What @anon66425146 explained is correct – use flour or berries you mill into flour.
I think I used to write (random example) 500g home-milled red fife wheat berries. Somewhere along the way, I dropped the “home-milled,” thinking I was streamlining things but I appreciate the heads-up that this could be confusing. Thanks for pointing it out and thank you, Liz, for explaining the “or”!
I feel terrible to bother you again, however, I’m relatively knew to bread making. Except Focaccia and Schicciata, whereby I’m pretty darn good. So, what is home-milled berries? I kinda sorta can guess generally speaking? But how do you home-mill berries?
Thanks so much Liz! Got it!
Carolyn
No bother at all! Here’s a comprehensive explanation of milling wheat at home. Let me know if you have any questions about anything it it or that I may not have covered.
I haven’t had time to make this bread yet but the Fife makes dynamite faux malt-o-meal. I use 4 TBS fine milled Fife to a cup of boiling water, a little salt added. Note that you have to pour in a little bit at a time and keep stirring until it has thickened (about a minute) or you will get lumps.
I have regular whole wheat flour, but only spelt grain & white whole wheat grain. Would this work, and how might I need to adjust?
Any of those will work. If you use only spelt, you might find the dough to be particularly extensible (stretchy w/o rebound). The hydration of the recipe should work fine for all three.
Hi. I’m comparing recipes for walnut-cranberry breads and came across this one, which sounds lush with nuts and berries.
I’m asking about the hydration. I make it out to be 85% using this calculation.. That sounds awfully high to me but your photos do not appear to be. Did I miss something or is your flour mix super-thirsty?
Thanks for this recipe. Since the pandemic has kept me indoors I’ve been trying to replicate some of my favorite breads from my long-time favorite local bakery. It’s been a challenge but I’ve managed to equal or better their NY style rye, buckwheat-rye meteil and a spelt semolina sesame bread. But I miss their cranberry-walnut so I’m having a go at it.
My favorite accompaniment to cranberry walnut is a rich, soft cheese. Trader Joe’s goat brie is a surprising star in this role.
Whole grain flours are definitely thirsty, and home-milled whole grain flours, which are what I used, are even more thirsty in my experience, though not by much. Some of that water is also absorbed by the cranberries that don’t get a pre-soak. If you’re using refined flour, aim for 75% hydration and add water if needed when doing the stretching and folding.
Goat brie with cranberry walnut bread sounds amazing.
Cranberry Walnut Bread is a perennial favourite of mine but I had none of the flours you mention available at home so I went with Turkey Red, Durum and a whole wheat while bread flour in the some proportions that you have in the recipe. It may sound funky but it made an excellent dough, the hydration and gluten development were great. It’s in the oven I’ll report back on the level of deliciousness. Thanks for the recipe.
Sounds and looks delicious. Edited to add: I saw the crumb on Instagram. So nice 
it was so delicious I made a second on for Thanksgiving. The second one was the bomb, the best thing we served
. It took a huge amount of time to fr the dough to develop but the crumb was much more open and the sweet /sour ratio was perfect.Do you think these flours would work for the cinnamon raisin, to make it whole grain? Or would you just sub. some white whole wheat for the white flour in the cinnamon raisin?
Interesting question. Both recipes rely on the dried fruit to absorb some majorly high hydration – the cinnamon raisin recipe especially.
I think I would follow the cinn-raisin recipe, aiming to have listed 500g whole wheat flour, using whatever wheats I preferred, but I would start with 350g water and slowly add my way to the 400g that is listed – if the dough seemed able to handle it.
I like your substitutions! I just mixed up a batch with 50/50 Rouge de Bordeaux/Sprouted Hard Red Spring Wheat for the Red Fife; Kamut for the Spelt; and Hard White Spring Wheat as the white whole wheat - all home milled. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Here’s a version that takes it in a completely different direction but is so delicious it’s become the house loaf for the last couple of months.
250g of Durum
100g of Farro
50g Tipo 00
I add either coarsely ground almond flour instead of the walnuts or ground roasted fennel and coriander seed or sometimes both. I also use fat golden California raisins instead of cranberries but both work.
I’ve made this recipe twice and followed it to the letter. This bread is hearty and works well as toast for breakfast. The cranberries and walnuts make it festive as well as tasty! Sounds like there are folks who like substituting orange juice, which is probably good too, but it sure is delicious just as written! This will be on my Thanksgiving table this year! Thanks Melissa!
I have made this recipe about 6 times. If I use all wheat berries that I have ground on my Mockmil 100 Lino the dough tends to be dry needing sprinkles of water to get it wet enough to kneed and shape.
I check my Mockmil by setting it at the minimum setting about 1 till I hear the stones touch. Still I feel it is grinding a bit course.
When I make the recipe using Red Fife flour and spelt bolted flour the dough is a bit wet.
So when I use all home-ground flour I just add water as I mix until it feels right, I use a rolling pin to get it flat to add the walnuts(hopped- and Cranberries whole dried from Costco.
My conclusion is that home-ground flour tends to be more course. Which sieve should I use to sift out some of the fiber?
I agree that home-milled flour is a little more thirsty than flour milled in a large scale stone mill. Your instincts are on point to add more water if the dough is dryer than expected.
In this recipe, the dough should be too wet to roll out with a rolling pin. It’s okay if it’s dryer/roll-outable, but the bread will be a little tighter and less bendy.
A #40 sifter is a good choice for bringing a whole grain flour to a “bolted” or “high extraction” level of bran.
