The Story of the Little Red Hen

Once upon a time, a little red hen was inspired to make some bread.  From scratch.

She was very blessed that somebody else did a lot of hard work to plant the wheat, water the wheat, and harvest the wheat. This little red hen got to do the fun work!

Hard Red Winter Wheat from my long-term food storage supply.  

She had two grain mills to make the wheat into flour.  She started with the hand-grinder.  It took a few hours between doing housework and letting her two eager helpers 'help' to grind two cups of grain. It was a lot of fun, but after her help accidentally popped the grinder off the counter a few times, she decided to try her electric grinder.

With the electric grinder, she had ground five pounds of wheat into about twenty cups of delicious, whole wheat flour in minutes!  All with the flip of a switch!  The little red hen was so excited to make her bread!

Later that evening, she made three beautiful loaves of honey whole wheat bread for her friends and family to enjoy.  It was delicious by itself, but heavenly smothered in soft and real butter, and fresh honey.

Absolutely heavenly.  See recipe below.

"Who will help me eat the bread?" said the little red hen.

"Not I," said Tanner.

"Not I," said Taylor.

"You know I can't," said Ryan.

Despite all of the help that the little red hen received to accomplish her goal, she will likely be the only one to eat it.   Guess I need to do an extra workout at the end of the day for all of these carbs!  :)

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My sister-in-law and mom make whole wheat bread all. the. time.  I finally decided it was time that I use my recent Christmas gift (hand mill) and Wedding gift from my grandpa (electric mill). I hurried to make 4 loaves to deliver to the sisters I visit teach...that was fast and easy, and then started in on the harder task of the day:  Making my own flour, and then making tasty bread from it!

The Wonder Mill "Junior".  I am in love.  My dad is bringing me a board tomorrow so I can attach it better, to my kitchen table.  I'm so excited!  

Beautiful sight.  Flour!  I assembled it correctly!  It works!  (This is actually a second run-through, as you can see cracked wheat in the hopper on the left of the picture.  It was suggested that it's easier to grind if you run it through twice, with the burrs a little lose the first time, and then tighten the second time.  Great suggestion...especially so a little boy could help.)

My little helper.  He really was a good little helper.  Pretty patient, too! 

Watching the wheat and helping me grind.  My body is a bit sore from my recent workouts and push-ups.  Next time my darlings say they're bored, I'll be putting them to work on this monster!  *Mwahahaha!* 

Wheat from the hand powered mill.  Ground with stone burrs, very fine texture.  Between fiddling with the burrs and adjusting the entire mill on my counter multiple times, it took about 3 minutes just to grind one cup of flour.  But if we didn't have any electricity, it's be the way to go!  The steel burrs can make nut butters!  mmmmmm!

My sweet Grandpa Crandall gave us this delightful (yet not so quiet) Whisper Mill for our wedding...over 6 years ago.  I finally pulled it out and put it to good use!  It works like a charm, even if it does sound like a UFO is landing.  *chuckle*  (It is quiet, but when it's flipped on, it sounds like something from a science fiction movie.  Made me laugh and my boys jump pretty good this afternoon!)

Finely ground flour from the electric Whisper Mill.  Took all of 10 minutes to grind about  20 cups of goodness.

I hope to never buy another loaf of bread.  This stuff is to die for!  I am crossing my fingers that Ryan's Celiac issues won't flare up from this bread...full of gluten.  It's a long shot, but we're gonna try!  Maybe my next step is to make my own flours to make gluten-free bread...from corn, soy beans (which my mills will grind!) and rice.  We'll see.

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Honey Whole Wheat Bread

From my sister-in-law, Tricia

Makes three loaves

3 cups warm water
1 Tbs yeast
1/3 cup honey
5 cups whole wheat flour
Mix these ingedients together then let them rise for 30 min. (I just left it in my Bosch.) 


After 30 minutes add these ingredients:
3 Tbs melted butter (cooled, so it doesn't kill the yeast)
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbs salt
3 1/2 cups flour
Add the flour slowly as you mix the dough. Add just enough so the dough stops sticking to the sides of the bowl, then knead it for 10 min in the mixer. (Brilliant idea!)  After kneading the dough, put it in a large greased bowl and let it rise again until it has doubled in size. Punch it down, knead it into a uniform ball, and divide it into three bread pans. 


Let the loaves rise again until the tops are about an inch above the sides of the pans. Took about an hour in my kitchen. Bake at 350* F for 25 to 30 minutes. Rub butter on the tops of the loafs after they come out of the oven. (I didn't do the added butter, as I like to smother the slices in butter.)


I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!