Can you make reasonable sandwhich bread from soft wheat berries?? I know that soft wheat is recommended for cakes, and quick breads but does that mean you can’t make bread with it.. Do you sense a experment coming..
So I happen to have soft wheat berries in the house, I ground them up in my coffee grinder, which gave me about half flour and half bits of the grain.. I sifted this out, the flour itself out into a bowl where I ground it again to get as fine as I could, and the other half, I put in a steel bowl and poured boiling water over it and let it sit, when it got to warm but not hot to the touch, I stirred in a spoon of honey and a full teaspoon of tradional yeast (which is overkill for the amount needed) and let it proof.. once it was all bubbly, I added oil and salt and mixed the soft wheat flour in and it made a very soft but non sticky dough, I greased my greased glass bread pan, I don’t want to punch it down because right or wrong, I figure if its lacking structure, I don’t want to break what its making down for the second rise.. So I am rising it only once and then I will bake it at 350. I am going to put deep slashes in the top just in case its needed to make sure the middle cooks which is often called for in certain recipes with little to no rising..
Now for a few of the answers
- Did it rise? Yes but only half what normal loaf that size would.
- Did it bake properly?- Yes, very nice.
- How does it taste?- Light but hearty with a full wheat bread flavor
- Whats the texture like? Light as in wheat bread but dense as in a heavier less air crumb with a good chewy crust
- Will it work for sandwich bread? Yes but it would make smaller then normal, DH says some yes but not for grilled cheese, not the right texture for that, meat and veggies would work well. DH thinks it would make a great cucumber sandwhich bread.
- Side note, while still tasting great on day two.. its a bit on the dry side already, think I would make this with milk instead of water on next try to see if it would be better that way or maybe a little more fat added..
I would put up a picture but can’t find the camera…
Just another Day on the Farm 
Wow! Thank you. 😀 Too bad you don’t have the camera – I would love to see what it looks like.
Of course, now that Mr. Doom bought 100 kg of flour, I won’t need to worry about this until next year, but when this flour runs out, I’ll be buying wheat berries.
I hope to find the camera before the breads all eaten and will for sure share what it looks like, DH went to pick up my flour and the store was sold out, none in front, none in back and they said, they are waiting for a new shipment. Clearly we are not the only one to think its a good sale.
Soft wheat berries? Is this the whole grain? Your post sounds like a bit from Laura Ingalls “The long winter”. (I read the whole ‘little house’ series for our children)
Hi Heidi,
Yes, its the whole grain, there are soft wheat and hard wheat, and it can be either white or red. Soft Wheat means that it does not have as much gluten as hard wheat, so the rise is not as good but its great for cakes, quick breads, cookies.. its what you would see in the store as Cake flour vs Bread flour (hard).
Ok, now that’s definitely interesting. So soft wheat will *work* for making a loaf of bread, but it’s certainly not ideal.
Now you need to make a loaf that’s 10% hard and tell us that works. 😛 What percentage of the more expensive hard wheat is needed to make bread rise?
Hi Doomer, I have hard wheat berries in the house, I will let you know how it goes and report back.
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I have soft wheat grain I ground now I read you have to soak it first I am at a loss I wanted to make bread or pizza dough can u help?
Thank you
Roseann
You do not have to soak it, you can soak it if you want to do, but you don’t have to, but don’t expect a typical rise to the bread, it will be a heavier bread then make with the higher glutin flour from hard wheat.