Kamut Whole Wheat Tartine Bread with Self-milled Flour

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.” Ursula LeGuin

My brother was married this weekend in the vineyard countryside of McMinneville, Oregon. Our family spent days together toasting and toasting and toasting.

Me and the groom (my “little” brother)

We ate delicious breads, some of the best I’ve ever had at the Joel Palmer House, in Dayton, Oregon.

Flowers from my Grandma Barb’s garden! Stunning.

There is nothing that feels more like home than well-baked bread, thanks to my mother. Over the years we have been perfecting our technique, but when I dwell on this LeGuin quotation, I consider the ways in which this work of kneading and proofing and rising and baking has also been the work of love. The daily work of it, the hearty thing we make, the smell of reward like an answer to hunger.

LeGuin’s metaphor is even more rich for those whose bread baking processes involve sour dough starter—the starter suggests that the true life of new bread “remade” is breathed through the past, all the old flavors, aromas, oils and atmosphere from other places the starter has been, the very time spent living is stirred into each new dough—the new literally rises from and with the old. There is no love without precedent, and we bring into our loving all the old love too, just remade.

On milling your own flour, I now feel this is an essential aspect of bread baking. No more buying wheat flours milled who knows how long ago, subject to spoil and weighty on the rise. When you mill your own, and I use a Mockmill, the rise is more explosive, the crumb softer and the flavor—as good as it gets.

Kamut Whole Wheat Tartine Bread

200 g sourdough starter

800 g + 50 g water, divided

500 g whole wheat flour (grind approx. 1 cup hard red wheat berries and 1 cup Pereg Kamut berries)

500 g all purpose flour

50 g wheat germ

30 g milled flax (I don’t mill my own flax currently because I suspect there would be too many oils that would gum up my mill)

25 g salt

½ cup Happy Day Superfood Oats Plus blend

Kamut flour is the yellower half. So fresh!

Blend sourdough starter, 800 g of the water, wheat germ, flax, and all flours. Let rest, covered, for 1-2 hours. Add a slurry of salt mixed with the 50 g of water and knead into the already wet dough.

Cover again and let rest 3-5 hours, until doubled. Turn onto a floured surface and divide into two halves. My mother recently bought me an Emile Henry oblong red pan to match my red cloche for boules. Shape into desired loaves. Place clean dish clothes into proofing bowls/pans and dust with gluten-free flour. I use Pereg Quinoa flour. For these loaves I also used the Superfoods Oats blend. Preheat the oven and baking vessels in 500 degree oven. Then decrease temperature to 450 degrees and place boules (I usually transfer onto parchment paper so as to minimize degassing of loaf) in cloches and replace lids. Bake for 30 minutes. Then remove lids and bake another 20-25 minutes until internal temperature of bread is 200 degrees.

Me and Mom at the rehearsal dinner she hosted at Joel Palmer House.

Mom and I did some pampering of ourselves for the wedding, of course. We tested out microderm abrasion at home using Trophy Skin RejuvadermMD. Pretty easy to do, once you learn to keep your skin taut and to move the nozzle piece along at a good pace (lest you give yourself a hickey). You can Google and Youtube plenty of how-to videos if you need more than what the packaging provides, Mom and I did not feel like adding yet another video to the vlog “literature.”

We looked much more enthusiastic while using the system than the lady on the box.

We also slathered on creams and oils and primer from The Organic Skin Company. My favorite products were the Clean Slate Holy Basil cleanser and The Good Oil, which is jojoba with honeysuckle and turmeric (don’t worry, it doesn’t dye your face orange, or at least it didn’t mine).

I love that this company is Cruelty Free and, obv, organic. File these away for future mother’s day gift ideas. Or pamper her today, just because.

This post is sponsored by the companies featured.

One thought on “Kamut Whole Wheat Tartine Bread with Self-milled Flour

  1. So many beautiful and apt metaphors for generational, marital and divine love! Thank you, Rachel. There is nothing like fresh love, fresh flour or a fresh new family. (PS. That bride and groom are the sweetest and the best, as are you and KP).

Comments are closed.