Don’t you hate that feeling of spending time on a recipe and ending up with a total FAIL?
I’m here for you. Want to make me bake and make all the mistakes so you don’t have to?
Here’s the backstory: It’s been 6 years since I’ve had a whole wheat sourdough starter, and I never got up the guts to try gluten-free sourdough. I’ve bought too many boxes of GF crackers at Costco over the last few years. I don’t make our own bread at all anymore, and I probably only use my old grain mill once a month.
But I got a new mill last fall, and it’s pretty amazing. I wanted to bake more but I couldn’t seem to get back in the groove!
KS to the Rescue!
I decided to turn to my readers for inspiration and motivation. I sent out a survey asking them what they’d be most interested in watching me bake in a once-a-week challenge for January and February.
Here are the top responses for general topics:
- Comparing recipes for whole wheat, gluten-free, sourdough and einkorn (oh great…the hardest one…but right up my alley here at Kitchen Stewardship®!)
- How to bake by weight and translate fav recipes to weights (this was hard…but doable!)
- GF sourdough (coming!)
- Experimenting with einkorn (working on it!)
- Milling gluten-free flour blends (coming!)
We’ll try to incorporate my kids into as much of this as possible, since of course with the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse, it’s my mission to teach kids to cook online!
And now, what kind of whole grain recipes are the KSers most interested in?
- Pizza dough testing
- Tortillas testing
- Ancient grain (spelt or einkorn) quick breads/muffins
- Crackers testing
- Biscuits testing
- Sourdough bread
Gluten-free sandwich bread and the best freshly milled GF flour blend were up there too, along with pasta and cookies…I’ll be delivering on MANY of these topics over the next 6 weeks or so in the Grinding Grains Challenge series. I have a bunch of interviews with experts: a farmer, a baker, a miller and more. No rub-a-dub-dub though. 
I totally failed at planning and testing one recipe per week in Jan/Feb, as it turns out. Life just happened without me and I couldn’t catch up! I did try some things here and there, and now this month I finally got it together to really do some testing. It was more fun (and more work!) to try multiple recipes on one day than one a week, anyway. #right #yesimcrazy
What’s Coming?
More Grain Grinding Challenge Series Posts
The Grinding Challenge Series is getting me to use my Mockmill grain mill! Here’s what we’re covering:
- Intro to the challenge and a video of setting up the Mockmill for the first time
- How to Translate Whole Wheat Recipe to Einkorn (and an interview with an einkorn farmer)
- Bio-Individuality – why it’s both the new face of health and the genesis of this whole project
- How to Translate Baking Recipes to Weights
- Why Baking with Weights is the Best for Kids
- Testing Pizza Dough with Freshly Milled Grain: Whole Wheat, Einkorn, Gluten-free (whole grain and not-whole-grain)
- Interview with a Master Gluten-free Baker
- Testing Tortillas with Freshly Milled Grain: Whole Wheat, Einkorn, Gluten-free
- Why Mill Your Own Gluten-free Grains?
- How to Make a Gluten-free Sourdough Starter
- Whole Grain, Gum-Free Gluten-free Flour Blend (& a bit on whether xanthan gum is bad for you)
- Interview with a Grain Milling Expert
- The Official Kitchen Stewardship® Mockmill Review
Plus where to find einkorn and unlock your special offer on the Mockmill HERE.
And the Recipes?
Recipes We’ve Worked on in the Series:
- Spelt Banana Muffins
- Einkorn Applesauce Muffins (with peanut butter variation)
- 100% Whole Grain Gluten-free Tortillas
- Whole Wheat Pizza
- Crispy Crust Gluten-Free Pizza (amazing!)
- Einkorn Pizza Dough
- 100% Whole Grain Gluten-Free Pizza Crusts (no gum!)
- How to Make a Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
Don’t worry, if you don’t have a grain mill or couldn’t imagine yourself grinding grain yourself, I’ll be sure to address when any of these CAN’T be done with commercial flour. Usually, recipes are very compatible!
And in fact, we kick off this week with a recipe that a sweet reader shared with me for Spelt Banana Muffins, and then my adaptation for Einkorn (and some different flavors).
Opening and Setting Up a Mockmill
Want to see the fun little product sample that started all this craziness? (And it really has been a little crazy, like 5 pizza recipes in one weekend – watch my Instagram stories to see the real-life action!)
I did a video of myself unboxing and prepping the Mockmill for the first time, and it’s pretty realistic. Thank goodness there were written instructions in the box (with photos!) and I didn’t have to go 100% by memory from the how-to video I watch a week or two prior!
Video: Setting up a Mockmill Grain Mill for the First Time
If you can’t view the video above, click Setting up a Mockmill Grain Mill for the First Time to see it directly on YouTube.
Oy.
It’s actually REALLY, really easy, and I love love love that you can get IN there to fix problems, unlike the Nutrimill. But I bumble a bit, don’t I?
Mockmill has a great offer for Kitchen Stewardship® readers!
- Free US shipping
- Full 6-year warranty
- Info/ebook about freshly milling grain and recipes
Click over to Mockmill using this link for the free gifts.
I am excited to jump into this series, starting tomorrow with our first interview! And don’t worry – if grinding your own flour sounds like something you’d never do in a million years, you can still learn a LOT about baking and grains in general from this series.
Can you please tell me about how loud the mockmill is? I have a kitchen mill which is really loud and would like a quieter mill.
Hi Janette,
Hard to explain exactly – but I’ve made a lot of videos lately. You could listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL3xZw2vqs4
I did run it once while talking to my mom on the phone and we talked through it – I did that with my Nutrimill the first time and she thought a jet plane had taken off! 😉
Hope that helps!
🙂 Katie
I’m always so excited at the idea
of bread to eat that I can make
Gluten Free, without oats or corn
and without the the ever present
Yeast. I know there are others out
there like me that can’t have any sandwiches or pizza. Lucky for me,
I live by Whole Foods and can buy
yeast free “Against the Grain”
Bagels, Rolls and French baguettes.
It’s a blessing to chew and crunch
on bread. This option does not
help many due to where they live or
because these contain cheese and
milk casein. Anything bread-like
coming for us? Or a magic pill!!!
Love the energy, BJ! There will be yeast-free, gluten-free recipes included in this series, yes. 🙂 Katie
Are there upcoming GF, YEAST FREE recipes for specifically
for sandwich breads and pizza crusts? I already do muffins
and soft loaf breads like banana breads. Sandwich breads
never seem to be yeast free. I only found some rice bread
at a store for a short while that was yeast Free.
Also, when will the GF lessons begin? Are they part of the
same lessons, by package (price)? When is the deadline for
sign up? How long is the mill discount offer available?
Pizza crusts, definitely, 2 weeks. Bread, hopefully GF sourdough! We’re making our starter come alive now. 😉
All my posts are free of charge, although I’m not sure I’d call them “lessons,” more like “explorations.” The mill discount ends May 14th though.
You might like this yeast-free GF bread: https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/quick-gluten-free-flatbread/
🙂 Katie
I am very excited about this. I use a vitamix dry container and I try to eat grain free but it is hard to do. I do have einkorn and have been trying to find recipes that work consistently. I purchased a scale and measure by weight. Looking forward to what you present. I plan to look into that grain mill.