I think there are many people who buy and pack away grains and other bulk foods for storage, but do not use them or do not know how to use them.  Making bread is fairly easy and taste fantastic.  This last time we made bread, I decided to take some photos of it.

When I open a bucket of wheat, I pour it into another bucket that has a gamma seal lid on it for easy access.



I use a whispermill, (I think they are called wonder mills now) to grind the grain.  It does a great job and makes great flour fast and easy.  I have a hand crank mill also, but I don't use it unless I have to or for fun (though cranking out a lot of flour by hand is not very fun).  



Here are the ingredients for the bread that all come from food storage.  Some honey, vegetable oil, salt, and yeast and the freshly ground flour (also water, but it is not in the photo).



This granulated active dry yeast is over five years old, and it still activates as well as it did when it was new.  I keep it in the freezer since it keeps dormant in the cold for... well, probably forever if it is cold enough since it is just a type of fungi.  This is just two tablespoons with some hot water and a little sugar and it foams up fairly quickly.  I like to activate it ahead of time before mixing the ingredients.  I think it helps the bread rise up nicer this way.



Here is the dough all mixed up in the bread mixer.  If you are making lots of bread, having a mixer to do all the dirty work is great.



Here is my big ball o dough.  This recipe will make four good sized loaves, but we decided to make just two loaves and make the rest into dinner rolls.  Which is a great idea!



Here are my two loaves, I like to weigh the dough so I don't end up with one huge loaf and one midget loaf.  I am not sure why my wife put flour on the greased pans this time, I usually don't.  



Here are my rolls, there was a little too much dough left over, so there is a second smaller pan of rolls not in this photo.



Some people like to let the dough rise after mixing, then form the loaves and let the dough rise again.  I don't do this, it takes way too long, so what I do is stick the bread into the oven and turn it to 150 degrees or just below the warm setting.  I keep an eye on it and when the dough has raised to the top of the bread pans (about 25 minutes or so) I just crank the heat to 350 degrees without taking them out.  20 minutes later, the result is bread that has raised up just as nice.  I have found that this method of making bread takes very little effort and goes from grain to great tasting bread in about 50 minutes total.  

huge 10. That looks great

Thanks!  

The problem with fresh homemade bread is that it doesn't last very long with it tasting so good.  

If it doesn't get eaten, it will still last a week or so, longer if it is in the fridge, and it keeps well in the freezer if I make a whole bunch.

Now that is a great post.

Thanks

Yum Bread!

Cool post, thanks.

Win



now challenge yourself and do it without electric or the oven and you will be truly free.

Funny the "Yum Bread" on the Refig...

You are correct.  I have done it before, and it can be fun, but it takes a lot more work and time.  I've baked bread made by hand in a brick wood oven before and it has a good taste, but pretty difficult to manage the right temperature.  We are spoiled with the modern conveniences of today.

lol. Yeah, that was my wife's idea. We first took the photo and saw a mass of jumbled letters on the refrigerator in the background and she thought that was messy and decided to fix it a little.

OK, I'll be the 'inexperienced' one here. Exactly what recipe do you use? I see 'some of <these ingredients>' listed. Would you be so kind as to be more specific? I love experimenting, but just gotta have a known good starting point.

I received a grain mill for Christmas (manual) and need to test it out. Also, what kind of wheat are you using? I have Honeyville Grains open in a separate window just waiting to place an order.

Thanks for putting up with me.

sgt_seti

No problem, I guess my post was devoid of the info to make it yourself.
I used hard white wheat. I like the taste and find that it makes lighter bread. You can mix in a little white flour if you like, but I like it all whole wheat.

I used:
11-12 cups of flour (add more if it is still too sticky (comes off on your finger when you poke it))
2 TB Salt
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey (melted)
2 TB dry yeast granules
4 cups hot water  (not boiling hot, just hot to the touch)

I take the yeast and a cup of the water and a teaspoon or two of sugar and mix them together in a separate container to activate and foam up the yeast for 5-10 minutes.

While the yeast is activating I take half of the flour and the rest of the ingredients and mix them together.  Then pour in the yeast mixture and all but a cup or two of the remaining flour and mix.  I add flour until the dough is not too sticky.  Too much flour and the dough won't stick together very well when kneeding and will make creased bread so it takes a little practice.  I let the mixer run a minute or two with the dough to pull and stretch it and do all the kneeding work to make the dough produce light bread.  Or it can be done by hand.

