Questions from Holly and I am sure many of you have the same one as I have been asked this over and over through the years of dealing with those new to whole grains and grinding their own wheat.

HOLLY ASKS:
I was wondering if hard white winter wheat is the same for pastry flour?

MARMEE ANSWERS:

Dear Holly,
No -- hard wheat is not the same as soft wheat (pastry flour is made from soft wheat).
Soft wheat can be winter or spring wheat (that just refers to the season is was harvested) and white or red (just refers to the coloring of the wheat --  white has less tannic acid thus making it lighter in color) . 
Typically pastry (Soft wheat) flour is used for baking products without yeast and using baking powder as a leavening agent..and hard wheat has a higher protein content and is used in bread baking....but you shouldn't really have any trouble using white hard winter wheat if it is finely ground in muffins, pancakes, cookies etc :) I have with fairly good success :) 
Hope this helps,

Marmee

Comments:

•03/12/2008, 14:26 - Jammie

My family has kept wheat stored in the airtight buckets for over 15 years that was perfectly fine. The only wheat that I think wasn't fine was some that was kept in an attic. The only reason I knew it wasn't fine was because I soaked a cup in water overnight to see if it would sprout. I assume that if it won't sprout that it has gotten hot enough to kill the seed and that it won't have the same nutrition as wheat berries that will sprout. Having said this, it will still grind into flour and make bread. I made several loaves before reading about soaked grain breads and such which caused me to question if it was still "good."
Blessings,

Jammie

•01/30/2008, 19:49 - Valerie

I love your breadmaking video! I do not own a Bosch, but I am seriously considering buying one after watching your video. You make it look so easy to make bread! I have a question, though. I do not have a large family (yet!), and we would not be able to eat that many loaves of bread before they go stale. Can you comment on freezing homemade bread? If it works, how to do it, and if the texture of the bread is still good after freezing?

Thanks so much.

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Dear Valerie,

There are many times when a batch of 5 or 6 loaves is eaten up every single day at my house and I don't want to take out the time to make bread EVERY single day. So I will do up to 3 batches in a row on a single day when I have extra time. That gives me about 17 loaves of bread! Yes! You can freeze them :)

The main tips for freezing are this:

1-Let it cool completely.

2- Wrap it once in plastic wrap so the bread can't get air pockets around it in the freezer.

3- Place it in a heavy duty bread bag and remove as much air as you can and twist tie it.

4- Let it be in a 'safe' place in a freezer where it won't get smashed :) I have even packed the wrapped bread in cardboard boxes to keep it from getting smooshed :) I have the huge chest freezers and if I have a lot of extra loaves it has a tendency to get lost in there and under other things.

5-Use within 6 weeks or so for the freshest tasting bread. If you thaw it and slice - it really is hardly any different than fresh bread -- but then we aren't super picky about things like that.

6- Also in the past taken my dough straight from the mixer (before rising or baking) and formed them into loaves and frozen them in the pans. When hard frozen, I dump them from the pan, wrap them in plastic wrap and bags and freeze unbaked. Then when ready for fresh bread, just drop the frozen loaf into the greased bread pan and let thaw and rise. It can take quite a number of hours depending on the room's temperature to completely thaw and thoroughly warm up to rise. Also the bread doesn't seem quite as high rising and fluffy but it does work :) So that is an idea for you too.

7- Also the BOSCH mixer can knead just 3 loaves of dough even though in my opinion it does much better with a batch double that size. The mixer bowl is so large if you do the smaller batches the dough has a tendency to jump around and you have to stay with the mixer if it gets off balance. Just sometimes.....I have made only 3 loaves easily many times.

Another tip for bread bakers. When you see a recipe for bread and aren't sure how many loaves you will end up with? Look at the liquid measure in the recipe. Does is call for 4 cups of warm milk? Then you will get 4 regular sized loaves. 6 cups of warm water? Then you will end up with 6 regular sized loaves. 2 cups of warm water? That recipe won't make more than 2 loaves.

As a BOSCH owner whenever I see yummy sounding bread recipes in magazines or online that call for 2 cups of liquid -- I just double the recipe's ingredients and get 4 lovely loaves of bread! A 4 loaf batch is a great size to make in a BOSCH universal mixer! 2 for the table and 2 for the freezer!

•01/30/2008, 10:01 - Dawn

How long can you store hard wheat in a airproof container? We still have some left from Y2k .

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Dear Dawn,

If you open the container and there are no signs of bugs or breakdown of the grain - it is probably fine! Use it :)
I kept some for 4 years after Y2K under those conditions (sealed, airproof, container that had been unopened) - and it was perfectly fine.
The only thing that would keep you from using it is if you saw an infestation of bugs...and you would SEE THEM if they were there...eeeks! 
But I am betting it is just fine unless it has been in a hot attic or stored in a very humid place. But the only thing to do is to open it and have a look -:)