Bread for Life - Whole Grains

This is a wonderful article pasted from Beth Holland's Website, http://www.breadforlife.net/
the newest link on the blog. I share so many convictions with her (except we differ on soy in general:-)) - I couldn't have written the rest any better myself, so I thought I would share it with you. I testify - her resources are wonderful! I use a Nutramill and DLX and a Zojirushi when I'm feeling lazy. My goal is to eventually eliminate all prepared foods (crackers, pasta's etc.), we are well on our way!

Getting Started
How long does it take to mill your own grain and make bread? With today's technology, you'd be amazed at how fast and easy this is! With an electric mill and a bread machine like the Zojirushi, it takes about 5 minutes. With a mixer like the DLX, it takes about 2-2 ½ hours, however, your “hands on” time is about 20 minutes divided in two 10 minute segments to produce up to 6 loaves of whole grain bread. If you want to fill them with fruits and nuts or cheese, etc., or do rolls, etc, then the time goes up proportionately to the intricacy of the recipe.

I wish I could do this, but I just don't have time! Money is a big problem as well. How do you do it? Do you have 5 minutes? If you do, then you can do this!
As for the money, I can tell you that I have seen God provide in some mighty mysterious ways, through the years. To borrow a pastor's wife friend's expression, "The King pays for what the King wants." If this is the path God intends for you to pursue, He'll not only pay for it, He'll instruct you how to do it!

I had one couple, a May-December romance, (who had pre-school children!) come to my seminar. She wanted to lose weight and he was facing some health problems. After attending, they were convinced that this was what God wanted them to do, but hadn't the funds as they were basically living on his SS. Anyway, they talked to me and I urged them to put their need before the Lord. They did and within a week they got a call from an attorney who was with a class action suit that the husband had been a part of YEARS before! He had been trying to find them for MONTHS, and had just caught up with them. They came to me rejoicing, saying that had that money arrived sooner, they knew they'd have spent it on something else, but because it arrived WHEN it did and they had prayed for God to make a way, they KNEW that the Lord had kept that money for them for the perfect time!

Another young lady came to me after a seminar in tears, she was so moved by the Lord that this was the way she was to go. But, she was concerned because her husband had been out of a professional job for a year and money was very tight. I told her the same thing I'd told the other couple, and she agreed to place it before the Lord. She called me within a month and said, "I've got the money!! I can buy my mill!! I had a WRECK!!" I was stunned until she explained that she had been in a fender-bender and that the insurance company had paid her MORE than the estimate to get her car fixed! (How many times does THAT happen!!) She not only got her mill, she was able to get plenty of grain to get started and has had a wonderful time making wonderful whole food for her family.

Her children are benefiting and her husband, whom she termed "a JUNK FOOD JUNKIE" is loving the bread, too and has experienced health benefits from it. I have her testimony letter on file.

I can tell you that when we began milling our own flour, my grocery bill dropped substantially! This is A VERY inexpensive way to live and eat. Yes, there is an initial investment in the equipment, but once you have it, that's it. We recouped our cost in less than a month! Our mill was $280.00 12 years ago (a Whisper Mill is now less than $200.00 online) but when we began using it, there were no more doctor/drug bills, so it paid for itself immediately. A 6 gallon bucket of grain lasts the average family of 4, 2-3 months and averages $25.00. Can you feed a family of equal size on $25.00 for ALL bread products for 2-3 months, even from a day old bread store? No! AND the bread from a day old bread store will not have the life-giving properties that bread from freshly milled flour has. (I have the testimony letters to prove this!) So, this is a much less expensive way to go, both in the cost of food and the cost of medical care.

So, bottom line is this, if this is God's path for you and you are willing to follow Him in this, then put the need before the Lord. He WILL make a way for you. He has for others, and He is no respecter of persons!

Be encouraged. NOTHING is impossible with GOD!

Where do I get the grains to mill? There are numerous grain suppliers in the US . Just search the web and you'll find plenty! Be sure to find out whether or not their grain is for human consumption and whether it has been (at least) triple cleansed. Most electric grain mills need a triple cleaned wheat, at the very least, to insure no stones and trash are in the grain you are going to mill and consume.

Is this “yucky” tofu and bean sprouts type of eating? NO! I have “meat and potato” loving men come to my seminars and chow down everything there AND say to me, “This is GOOD for me?” in an amazed tone of voice. They are thrilled to find that “healthy” and “real food” can be compatible and that this way of “healthy eating” can be pain free.

