Freshly Ground Flour. Better for your body. Better for your tongue.

In my last post I talked about how whole wheat flour wasn't.
That the thing called whole wheat flour, in the stores, is actually white flour with a bit of the germ and bran put back in. Or basically, colored white flour.

Freshly ground wheat flour is nothing like the store bought flour.
The flavors, texture, and nutrients are on a completely different level.

Wheat Berries

There is no real comparison between a cup of coffee made with freshly ground coffee beans and one made with ground coffee from a can. Fresh ground wheat makes that coffee comparison seem trivial. You may actually try to stop calling that stuff in the store flour. Because it isn't.

The wheat seed is a perfect vessel for storing nutrients. In the field, through the freezing winter storms, it will survive, intact, for years. In a cool, dry storage place it will last for decades. Savings its energy for when it will grow into a new wheat stalk, or when it will give of its bounty to maintain another life.

Hand Powered Wheat Grinder

So, to make the flour shelf stable, so that it can sit on the store shelf for years, all of the nutrients are removed. Along with all of the oils. Further, it may be bleached (they pour Clorox® on it). It is a very sad state. 🙁

Grinding your flour just before you bake is an excellent way to get all of those important nutrients and oils into your loaves and muffins. Along with getting the most flavorful bread.

With store bought whole wheat flour there is a slight bitter tang to its taste. This appears to be because the germ, that was put back in, is slowly going rancid. With fresh ground flour, there is no bitter tang. It tastes wonderful and fresh, right in the cup.

Further, fresh ground flour is better for gluten intolerant people. It all the parts of the wheat berry including the oils, which balance out the partial protein that the gluten is.

Grinding Flour

Also, for those gluten intolerant, a 24 hour rise bread recipe is far better. (I will make a post about this.) Long story short; all the bread made in factories today are a fast rise. 3 hours max. They add lots of yeast and use bromated flours to get those short times. The short times do not allow for the yeasts to work the glutens. And so, these fast rise breads are a double whammy for your body. The slow rise breads, on the other hand, are much better for the digestive system. 🍞

More information showing bread made with fresh ground vs store bought wheat:
http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2010/10/15/grind-your-own-whole-wheat-flour-%E2%80%93-how-sweet-is-that/