In the Kitchen - Grinding Wheat to Make Cookies

A few weeks ago I purchased some wheat berries from Whole Foods with the intention to grind my own wheat.  Why do that, you ask?  Sounds like a lot of work?  Yes on both counts, a bit...
Why?  Because wheat is SO nutritious ... unless it has been ground and sits on a shelf in a bag.  Fresh ground wheat has all of its nutrients for less than 72 hours and each hour that goes by reduces the quality of it by a bit.  I decided that if I was going to use wheat, we would benefit from all it has to offer so the optimal way is to grind just enough for a recipe when ready to bake.

Commercially ground wheat is actually processed in a method to remove much of the nutrition as the natural oils are removed.  They have to remove the natural oils or the wheat flour would go rancid on the shelf in a very short time.  Some of the wheat on the shelf may be so old that it is already rancid.. you may taste that in a bitter taste present in your baked goods.  I want fresh!

So in order to get the MOST nutrition from my wheat and other seeds, I sprout them.  This is a process by which the dried seed is soaked in clear water to cause it to begin to germinate. You may have read one of my previous posts about drying nuts for better nutrition and better flavor.  If you have not, you can go read it now:  http://www.thenewsuburbanpioneer.blogspot.com/2012/09/in-kitchen-sprouting-nuts.html   Wheat berries are also a seed and so to begin the germination process with sprouting, you remove the phytic acids (this is what may give some a belly ache after consuming flour goods).  You also wake the wheat berry up by stopping the enzyme inhibitors and waking up the nutrients present to feed the "new plant".

Here is how I sprouted my wheat:

See how easy it is to soak it for 24 hours in water? There is a mesh screen on these jars and I changed the water at least once during those 24 hours.

After the first 24 hours, I rinsed the berries again and then drained the water.  At this time I left them in the jar moist and turned the jar on it's side on the counter.  Rinsing every 8 - 12 hours was not difficult for the next day or two until I saw some little tiny "tails" on the wheat berries.  That meant they had begun germinating and were ready to dry.  If you let the wheat sprout too much, it is much more difficult to grind!  So I quit the sprouting process when the first signs were there!

Using the dehydrator, I lined the trays with a breathable canvas fabric and laid the wet wheat out in a thin layer, dehydrating them for up to about 12 hours, until they were completely dry.  Once the berries are completely dehydrated, they will store a long time!  Certainly until you are ready to grind them into wheat flour to use in your recipes!

So last night was the night!  Deciding to make some great monster cookies, I needed a cup of whole wheat flour.  Since I don't yet have a grain mill, I had to improvise.  Here is what I did:  First I ground the wheat berries in my electric coffee bean grinder.  This produced a coarse wheat flour.  I then used an antique coffee grinder with the setting tightened for a finer grind and re-ground all that coarse flour in the steel teeth of the coffee grinder.  The "flour" got even finer and I tested that out by sifting it through an antique sifter that has been on display in my house as a decoration.  This way I could determine if it was fine enough.  We actually had to put it through 2 grindings in the coffee grinder but finally we had a cup of fine flour to use in our cookies.

The whole family was in on this action.  It was a great time!  Mike had to hold down the wooden coffee grinder (wheat is kind of hard to grind) while I turned the crank and Journey kept pouring it in the top and emptying the little drawer at the bottom.  It does not grind very much at a time so it took a little while. 

The cookies were delicious that came out of the oven!  We all loved them and I will share the recipe in the next blog post.  But I am even more intent on getting some kind of grain mill that will hold a bit more and perhaps do a better job.  Maybe even one that will clamp on my counter so poor Mike doesn't have to hold it while I grind or even better, a nice electric one that does the work really fast! Funny thing is that I had that old coffee grinder and sifter on display for so many years in my home, never even considering their function or potential value!  They actually came to good use as well as being decorative!