Where do I get recipes for this “pain free” change? My cookbooks! The recipes have been “kid tested and approved” to make sure that they have a broad appeal. So far, most all of the men and kids who have eaten my recipes like them and would eat them again. I also don't believe in a lot of “fussy” directions, so they are pretty straight forward. No, “bread an egg into the bowl and whisk briskly” stuff for me! In some, I tell you to combine all the dry ingredients, combine all the wet ingredients and then tell you how to mix them together. Pretty easy!

How has the change to freshly milled whole grains affected you and your family? My family was VERY sick and I prayed and sought God for an answer. This was the answer to which He led us. We had spent $1688.00 in THREE months, (my DH is self-employed and we have no health insurance!!) on doctors and pharmaceuticals. For 6 weeks, we didn't even leave the house unless it was to see a dr. or go get drugs! When I came across this information, I got my husband to look into it and we took the last of our savings and purchased a home flour mill. (after I thoroughly researched various mills) When we began milling our own grains, we were finally able to stop what I call “the antibiotic cycle” – you get on them, you get off, you get back on, you get off, etc, etc , so milling our own flour ended our doctor visits and rounds of medicines. Our bodies began to get stronger and we no longer needed all the drugs. Then I KNEW that I'd found truth, but I didn't understand HOW it worked. That led me to 10 years (and counting!) of investigating WHY this had worked. God has been so faithful to me to teach me and then to confirm it. He has given me an M.D., a nutritionist, two food scientists and research scientists to confer with about the information I research. From that the Bread For Life Seminar (Class) was born.

What do you eat? We eat real food. Instead of grocery store bread products, we make our own. The ONLY thing I did that “revolutionized” our health was to put a loaf of plain bread on the table at each meal. I didn't do anything else, nothing fancy; just a loaf of bread. Seeing the value of this one change led us to making others. I do not buy pre-packaged foods, foods with chemicals or things I can't pronounce in them. I don't buy anything with hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated oils in them. I use cold pressed, first pressing extra virgin olive oil and cold pressed extra light olive oil packed in either glass or tin (plastic bottles leach carcinogens into the oil). I use raw honey as my top choice for a baking sweetener, I use Stevia in my tea and coffee and use Sucanat as a substitute for brown sugar and Sucanat with Honey (also known as Savannah Gold) as a substitute for white sugar in recipes where honey just doesn't work well. I use raw milk butter we make ourselves, our farm eggs (or organic ones from the store), I purchase ½ a cow per year and have it packaged to my specification and freeze it. I no longer have a source for free range chickens so I purchase Perdue chickens. I kosher any meat that isn't kosher butchered. That means that I soak it in salt water to remove the blood. Eating blood is forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. (Leviticus 3:17; Acts 21:25) I eat and cook with fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible, dehydrate as much as I can, then choose frozen and last canned. Instead of a packaged sugary cereal for breakfast, we'd have eggs and whole grain toast. For lunch we might have soup and/or a sandwich and/or a salad. I carefully read labels and usually make my own salad dressings, too. For supper, I might cook a roast in the crock pot with vegetables, have a salad on the side with whole grain bread. Sometimes we have dessert, but mostly we have fruit. Desserts are usually saved for special occasions, but if you want them, there are plenty in the cookbooks! (I love to bake.) Surprisingly, this way of cooking is less expensive than all the processed and prepackaged foods and in the long run saves MUCH more since you are sick less often, miss less work and school, and won't be contributing to your increased risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc., which are epidemic on the typical American diet.

Do I have to have the machines to do this? The only one that is ABSOLUTELY necessary to do what I teach is some type of grain mill. You don't have to have a bread machine or a mixer to do this. Yes, you can do it by hand and I've had several customers through the years who prefer to do it this way. The beauty is that you can choose which way suits you and your lifestyle. If you are pressed for time, then technology comes to your rescue. If you prefer to putter in the kitchen and want to do this by hand, then you may. If you need to do it by hand to save money, then you can do that, too. The outlay of money on a machine is usually recouped within a year or less, if on nothing but the cost of grain vs. purchasing devitalized (and expensive) baked goods in the store. A 6 gallon bucket of wheat can be found for $10-$30, depending upon your supplier and shipping charges. This lasts, on average, a family of four for 2 ½ to 3 months. Can you spend that little to feed a family of four devitalized, pre-made grocery store bread products? No, you can't. And those made from freshly milled grains give you all of the fiber and nutrients God put in that little package for your good.

