My Mom's 5 Day Bread Dough...Updated Bosch Tutorial!

Homemade matters to us.  For my entire life, this recipe has been the standard of excellence in bread making. This is a bread dough recipe that my mother, Geneve, developed for her college Food Science final. I grew up with this bread and the smell of wheat grinding fresh in our family home.  I remember mom always testing the fresh milled flour to be sure the wheat had not gone rancid in storage.  Today...we milled wheat that I had put away when my first born son was born. Yup. 14 years ago.  I turned into my mom today. I got really giddy to find it was still perfect wheat, ready for bread.

  There was also only one bread mixer that she would ever openly praise.  It was our family Bosch mixer from the Bosch Kitchen Store.  It really was the only machine strong enough to handle this dough, because she made 5-6 loaves at a time. Repeat that several times a week. The machine lasted without a hick-up or need for a tune-up for most of my life. The last time I visited my mother, she was still using the same machine. She got the machine when I was about 2 years old...and I turn...(gulp) forty this year.  Yup. Bosch mixer are that good.

Gathering around Mom’s mixer and watching the dough form into supple perfection was the highlight of my week and the very testing-ground for what became a baking passion for me. We had to watch as it "spun gold out of wheat" and I was able to see first-hand what proper protein development should look like in the bread making process. Baking bread with mom made me what I am today. Some of life’s richest lessons were taught around that bread-board. 

 She'd always dissect the fresh loaves and make sure they were up to her standard.  I still do the same when I make mine. 

• Is the crust thin, crisp, and uniformly colored? 
• Is the crust tight to the loaf or did it separate?
• Is the loaf rounded, uniform in width size, and well domed? 
• Is the taste mild and sweet with the flavor of the wheat?
• Are there any strong flavors?
•  Is it overly yeasty, sour or salty?   
• Is the texture silky and tender?
•  Is the crumb fine? 
• Are there any flour lumps or knots in the dough?
• Are the air holes uniform?
• Can you cut reasonable slices without the bread falling apart?

Life has taken me far from my mother’s home. If I think about it too much, I get misty-eyed.  Now as a pastry chef and mother myself, her recipe for this remarkable bread remains a classic.  I was reminded of this once again this week as we gathered around our mixer. Mine is the newest model, thanks to my friends at Bosch. The recipe...is still mom's. 

It is called 5-day bread, but the dough can be made up to 7 days ahead of time. I still use it every single week! The dough is stored in a large bucket or covered bowl in the fridge.  Sometimes I divide it between 4 gallon sized zipper bags.  I love this dough made into rolls, pretzels, pizzas and yes, decorative ornate braided bread loaves.  You’ll find this to be excellent dough to keep on hand for all your bread making needs. Don’t be dismayed by the number of ingredients in this bread, each one works with the other to make it perfect.

Chef Tess' Mom's 5-Day Bread
2 T active-dry yeast OR 1T SAF Instant premium yeast
4 c milk, scalded and cooled OR water (no hotter than 115 degrees)
3/4 c honey
1T salt
4 large eggs
3/4 c oil (olive or melted coconut oil)
1 1/2 c mashed potatoes, cooled to body temperature
1T baking powder
14-15 cups fresh milled whole wheat bread flour ( tutorial on making-whole-grain-flour-at-home )

Directions: Dissolve yeast in milk (or water) in a Bosch Universal Mixer.  Yeast does matter. I use this one because I know it works.

Stir in honey. Allow yeast to get foamy. Add egg, oil, mashed potato, baking powder, salt and 14 cups of fresh milled flour. Turn to speed 1 and combine about 30 seconds.

 Increase speed to 3 and mix 4 ½ minutes until dough is soft and well developed but not dry.

 It will look almost like spun golden yarn. That's what good protein development should look like in your bowl. 

Allow dough to rest 10 minutes in the bowl (this gives the wheat time to absorb moisture). Don't skip this 10 minute resting step. You'll end up using way more flour than you need to in your bread and your bread will be dry.  After 10 minutes, you should be able to pull a piece out and have it string 6-7 inches above the bowl without the dough breaking. 

Add enough of the flour remaining to make soft dough that is easy to handle but not dry. More often than not, I don't have to add any more flour at all. Turn dough onto a  very lightly floured surface.  Form into a ball. It should hold it's shape without melting into a blob on your counter-top. 