Divide the ball of dough into four equal portions and form the individual dough loaves and place them in the greased pan.  You can let them raise in a warm kitchen for an hour or so or let it raise in the oven like I mentioned before.

Hope this helps

Excellent!



I love cooking from preps threads





Speed

Thank you, thank you, thank you... I have all but the wheat on hand. Time to go shopping.

sgt_seti

Not a problem with a family of six.

Great job!!! How fine did it grind the wheat? Was it just once through the mill?

                                                                                               Robie

Yes, it was just once through the mill.  The wondermill does a great job.  It can make the flour like the consistency of powdered sugar, but I like it just below that setting so while there is very fine flour, there are also tiny granules like a fine sand mixed in as well.  I seem to like that kind of flour consistency and it makes the wheat go through the grinder a lot faster than on its finest setting.

With my hand crank mill, it is harder to crank it on the finer settings.  So I rough grind it really fast first to crack the wheat, then run it through again on a finer setting to get closer to the flour I want.

Here is a photo of the flour produced with about half of the wheat in the recipe.

I've been using this recipe and it really works, very simple, just need a cast iron covered pot.  The quality of the bread is amazing.  I use store flour but I would like to try it with hand crank flour.
––-
Recipe: No-Knead Bread

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Awesome, thank you.   I've been wondering about some of the basic skills myself and working to learn them.

Thanks, I like trying different bread recipes as well.

Very nice!

Now lets see some pic of how to churn some butter for that bread.

Tag

Full'o WIN!

tag for later purchase of equipment!



Thx!

10/10, thanks for sharing that, looks fantastic.  I've got to try that out here.  I've been spoiled using the "bread machine", that looks like I might be able to do it without messing it all up.  

Did you brush it with butter or egg whites after it came out?

I baked a loaf that called for brushing it twice with butter, once when I put it in the oven and once half way through. The taste wasn't what I was looking for but the texture was great. I need to start baking bread more often, I never get motivated till noon when I want a sandwich (I work nights).

Yes, I wiped on some butter when they came out of the oven.  My mom always did that and so I do it too.  I'm not sure of all the reasons behind buttering the bread crust when they come out of the oven but it makes the bread look good.

So how many cups of wheat does it take to make 11-12 cups of flour? and how many cups of wheat (about) are in a 5 gallon bucket?

I guess, I'm looking for how muh bread can you make with a 5 gallon bucket of wheat?

that just made my mouth water.  You have a good thing going there

You Suck

10/10 for the bread

I LOVE freash bread

This I will be printing and trying.  I have been searching around a lot for a simple bread recipe!  Awesome write up!

Thanks for the kind remarks everybody!




lets see here....

1 cup of wheat will produce about 1.5 cups of flour on average.

As for how much wheat/flour/bread is in a 5gal bucket.  There are 4 cups in a quart, 4 quarts to a gallon so 16 cups per gallon, therefore a 5gal bucket will have 80 cups of wheat (120 cups of flour).  My recipe actually makes 4 pretty large loaves.  I guess a normal loaf is about 2lb of dough mine are 3lb so if you let them rise longer, you could get 6 loaves out of this recipe (I only have 4 bread pans). So there are about 2 -3 cups of flour per loaf of bread.  

With all this in mind, a 5 gal bucket of wheat will produce 10 of these recipes, about 40 to 60 loaves of bread.  To make this much, you will need 7.5 cups of honey, 7.5 cups of oil, 20 TB (1.25 cups) of salt and yeast.  All of which can be purchased in bulk and stored away on the cheap. You can use sugar instead of honey, but I really like the slight taste of honey in bread.

If you buy 60 loaves of whole wheat bread at the store for $3.50/ea. it will cost you $210.

5 gal of wheat is relatively cheap and keeps for a long time when sealed up nice, which is why it is a popular long term storage item.

May I ask what kind of wheat you use? (red, white, hard, etc.)

Thanks again.

Thanks Parana1

I see yeast, sugar, honey etc and wheat. They all store well, but how do you get oil to store for longer than a year?

I used hard white wheat.  I usually use that a lot more than red.