Tell me something about bread for life -- have not heard about that. What is it?? A bread baking group??I teach nutrition from a Biblical perspective, using 100% freshly milled grains. This sounds MUCH more complicated than it really is! I have been doing this for 11 years, and have written two cookbooks (Bread For Life volumes 1 and 2) and a book on afternoon tea (Tea Time with Bread For Life) and two other booklets. The basic concept is eating foods made by God instead of foods made by - or altered by - man. God created the perfect foods for our health. In trying to do things "our way", we have produced sickness, dis-ease, and death. (There is a way which seems right to a man, but the way ends in death." Proverbs)
Through my 10 years of doing this, I have seen myself and my own family, as well as countless others, go from sickness to health, (and from larger to smaller!) and I have testimony letters on file telling of some of these amazing stories. Many are printed in the back of my cookbooks so that people can see what this one small change can make in their lives.

You may ask, "WHY would anyone want to do this?" Well, besides better health, my belief is that God is calling to His body to get ready for what is coming: a great harvest which will need MANY workers (didn't Y'shua [Jesus] say to PRAY for workers for the harvest? Perhaps that's because He knew how sick we'd become before the end of the age!)
Hope that informs you without being too "preachy". You DID happen to hit upon a passion of mine! (Getting the body of Christ back to His word and provision, so that they can fulfill the call of God upon them on this earth.)

How do you get started making the change to whole grains with your family and toward more healthy eating? Don't you have to use some grocery store flour to make this work? I highly recommend that you begin just with a loaf of 100% freshly milled bread. The vast majority of kids like this bread (at least made from my recipe, which I know you'll be using), so there's no reason to mix devitalized flour in unless you absolutely must in order to get them to eat it. If you begin with all freshly milled flour and they love it, you've lost no time or ground! If they balk, then I would do as mentioned above, but only then. I recommend the baby steps approach. Don't try everything you see on my videos all at once! You'll burn out, for sure! You'll hear me mention that I am YEARS down the road from where you are beginning and that the ONLY thing I did which changed our health was to put a plain loaf of bread on the table at every meal. So, you do the same; just begin by placing a loaf of plain, sandwich type bread on the table and then little by little branch out into other things like cinnamon rolls, cinnamon apple coconut bread, pumpernickle, Russian black bread, garlic breadsticks, pizza dough, croutons, quick breads, muffins, cakes, etc. The most challenging items to make are the yeast breads. It's much easier to begin adding in other freshly milled products like quick breads, (pancakes, muffins, coffee cakes, "banana breads", etc.) scones, and cookies. Gradually tackle more yeasted breads and harder recipes. This quick and easy approach produces a far better long term success rate!

And lastly, children are more apt to eat what they've had a hand in producing; the pride of hard work, I suppose. So, let them join you in bread making and creating these new recipes and you're much more likely to hear them talk about how great the food is than complain about it being different to the white flour/white sugar, processed foods to which they are used to eating. Can you please share any tips to help us out in this area. It is my desire to move in this direction but I need help.I'll try!! I teach this information in a seminar, and the only way I know that you can get the "whole thing" is through a video of my seminar, which is 5 1/2 hours long!! At least with a video, you can watch it at your convenience AND you can stop and start me, as you like!!
Basically, I follow these two rules (which you'd hear on the tape)1. Eat only what God has created as good for food.2. Eat it as closely to the way God made it as you possibly can.Most of this type of food is on the outer edges of your grocery store. Live food requires refrigeration, but does NOT require a label! No one has to tell you that broccoli is broccoli, or celery is celery! If it takes a label to identify it for you, AND/OR if you cannot identify the ingredients ON the label, don't eat it!

The exceptions to going into the interior of the grocery store are paper products, cleaning products, coffee, tea, dried beans, etc., all fruit spreads and NATURAL peanut butter, which says "Peanuts, salt" for ingredients. This is the type you have to stir before using because it has not had hydrogenated oils added, or sugars. Hydrogenated oils cannot be broken down under 300 degrees! If your body reaches 300 degrees, believe me, you are DEAD!! So, don't eat things with these oils in them.

The other thing that I do, and which you may have seen at home school curriculum fairs, is grind my own flours with a home flour mill.

God made PERFECT provision for us in the food He created for us to consume. Like other areas of sin, man has wanted to do things his way instead of God's way and it has led us to destruction of our health. At present, America is facing more serious diseases, more obesity, (beginning earlier and earlier with our children), and more ADULT onset diabetes in CHILDREN than has EVER been seen before! "There's a way that SEEMS right unto man, but the end thereof is death."