 Place dough  in an ungreased 2-gallon bowl or food-grade bucket, covered tightly. If you don't have a large enough bowl...use two smaller bowls. Or...just half the recipe if you are worried about the dough growing all over your fridge outside of the container.

Put in the fridge, tightly covered.
 Punch down after 2 hours (this may be faster if you use warm ingredients or flour). If the dough is over 85 degrees when you put it in the fridge, be sure to punch down sooner. 
Form into a ball again. Cover tightly and chill at least 8 hours.  This chilling step is what will give you the best taste in your bread.  Long, slow, low fermentations of dough  are unparalleled for flavor development and gluten elasticity. This fermentation process cannot be produced by adding artificial flavors or mixing longer mechanically.  Some people try to mimic this process by adding extra chemical dough conditioners or added gluten powders.  They are not necessary if you do this step correctly.  They happen naturally by slowly raising in your fridge. This is the single most important step in making this bread remarkable and clean from added chemicals. 

Be sure to punch down daily if keeping it more than a day or two (this not only expels gas, but also ensures even temperature in the dough). This will yield 4 standard sized loaves of bread. Yes. You can also use it for anything remarkable at this point. I have such a hard time not making it into at least a dozen cinnamon rolls...or apple pie rolls...

To bake a standard sized loaf: Divide dough in 4 equal portions, about 2 lbs of dough for standard loaves. Form each loaf using the loaf molding technique ( Loaf Molding Tutorial).  Lightly coat the top of the loaf with melted butter and then lightly tent the loaves with plastic or plastic bags OR place in a moist place to rise. Allow to rise (1 -1 ½ hrs) until dough is about 1-2 inches above the edge of the pan. Lightly slit the top with a very sharp knife. 

Bake in preheated 425° oven for 20 minutes then drop the temperature to 350 for the final 15-20 minutes of cooking.

Remove from pans and allow cooling completely before cutting.
I cut this loaf right from the oven. 

Awww. See how it looks fuzzy instead of a clean texture?

Wait 30 minutes...and it slices a lot cleaner and nicer. 

So now I have my dough, ready for the week. It is just part of what I do to make things run smoothly here and save money.  Homemade matters to us. I know what is going into our sandwiches and lunch boxes.  We're using fresh milled grain that keeps the nutrition right in my kitchen instead of a factory somewhere. Plus, saving money and eating whole food is just how we roll.  

Yes. Mom was right. The best things in life cannot come from a store. They come from the heart. As I watched my kiddos rip into this gorgeous bread (while praising my name) I thought to myself, "This is it. This is why I do what I do."   Make a memory. Share some love.  Get the goodness into them!  And by all means, move onward and upward!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Making whole-grain flour at home in 3 Easy steps! Turning Wheat into Bread!

 After 13 years of using an older hand-me-down grain mill, I finally have saved enough to get the electric grain mill I've had my eyes on for 2 years. Yup. We do practice delayed gratification at my house. I realize I could have bought it sooner...but I really wanted to be sure it was in the family budget after other debts were paid off. So. Enter the new grain mill. Eeeek! I'm so excited!  This is the NutriMill. I'm totally in love. Today we used 50lbs of whole KAMUT® ancient Egyptian wheat. It is organic, non-GMO and 70% of the people who have issues with modern wheat can tolerate this form of grain. With this mill, we made 50lbs of flour in about 20 minutes. That might be a record for making flour around here. In fact, my kids usually moan when I say, "It is flour making day!" However, this new mill was so easy to use that they ended up being asked repeatedly to stop making flour! I LOVE that! Love it!

 Here are the basic steps to making flour:

Step One: Assemble the grain mill.

 The first thing I noticed about this new NutriMill.  was how easy it was to assemble. I was worried that my giant-little brain wouldn't be able to get it to work.

 The instructions were pretty clear.

 Step 2: Follow what the NutriMill owner's manual says about the first time you use their mill. This means you need to mill 2 cups of wheat and then discard it. This will eliminate any contaminants the mill may obtain in the manufacturing process. Make sure the grain you use is clean! 

Mill that first 2 cups of wheat according to the mill instructions. This one says to unplug the mill, add the grain to the top. Then plug in the mill and turn it on. There is a knob on the front that is easy to adjust for how fine or large the grains are that are going into the stones to be ground.