If oil is stored in a cool dark location, it will last years past expiration.  You will know when oil goes rancid with the pungent odor, I don't go through lots of oil per year, but it is rotated regularly.  I guess I always use oil that is a year or more old then and it is good as new.

I have heard of people that store oil in the refrigerator also, but I don't.  Maybe if I lived in a hot humid location where there are no basements storing in the fridge might be a good option.

Thanks again, Parana1!   Great stuff, I appreciate you sharing all of the details with us.

Somebody posted a recipe and picture(s) of a cheesy flat bread here some time ago.  I made it a few times and it was easy and delicious, but lost the recipe.  Anyone know where I can find that again?

Cool.  I have a Whisper Mill also, and frequently make bread from the stockpile.

I find that it is best to consume it immediately.  Even a day later, it is well on its way to being stale.

My current favorite recipe, "quick sourdough":

-Four cups of flour
-just slightly more than one cup of water
-four teaspoons of sugar
-four teaspoons of lemon juice
-one and a half teaspoons of salt
-half cup of plain yogurt
-one tablespoon of dough enhancer (the baker's secret weapon!)
-two teaspoons of yeast
-four teaspoons of butter

Fantastic info post. Thanks much!

Put a handgun, a rifle, a knife, something nice to drink and a tape measurer and take a pic then you would be off the charts!!!

10/10

This thread drove me to get off my butt and test my manual grain mill.  It's an el cheapo Porkert, THIS model.  It was surprisingly easy to use, though it took a good bit of cranking to make a cup of flour.  The hopper is really small and the flour discharges only a couple of inches from the table top, so you have to use a shallow pie pan for the flour.  I have bread baking in the bread machine now.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  I ordered a mill for my wife's Kitchen Aid mixer for daily use.  Thanks for the prod Parana.

Thank You for this great post. I think you are getting more than a few of us to follow your lead. A little practice and confidence using our stored items is a valuable thing.
Well Done!

Red

hmmm, you have a point, I hope I am not too late to redeem myself.  

This is not a dinner pic, but rather a simple snack with a slice of bread with butter and honey and a glass of milk.  In addition there is the serrated bread knife and my new M&P 9mm Compact.

now thats a win




 

Awesome looking bread !!! I love to bake bread and it's one of the reasons that I got to be 315lbs !!! Now that I've got that under control and I'm back down to 220lbs I've gotten back into baking and cooking. I'm just more sane about it. A friend of mine built a wood-fired oven, mostly for pizza, and it's awesome. I found a great website that offers FREE plans for building a traditional Italian brick oven. I want to build one and incorporate it into my patio/hardscapeIt will be great for pizza, breads, roasting and baking in terracotta or dutch ovens. It's also one of those SHTF items that will be useful every day and hide in plain site. No power ? No problem. Fire up the oven and bake bread or throw in the dutch oven.

Brick oven plans website

Here's just one example:



I really like this one. The design incorporates a fireplace below, benches for sitting on and a brick oven.

That is really cool, something like that wouldn't even seem "out of place" in an outdoor kitchen to the casual observer.

This thread is so full of win and the resulting need to consume bread...well done!

Well played sir, well played indeed!

12/10

Well, I'm resurrecting this thread for a moment.  I bought a grain mill a couple weeks ago and some grain.  The grain came in today (red wheat) and of course, I had to break in the grinder.  15ish minutes later I had 6 cups of wheat flour.  I'll be adapting my drill to do the dirty work of grinding.  

I found and bookmarked this thread a while back cause the recipe looked tasty and relatively easy.  A month or so ago I made a boxed bread.  It turned out ... not quite right.  That was my first loaf of bread.  I have a hard time with failure, so I decided this loaf (loaves) needed to be good.  

And indeed, they are.  I pretty much followed it word for word as written and a couple of loaves turned out quite well.  Unfortunately I only have one bread pan, so the other got put in a slightly larger pan, thus the not-quite-loaf-like look.  Still tastes really damn good.  Anyway, I plan on getting a lot of mileage out of this recipe and really had a lot of fun making this tasty recipe.  Thanks!

http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww215/Nicodareus2k/bread1.jpg

ETA:  I actually halved the recipe –– only 2 people and 4 loaves seemed like it'd be way too much.  Scaled perfectly imo.