I would like to say "Bravo!" to you for being interested in this information, as I see that God is revealing more and more about this to His people and calling those who will listen to walk in this way - a way that builds the health of His people to stand ready for the call of their King. Isn't it interesting that the only two phrases used in addressing all seven churches in Revelation are: "To him who HAS AN EAR TO HEAR, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." and "To him who overcomes...."
There's no way that I can cover the material of a 5 1/2 hour seminar. To get the best picture, I recommend you invest in the two video set of a live class seminar.

I am so interested in living like this, but really don't know where to start. I don't know much about wheat grinders, wheat, etc. Can any of you recommend a good, easy-to-read book or website? Do you know anything about soy being bad for you? Thank you! I have a booklet on this called Common Nutritional Fallacies , and also, Dr. Rex Russell, M.D. has written a book entitled, What the Bible Says About Healthy Living . It is wonderful! In my 24 years (total) of studying nutrition, I can tell you that it is the ONLY book I agree with 100%. The only way that a homeschooling mom in Georgia and a medical doctor in Arkansas could come to the EXACT same conclusions is because we both asked the same BIG God!!

Dr. Russell doesn't go into the detail I do (in my seminar, available on video) on whole grains, grinding your own, and some other subjects, like dehydration, but we do have the same Bible and the same conclusions! Dr. Russell has copies of my cookbooks and has even sent people to me from Arkansas to get my cookbooks, because the recipes are compatible with his principles, which are also mine. I don't use any refined, processed or man-made/man-altered foods, (fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, olive oils/butter, grind my own flour from grain, etc.)
Much of the "health food" industry is in it for the money, just like any other business. There are tons of “health food” products, not all of which are really healthy. We can never forget that Y'shua warned us that "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil"!!

As for soy being bad for us, this information has been repeatedly popping up recently. However, with the word of God as our guideline, I cannot agree with this "take." I find that most people in the nutrition industry are swinging from side to side like a pendulum. They get onto something new and promote it as THE answer, without really having the whole picture. Then, after a bit more research and after a few more years, they'll come out and reverse themselves or change their view and the American public follows them as they swing from side to side, ever searching for THE truth. Well, we have THE truth! It's all in the Word of God. If it's not there blatantly, then it will be there in principle.

The principle for soy beans is this: in Genesis 1, God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; IT SHALL BE FOOD FOR YOU." In Genesis 9: 3-4, after Noah came off the ark, God added meat to man's diet, but also repeated what He'd said in Genesis 1:29, "...I give all to you, as I gave the green plant." So, how can we, who have the Word of God say that a plant which bears seed, which man has eaten for eons, be BAD for us and shouldn't be eaten? If there is a danger from soy beans, it is from what man does to them, not from what God created.
Anyhow, we switched from organic pasteurized milk to raw milk and have noticed some differences--teen acne nearly disappeared, 5 year old incontinence much improved for starters .I am in complete agreement with you here. This fits the above mentioned rules for eating God's perfect provision. In trying to do things differently, in trying to "improve" on God's creation, we bring about problems we can not even foresee. "There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." Proverbs 14:12. I also have testimonies from people who have made this change and have seen the benefits of it.

What is raw milk and where do you get? And this from a girl who grew up in dairyland. You pray and ask God to bring someone across your path who has raw milk! It is "illegal" for anyone in the dairy industry to sell you raw milk, as the dairy industry has worked long and hard to remove all sources of raw milk from the public. The name "raw milk" is misleading and really a misnomer as God created milk to be used straight from the cow or goat, or whatever animal was milked. Read your Bible and you'll see quite a few domesticated animals AND the use of "raw" milk products. (see previous post for this info from Genesis)

The dairy industry coined the term "raw" milk to denote that it wasn't cooked or pasteurized, and thereby implying that it was "uncooked" and "unsafe". The opposite is actually true. For all the details, you can get " The Milk Book " by William Campbell Douglass, M.D. (original title, The Milk of Human Kindness is NOT Pasteurized") Bottom line, Dr. Douglass documents that children, the elderly and people in general thrived on "raw" milk as opposed to the many problems we see from pasteurized/homogenized milk. P/H milk is THE number ONE food allergen. Is this supposed to be? If it is, then why did God call the Promised Land "the land flowing with milk and honey"??