 Throw away that first two cups of wheat (about 4 cups of flour). By the way, this step only needs to be done the very first time you ever ever use the mill. From here on out, I'm good to mill and use all the grain I want without throwing any away.

 Step 3: Let the kids take over and make the bread. You think I'm kidding right? Not really but okay. I was there in the kitchen when they started milling the grain. They know how to use our hand-crank grain mill as well, but today we did electric. I wanted there to be full ownership in this bread. I am the Little Red Hen Mother. If they want bread, they get to help make it. Plus, this also gives me the extreme emotional and spiritual satisfaction of knowing that in any given situation, my boys will know how to make food from grain. Bread, porridge, crackers or anything that can be made from flour, they can make. I'm sick-in-the-head that way, but I get a weird sense of peace in knowing that they will leave my home someday with a full knowledge of how to work, cook, and contribute to society as a whole. So...starting with wheat and basic food is a good place. They could end up in a country someday that doesn't have flour. You think I'm kidding right? No Way. I'm thinking about being prepared for anything in life...anything! Will they be soldiers or in a refugee camp in the future? I don't know. There are not any guarantees in life.  If they only had wheat or any other grain, they'd be good to go! Heck yes! Rock-star cool! Yes, they are boys. So?!? If I had girls they'd learn the same thing. Boys grow up into men who need to eat right?! What if there isn't a girl around who knows how to make flour?! See...sick mother isn't so sick right?  So let us repeat the steps again:
1. Unplug mill and add grain to the top (hopper).

 2.Turn mill on & adjust the grind to the your desired texture of flour. Random side note. My son asked, "Hey does the wheat scream when it gets down to the part where it is all ground up?!" I laughed out loud as I remembered watching my grandmother's grain mill and the last straggling grains hold on to the edge of the mill's hopper before being sucked into the black hole at the bottom to be ground into the sweet and delicious flour that would be made into bread. Yes my son. They scream. Just like kids scream when they go down a water slide. It's fun! Or it is grain-o-side. Either way...it is for the greater good. Right? Try not to encourage slipping on grain-native-ceremonial-garb and doing some weird dances and chants while the grain is being sacrificed to the grain-mill-demi-god. I'm crazy but I'm not insane. Wait. Now that I think of it...the dancing would be just strange enough to do wouldn't it? If I can fashion the turmeric and paprika into a thick paint-like paste to rub on our noses...{I digress}.

 Hold on little grain and your life may be spared! Bwhahaha! Not today looser. Evil grin (as I flick the grain with my finger into the pit of despair)!

One thing I do with my grain is add 4 cardamom seeds to each batch of flour.

 I grind them with the wheat. The mill is not designed to grind spices alone (so keep that in mind and if you do add anything to your grain, keep it as pure as possible).  The cardamom will help the flour to retard bugs and other pests. I don't keep the flour around very long but it is a wonderful habit to have. Doesn't that seed mixed in with the grain look so much like a...nevermind.

 Little Man took his turn with the grain grinding as well. He's getting so tall! I don't know how much longer I can call him my Little Man.

 Each 25 lb bag of Kamut made 5, 5lb bags of flour. Simple math right?

 In the end, we made dough for 25 loaves of bread. We retained 25 lbs of flour for the bread class I'd be teaching soon.

It is beautiful stuff.

Step #3. Let kids make the bread. Or make it yourself. Whatever.
My son Face was anxious to make the bread now that he had made the flour.
4 cups hard wheat flour

 2 cups water. 1/4 tsp instant yeast.

 1 1/2 tsp salt.

 Mix until just combined. I'm not going to lie. This is his favorite part.

 The dough is so smooshy at first.

Once all the dough is smooshy, cover over with a lid and let sit 10-14 hours (usually for us it is about 12 hours before we get back to it). Dough will be ready to make into bread. The printable tutorial is below for how to make it into bread.

If you want the printable go to:

No Knead Wheat Bread Tutorial and Printable Instructions

There you go! Turn Wheat into Bread!
Save money and empower yourself! 

Legal blah blah blah: By the way...I paid for my mill out of my own pocket so this a totally unbiased review of the mill. The opinions expressed here on the blog are totally my own. Isn't that good to know? I don't make any money if you decide to buy a mill based on this review. 

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

How to Make Rolled Oats and Rolled Quinoa from Whole Oat Groats and Grain...at Home!

