat in small batches and freeze what I am not using. Wheat loses most of it's nutrients in the first 72 hours after grinding. According to the Homestead Kitchen, "In as little as 24 hours after milling grain into flour as much as 45% (or more) of vitamins and minerals have been lost. At 72 hours up to 75 to 90% (or more) of many of the vitamins have been lost." The big difference I've found with fresh and store wheat is that store wheat doesn't taste anywhere near as yummy and it's a much heavier wheat. I use soft wheat for most of my baking, and I think there's a lot of read wheat in the King Arthur I used to buy. Red is much stronger tasting and heavier, (IMHO).

 

For great recipes I would recommend:

Tammy's Wheat Bread (YUMMY!!!)

Heavenly Homemakers (lots of whole food recipes - try the breakfast cookies!)

 

 

and I haven't tried - but they look interesting - recipes from:

The Homestead Kitchen