For a less expensive look at this information, I have a pamphlet covering this and more, called Commmon Nutritional Fallacies, which could answer a lot of the questions I've gotten since yesterday. Either that or the two video tape of my seminar would be helpful for many of you who have expressed an interest in this information. I have to be honest here and tell you that there is NO way I can cover all of this by email. I've been typing responses for four hours to your questions!! ºÜº

So, if you want a really good introduction to all the information, the best thing to do is get my 5 1/2 hour seminar. I cannot come to each of you and spend that amount of time, but the video can, AND you can watch it in snatches at your convenience. You can also get your DHs to watch it in short doses. I have many Dhs who come for the entire 5 1/2 hours (and eat and eat!! ºÜº), but I know that most men would appreciate this in smaller doses! Everything you all have asked me about is on the video - bread, nutrition, picky eaters, raw milk, incorporating this into your busy lives, how to make it, what all you can do with it, recipes to get started, dehydration, whole foods vs. processed/refined, tea and coffee, vegetarianism, organic foods, and the list goes on and on!

If you need any help, do email me and I'll try to help, but please understand that I can't give you the seminar by email! It is simply impossible!

I have a long way to go in changing our diet (we still eat a lot of pasta and store-bought bread, for example) but this start is encouraging.You have made a really good start, but I would encourage you to pray about beginning to mill your own grains. I think it interesting that scripture calls Y'shua "the bread of life". If He is the beginning of our spiritual life, do you think it possible that the Biblical parallel of bread was showing us that God's provision of bread (freshly milled, not chemically laden, pre-milled and devoid of nutrients, not processed or refined) is the beginning of bread FOR life for us on the earth? If Y'shua, the bread OF life is our foundation for all of life and life eternal, could not bread FOR life be the foundation of our life here, in order to accomplish what God created us for?

This has been my experience and the experience of countless of others with whom I have worked in the last 12 years. I have testimony letter after testimony letter of the health problems this ONE change has affected. The stories include children being removed from Ritalin, edema disappearing and daily Sudafed dependence leaving, regularity becoming the norm vs irregularity, uncontrollable high cholesterol dropping with this one change when the doctors had given up on it, intestinal problems disappearing, picky eaters loving the bread products, "celiac sprue" (total gluten intolerance) being discovered to be instead an allergy to rancid oils in pre-milled flours, weight loss, diabetics decreasing insulin, and the list goes on and on. So, I really urge you to pray about this. If it is God's answer for His people, then He'll confirm it to you. ºÜº
I hope this encourages you to continue on the way you've begun, and challenges you to seek God for the next step.

Recipe Questions
What is the difference between red and white wheat? Soft and hard wheat? Winter and spring wheat?Red wheat has that nutty, robust, “whole wheat” flavor associated with whole grains. White wheat was designed to have a more bland flavor, more in common with pre-milled flours from the grocery store. I use red when I want that wonderful flavor and I use white when I want a delicate flavor (like lemon or orange) to stand out.
Soft wheat is pastry wheat. It is great for quick breads, cookies, cakes, pastries, but will not make a successful yeasted product. A recipe that uses yeast requires a hard wheat which has the gluten/protein content necessary to create the cells in the bread for the bread to rise.
Winter and spring denote the season in which the wheat is grown.
I have noticed that different recipes can depend upon different ingredients. Besides the obvious ingredients (wheat, honey, etc) is there a short list of ingredients which I will require for most of your recipes? A variety of wheat, another sweetener, other items which I will be unable to find at my local grocery and can pick up enough of to try a number of recipes as we find out what we like? This would be very helpful. I mostly use "normal" ingredients, but there are a few that are lesser known that I do use and recommend. Most of these are optional, not necessary.
I recommend powdered lecithin to add to bread dough. It is a fat emulsifier, which means that it breaks down fats, helps to lower serum cholesterol and has the added benefit of giving a wonderful texture to your bread and helping aid in its "shelf life". I also recommend adding flax seed to give you a good source of the essential fatty acid Omega 3, most commonly found in fish. Flax is an inexpensive, vegetable source for this very important fatty acid. My budget cannot always afford fish, but I can afford (and easily store!) flax seed. Just grind a tablespoon or so in a blender and toss into muffins, breads, on oatmeal, etc., as you desire.
The only other ingredients I do use and which you would feel are necessary to have for my recipes are Sucanat and Sucanat with Honey. These are simply dehydrated sugar cane juice. It is not refined. The Sucanat with Honey (also known as Savannah Gold) has had honey added to it while in the liquid state and easily replaces white sugar. My top sweetener of choice is raw honey. I use Sucanat and it successfully replaces brown sugar in my recipes, and in recipes with chocolate or coffee or to sweeten coffee, it is fabulous!!
Other than that, I can't think of anything which you couldn't find in a regular grocery store in either produce, frozen produce, dried beans, etc. I do recommend using REAL butter, REAL vanilla (artificial has the same base as is used for paint thinner!) and aluminum free baking powder, (Rumford), all of which are easily available at the grocery store. Of course, I recommend raw milk, but if you can't get it, use what you can get.
I made your sourdough and I have a few questions. Do you always leave it out? Do you cover it? I made the sourdough pancakes and they were good .I leave it out when getting it cultured, (the 10 days) then I refrigerate it. Then I try to take it out to warm up a bit before using it. I have even frozen it when going out of town.