Today I wanted to just throw a quick post your way that showed the simple basic way I've been using to roll my whole oat groats like this...

 Into regular old-fashioned oatmeal like this...

 Why do I love rolling my own oats and grains? 
First there's the obvious nutritional reasons.   All the nutritional oils and flavor are released in my home instead of a mill somewhere else. Seriously, I adore all the amazing people who work at grain mills. They don't get enough credit for the remarkable good they do for feeding the masses. However, I'm a freakish foodie snob and for the same reason that I mill my own spices, I've really enjoyed having the fresh milled grains. I didn't even know how simple it would be to do the rolling at home! Not that there's anything wrong with buying pre-rolled oats, I've done it that way for years. I'm just completely in love with the fresh version now that I have it! Oh...and they don't need a steamer to roll out nice at home either. That's a huge perk! After teaching a whole class on the health benefits of Oats (Here), this has been a natural progression. I love oats. Love them, in fact, in an oddly abnormal almost obsessive kind of way. Ya know, in case some day you find me hiding in my closet with a jar of chocolate truffle sauce and a face slathered in a  honey-oat poultice...you won't call the cops. Okay. You probably should call the cops if I go that far. There shouldn't be food in the closet. Ever. At that point there wouldn't be a "health reason" for eating the fresh milled oats. It would just be a pure-freakish-obsession.

 At any rate....the other reason I love the idea of rolling my own grain is the food storage advantage.  One can get a much longer shelf life on the whole grain if  kept in-tact as the whole oat groat. I've read that oats in that whole state will be good for close to 20 years if kept in an oxygen-free environment and if they're kept cool and dry. As the pre-rolled oat sit, they last 7-10 years in an oxygen-free can. Plus, if I wanted to roll other grains and extend the shelf life on those, it would be epic! Right?!  My brain has been whirling with all the new rolled options! So far we've done oat groats, quinoa, buckwheat, soft wheat, rye and barley! Now, I'm not saying you need to store grain for 20 years in your basement, but if you did...you could.

How do I do it?
Enter the Marga Roller Grain Mill. It's a hand cranked home roller  that I recently bought at  the Honeyville Retail Store in Chandler, AZ. I'd seen it for about 6 months in the store and well...I'm a whole-grain chef right? I cook and bake with this stuff every day. I teach classes for Honeyville and I'm officially writing the comprehensive Gourmet food storage cookbook for them. I'm the company chef. So why buy the roller? They could just give it to me for free? Well, I wanted to give it an honest run. If I don't like something, I actually don't review it on my blog. If I buy it myself, I don't feel obligated to give a review. My personal blog is not related to Honeyville in any way. It is my own deal. It's right around 100$ for the mill and it's heavy duty.
 So daggumit...I'm giving you my honest opinion. This thing is really cool.

 My son Face, age 9, rolled 2 lbs of oat groats through this thing in just under 5 minutes. It's quick and it doesn't take a lot of muscle to get the job done. I wanted to know how it would fair with other grains as well. Let me show you how it worked with whole quinoa.

 I personally adore the number 2 setting on the roller. It makes the grains more like thick cut oats and for quinoa it had a really cool effect.

They rolled and slightly cracked. So, they were amazing to cook.

Taking 1/3 cup of the rolled quinoa and adding it to 1 1/3 cup of boiling water, I was able to make a creamy quinoa cereal for breakfast. It cooked in about 4 minutes flat...drizzled with some honey and some fruit it was divine!

 My son's grand obsession with the new roller landed me with enough fresh rolled oats and quinoa to feed a small army.

 So I made a Mango-Blueberry Almond, Rolled Oat, Quinoa, and popped Amaranth Pomegranate Honey Granola...with Chia Seed. If that's not a mouth-ful to say, it was a blissfully spiritual experience to eat. Okay...I may be exaggerating on the spiritual side of it. The nutty, hearty, toasted goodness of the fresh milled grain combined with a light kiss of spice, vanilla and crunchy freeze dried fruit. It was a magical happy-dance of flavor in my mouth. This of course, was on top of the magnificent pile of my creamy lemon Homemade Yogurt.

It just doesn't get more beautiful that that. Yes. I'll be giving the recipe for this granola soon. Don't panic.

There you go. Roll your own oats and grains. It's amazing!

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess