If you’re here reading this post we assume you are interested in starting your journey of baking with whole wheat flour, specifically, fresh ground whole wheat flour. Maybe you’re already aware of the many benefits of eating freshly milled whole grain flours, and want to start incorporating it into your baking routine.
Maybe you’ve already dipped your toe in and have had subpar results. We know, we’ve been there. You make a loaf of bread, only to have it fall while baking, crumble apart when sliced or just doesn’t taste right. Maybe you’ve attempted a cake that turned out dense and heavy as a rock or muffins that are dry and taste like cardboard.
Jump to:
Recipes in the photo above starting from the upper left hand side:
- Rustic whole wheat bread
- Whole wheat vanilla cake
- Whole wheat sandwich bread
- Whole wheat sponge cake
We are here to help you on your journey to more nutritious baked goods by providing you with tips, tricks, knowledge and recipes crafted for fresh whole wheat flour(s).
We are taking our 10+ years of experience using fresh ground whole wheat flour and giving you all the tips, tricks and recipes we have gleaned over the years. We want you to be baking bread you are proud of and cookies that everyone raves about with fresh and nutritious whole grain flour.
Here are the steps you need to take to get started baking with whole wheat flour, and making light and delicious baked goods.
Decide Where You Will Get Your Flour
The flour you use is crucial. Not all whole wheat flour is created equal. You can’t go grab a bag of generic whole wheat flour off the grocery store shelf and expect to have good results.
First you need to decide if you will be milling your own flour, or purchasing pre-milled whole wheat flour. We highly recommend investing in a grain mill and milling your own flour to get all the nutritional benefits. All our recipes are based on fresh flour. The flavor and texture you get in your baked goods with fresh flour is far superior to that of baked goods made with flour that has been sitting on a shelf for even a few weeks.
If you want to grind your own wheat flour the next step will be choosing a grain mill that fits your needs. If you want to purchase flour you can read our post all about choosing whole wheat flour to buy. Then skip to the recipes section.
Choose a Grain Mill
What grain mill you choose will determine the quality of flour you can make. We recommend a stone mill or an impact mill to make a fine flour for baking. You can read our choosing a grain mill post that goes more into different types of grain mills and what they can be used for.
Choose Your Grains
There are a lot of different types of wheat, and it can be overwhelming to try and choose which ones to get. Rest assured, you do not need to go out and buy them all to get started. Our number one recommendation for someone just getting started is hard white wheat. This wheat is the most versatile, and when ground super fine will make all kinds of delicious baked goods from sandwich bread to cakes and muffins. In fact, it is the only wheat we used in all our baking for many years.
What Recipes to Start With
Some recipes are easier to make with whole wheat flour than others. If you’re just getting started we would suggest making something like pancakes or muffins. They are always delicious and hard to mess up. If you’re a little more adventurous you could try chocolate chip cookies or carrot cake. Some easy yeast bread recipes to start with are rustic whole wheat bread, hamburger buns or breadsticks.
Our Recipe Testing Process
All our recipes are vigorously tested. We start with a base and work on it, making small tweaks, until it is perfect in our opinion. This is one place we are not willing to cut corners. Each recipe is tested at 2 different altitudes (2000’ and 4600’) When we have a more finicky recipe like breads or cakes we have them tested at a third elevation of 6000’.
Our biggest goal is to have recipes that are as accessible to as many people as possible. All our recipes are tested about 6-8 times, some a lot more and some that are super easy, like cream cheese icing, don’t require as many tests.
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Common mistakes
The biggest mistakes people make when trying to make whole wheat baked goods is using the wrong type of flour and old, rancid flour. That is why we encourage grinding your own flour.
We wrote a post about the 5 most common mistakes made when baking with whole wheat flour that you can read.
Using recipes that are specifically crafted to work with whole wheat flour is going to make a big difference in how your baked goods turn out (shameless plug for our recipes 😁).
Baking with fresh whole wheat flour can be a learning curve, but it is so worth it. Our encouragement is to just keep trying and you’ll get the hang of it.
We hope this article was helpful, if you have any questions you can leave a comment on this post, send us an email or a DM on Instagram and we will do our best to help you.
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Thanks for reading!
Jessica & Merissa
Did you make this recipe? We would love to hear from you!