We went to a party yesterday, well more like a picnic and ate old style food. Everyone was quite under the weather afterward. Most of the sweets tasted too sweet. Everything seemed slimy to me. That sounds bad. maybe because I am used to the firmer texture of whole wheat. I thought I would like the old food because I miss it sometimes but it just didn't taste as good as I remember.This is not an abnormal event. Your memories are more "tasty" than the real thing! Once you switch to good, wholesome, God made foods, the other stuff just doesn't measure up; it tastes very bland once you've made the change to whole grains.

I am working on a little unit of manners with my daughter and I want to reward her with a tea party. I would like to start a tradition of afternoon tea as well. Do you have my book, Tea Time with Bread For Life ? It would go right along with what you are doing, though the info might be a bit over a younger child's head, at present. However, it would be great for you to read and simply teach her by putting into practice the etiquette and ideas in it, as well as the two of you making the recipes and building memories as you bake together.

I made the whole wheat muffins with blueberries from your vol.1 cookbook using the DLX, my first recipe with both. The DLX didn't blend the stuff in the middle of the bowl. Did I not do something right? About the roller, it says to move the arm away from the edge of the bowl depending on how much flour you use, if you move the roller away from the edge it won't spin. How does this work then? Muffins are a stirred recipe and don't require the DLX. For a quick bread, the DLX would over-mix them as quick breads don't take kneading and require JUST enough mixing to incorporate the ingredients. Stirred recipe? That is different. I used to make everything in my Kitchen Aid, muffins and biscuits and quick breads. Everything was definitely over mixed. See BFL v.2 Quick Bread Helps & Hints for more info on stirred quick breads.

I saw you using a scale to weigh your dough. Is that helpful? I usually eyeball it but sometimes my eyeballs don't "see right". It would probably for more uniform breads. Your swirls and braiding technique are quite impressive. Your daughter was quite good too.It is helpful, but not necessary. The scales like mine are quite expensive ($50-100, depending on which one your purchase) but you can make bread without them. If you just hate not having uniform loaves, then it might be a worth-while purchase. Mine came from a restaurant supply store. The place where I find it most useful is in making rolls and hamburger buns, and thanks for the compliment!

How do you make tortillas successfully in the press? Mine “blow up” when I press them.It helps to weigh out the dough for each tortilla, let sit and rest about ten minutes before pressing and then place the ball of dough near the hinge side of the press. Press gently, until you hear a "squeal." STOP when you hear that. Open the lid, check the size and how even it is in thickness, adjust if needed. If one side is thicker, turn it toward the hinge and GENTLY press to flatten. Then open the lid, recheck and cook. When there are brown spots on the first side, flip and cook the other. Cool on a wire rack. You can eat fresh, or put waxed paper between them (once cooled) and slide into a freezer Ziplock and freeze for future use. The tortillas are FABULOUS with the Garlic Bean Burrito filling or with the Lamb Gyro filling. All of these recipes are in Bread For Life Cookbook, V.1.

Which Mixer Questions and the DLX
I have been considering buying a mill and an ultra stand kitchen aid mixer to make my own bread with. If you have the time to explain the difference I would be so grateful as I want to make a wise choice here.I know how you feel! Once upon a time, I was the consumer in your shoes, trying to make the best choice because I knew that I could only afford to purchase this type of machine ONE time!!

See the page comparing the various mixers to my preference, the Electrolux DLX by Magic Mill.
I was also curious to know if the recipes in your books work well with other mixers or are they best with the equipment that you use?They were tested with my mill and DLX mixer but would work with any mixer. In volume 2, I give step by step directions to make bread with the DLX, D2000, Bosch and by hand. The other department store type of mixers simply aren't contenders for this type of baking. I have many women use my book who already had purchased a Bosch and they've had great success with the recipes. These two machines work entirely differently, so there are some adjustments that have to be made with a yeasted product.
If you are getting started and don't have a machine, I HIGHLY encourage you to get the DLX. I can tell you that in 10 years, NO ONE has regretted purchasing it, but I have PLENTY of people who regret other purchases once they see the DLX in action!

