Wow! That title sounds really boring. But, don't you fear, wheat is a lot more interesting than you think. I used to always hate cooking with whole wheat...every time  I did I ended up with a bitter tasting heavy product that no one (including myself) would eat. Well, one evening  we were at a friends house and she whipped up an awesome batch of cookies. Come to find out they were whole wheat. I personally could not even tell. She said the trick is to grind your own flour, because most the time the flour sitting on the shelf in your grocery store is rancid. That is the reason for the bitter taste and beyond that most of the nutrients are gone. Aha! So I went out and bought a big ole bag of wheat berries.....borrowed a friends grinder and....was still not impressed. I was not bitter but still heavy. I was getting closer but still had much to learn. You see, there are different types of wheat. I had purchased hard red berries, that is the typical wheat used for yeast bread, but really no good for quick breads, cookies or pastries.

Soft white wheat/Hard white wheat.

I then became aware of soft white wheat berries, though lower in protein, they are also lower in gluten and are awesome for the yummy stuff, in fact in some recipes you would never notice the difference. After that I also discovered hard white wheat...great for yeast bread, it lends a lighter color and texture. Okay! Now my family and I really enjoy whole wheat flour, in fact, we use nothing else and don't even miss the white stuff. So try it out, borrow a grinder and if your really start to enjoy it, buying one is a good invenstment.

Where I buy my wheat.

A few different grinders to look at.

Why fresh groun flour is so good for you.

Go to one of my favorite sites for more kitchen tips.

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Posted by Anonymous

Do you like near Azure Standard? It seems like shipping would really be expensive on wheat. My sister lives near Bob's Red Mill. She grinds her own wheat but has easy access to the wheat berries at Bob's Red Mill. I would love to get a wheat grinder some time but am afraid that the cost of shipping good wheat berries to me would be really expensive. I do not have a lot of health food store options near me.
Lynn
lynnskitchenadventures.blogspot.com

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Posted by cammiemelisabray

Azure is a co-op. You do not have to live near the actual Azure building, there just has to be a group of people that can make a combined order of $400 or more. They have many great products. In researching they seem to have the best prices. However, we just bought a ridiculous amount of grain from some friends that were buying like a ton or more. Maybe if there are some others interested in your area you could work something out to cut down in cost.

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Posted by Anonymous

Now you started something. I have the same problem when baking w/wheat. So tell me more about the wheat thing. Is there a book or site where you researched this? I bake my own bread though. This way I can read what it put in.

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Posted by Kirstin

I recently discovered wheat berries, though so far have only used the hard wheat berries. I"ll have to find the others. Right now I get them in the bulk section of our store and I don't think they carry both kinds. I'll have to hit the health food store. I'm also only about 45 minutes from Bob's Red Mill and was just there recently for teh first time. It's well worth the trip.

Thank you for the tip.

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