I hope you don't mind all these questions. I just want to be as well informed as possible and am praying about this also as I do not wish to make a hasty decision.Good for you! I am in complete agreement as I feel the same way about making decisions, myself! If we are spending the money God has entrusted to us, then it is very wise of us to be good stewards of it.

I just purchased the DLX and am curious how far in do you put the roller when making only one loaf of bread (3 cups of flour)? How about 2 loaves (6 cups of flour)? Only move the roller in when the dough mixes over the top of the roller. You move it just far enough to keep it mixing evenly. For 7 cup of flour, I move it in about 1 inch. For 14 cups of flour, I move it in about 2 1/2 inches.

With the DLX what do you use the food processor for?The DLX "food processor" really needs to be called a "shredder/slicer" because that's what it does. I have a food processor, the closed bowl with the blade inside, which I use for other things. I use the DLX "food processor" when I'm canning or drying LOTS of something. For instance, when we can salsa, we use the DLX, FP for shredding LOTS of onions, bell peppers, etc. That way, I don't have to stop and start to unload the bowl of a typical FP. I can just let the shredder/slicer of the DLX dump into a 6 gallon bucket placed under it and keep going. It saves TREMENDOUS amounts of time and effort. It is also a favorite attachment for those who "Mega cook," making 6 months of entrees at one time.

Did I read it right that the DLX comes with a choice of two things - one of which is the whip/plastic bowl combo? That is the way I would like to go. Yes. There are two choices, the DLX with the double whisk bowl or with the dough hook. I highly recommend the DW bowl since it does the one thing the roller and scraper won't - whip and aerate. I have never found a use for the DH in all of my 10+ years with this machine.

Can I use the DLX Grain and Spice mill to grind grain for bread baking? The DLX grain and spice mill was designed as a CRACKING mill, to crack corn to make grits, to make cream of wheat (a cracked cereal), to grind coffee, allspice, etc., but it was not designed to be a primary grain mill. That said, you can use it as such, but it is slow and the grain has to be processed through it twice in order to get a grind fine enough to make a decent loaf of bread. If you want a grain mill in order to make baked goods for your family out of freshly ground wheat, purchase a Whisper Mill. It has a life time warranty, a long (GOOD) track record and you'll have talcum fine flour in minutes. The fine texture of this MICRO-nizing mill gives you the ability to produce soft, finely textured, comparable to grocery store quality bread products. This makes the recipes you make from the flour very "Kid friendly" since most of them don't like heavy, dense breads.

I was wondering if the hand crank Family Grain Mill parts (the flaker and the grain mill) can be adapted for electric use on the DLX. Is there a part that can be purchased so that the grain mill can be attached to the DLX? How much does it cost? If you have a DLX and a family GM, they are not usable together. The fittings on the FGM don't fit the DLX. Can the DLX routinely be used for mixtures of two loaves of bread (six cups or less of flour)? Does it work with dough batches that small? What's the smallest batch you've made? I use the DLX all the time and the smallest batch I've even made was one loaf of bread (less than 3 cups of flour) and it does a grand job every time.

Miscellaneous Questions

I purchased a Whisper Mill a few months ago and have been so very happy with it. I keep it right next to the bread machine in our pantry and good bread is so easy now. I had a problem with the mill for the first time this evening....it stopped grinding almost right away. I read my booklet and followed the instructions for a clog and it is working now (I did the popcorn thing). My concern is that it is the humidity of the last several days that has changed the quality of the grain and is causing the trouble. I keep the wheat in a big glass jar with a glass lid, in the pantry....is this letting too much moisture in do you think? Will I have to keep the wheat in a plastic container with a tight seal...or perhaps glass with a screw-on lid? I am wondering if the summer humidity in our un-airconditioned house will be too much to overcome? I certainly hope not, because air-conditioning is not possible...nor is the thought of giving up our freshly-ground flour! I would be so grateful for any advice you have on this subject . Occasionally, this happens. It could be caused by the humidity so for safety sake, try to keep most of the amount in a cool place, like under your house in the crawl or basement and just take out what you need, a small amount at a time. However, I wouldn't be terribly concerned, as I have not had this report before. My grain stays in my large laundry room, which isn't air conditioned and it does fine in the mill AND I live in GEORGIA ! You just can't get worse humidity than here! Are you milling the corn on WIDE open? The dial on the front of the mill should be set a 3:00 instead of approx.10:30. After milling corn, since it has been the one to "stick up" the mill, just mill about 1/2 c. of wheat to clear it out. Reset your dial as you usually do, and keep milling! That should take care of the problem. I certainly wouldn't want you to have to quit milling, either! I was introduced to the Hallelujah Diet by George Malkmus and we have started juicing also I don't know if you have heard of it, but he stresses "raw" foods. My children don't always like my "new recipes" and it gets wearing to be always encouraging them to try it. Then I get stressed or something and go on a very unhealthy eating splurge of which my children see and en joy !!! Do you struggle with staying consistent? My husband is pretty supportive and will try most anything, so I can't blame anything on him.

Does your video address children and changes, transitional recipes? Also lifestyle changes, like do you ever eat out? We don't go to fast food very often, but I have been doing some reading (The Food Revolution and Fast Food Nation) and I am determined to cut that out completely, but it is so hard in our culture! Maybe I am just weak and undisciplined. I don't mean to whine, but I do want to be honest. If you got to the end of this, Thank you for taking the time and any input would be appreciated.
Sincerely, C

Dear C, GOOD FOR YOU!! I'm so GLAD that you grind your own!!
Yes, I am familiar with Rev. Malkmus and agree with him on a few points, but disagree with him on many. I see no problem with juicing, but don't see a Scriptural basis for it being a part of your daily life. If we believe that the word of God includes ALL instruction for our lives, (2 Timothy 3:16 -17), then I can't say that juicing is "thus saith the Lord." Neither can I say that about his basic premise, which is based upon Genesis 1:29. Let me ask you a question, do we still live in Genesis 1? What happened between Genesis 1 and Genesis 3? Are we still in the garden? Are we still in an un-fallen state? What are we to do with Genesis 9:3-4? "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you, I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." (blood if forbidden in both Old and New Testaments, see Leviticus 3:17 and Acts 21:25) In Genesis 8:20, we see that Noah already knew the difference between "clean" and "unclean", so the Levitical laws, which Y'shua, himself, followed, (Y'shua didn't eat pork or shellfish) were not broken, as Noah had this knowledge. My other problem with Rev. Malkmus' stand being "thus saith the Lord, be vegetarian,” is that Y'SHUA ate meat! He ate the Passover lamb and fish, as seen in the feeding of the 5,000 and 7.000. Certainly He wouldn't serve bad food!! And are we not told to be like Him in ALL things? So, you can see why I cannot totally agree with him. I agree that raw vegetables and fruits should make up a good portion of our diet. I think this might be seen in the story of Mary and Martha. If Martha had just put the food Y'SHUA created on the table the way He had made it, then perhaps she wouldn't have been so “overworked.” (see John 1, I love the KJV for this as it is so poetic: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. ALLTHINGS were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." V. 1-3 [caps mine for emphasis]). I DO recommend that you get your food as closely to the way God made it as you possibly can. That means natural peanut butter, raw milk and raw milk cheeses (can be ordered very easily), etc.

As for the difficulties you are having with your family, I highly recommend getting at least one of my cookbooks and trying the recipes out. I have men and children eat my recipes and LOVE them! I've even had some who attend my seminar (we serve lunch) ask me, "This is GOOD for me?!!" and then see them BEG Mom to cook this way! I've been offered catering jobs and constantly hear that I should open a restaurant or bake shop. (No thanks!) So, I think, perhaps, you need some "kid tested and approved" recipes to work with! You could also get started with my video. Yes, it does address all of this, plus you have the added bonus of stopping and starting me at your convenience! I also address the balance of how to do this, yet still live in the world and our culture; how to "be in the world, but not of the world". I think that the video will encourage you and also address most of your questions. It allows me to “be with you” and tutor you when it is physically impossible for me to do so.

No, you are NOT whining! You are crying out for an answer and God DOES have it for you!! That's why He has “older women teach the younger women,' (Titus 2). We are farther down the road than you are and we are SUPPOSED to reach back and give you a hand to help you along the way. Why did I go through 13 years of illness? In order to cry out to God for answers, get them, implement them, get healed and then be able to have a TESTIMONY to help others! Joyce Meyer is famous for saying that we want a testimony, but we don't want the "test"! All we have are the "monies"!! ºÜº But, God allows these tests so that we can live out 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Y'shua Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in our affliction SO THAT we may be able to comfort those who are in ANY affliction with the comfort with which WE were comforted by God."
I hope this will encourage you and help you.