A few weeks ago, one of my co-workers from Austin sent a note to a group of us in the office - he was coming to visit our office, and wanted to know if anyone wanted some flour. Seems he grows wheat on his property, recently harvested it, and processed it himself. I, of course, accepted the offer…and earlier this week, he showed up with a zip lock bag with a few cups of the stuff. It’s whole grain - he didn’t remove anything before/during processing.
I’m trying to figure out what to bake. I was thinking a basic roll of some sort, to take into the office and share - I don’t want to make anything like a strongly flavored cake, because…well, then I’ll never knew if the quality of the flour made a difference.
I’d suggest making a crusty baguette-type bread. Enough of a crumb to appreciate the sweet flavor of the whole grain, coupled with the large amount of toasted crust to savor the nuttiness. In a situation like this, keeping it simple is by far the best thing to do.
I can’t help but think of the story of The Little Red Hen. “Who will help me____?” “Not I, Not I, Not I, said the____”. Flour like that can go bad after a time, so I would freeze it if not using right away. Just saying…yes, a crusty loaf of bread would be best.
Oh, it’s chilling in the freezer already. I didn’t want to do it, but I realized I wasn’t going to bake fast enough, and I’d rather freeze it than have it go bad.
I haven’t baked bread in a decade or so - not as much fun when you have blood sugar issues. I can probably dig up old recipes, but I’d be happy to take suggestions.
I’d go with your first instinct, the dinner rolls. In one of the River Cottage series they grow spelt and manage to grind it, and that’s what they use it for, alongside garden-vegetable soup. Seems wholesome and straightforward in the right kind of way.
The only way to really know would be to bake the same thing twice, using both the flour you got and store-bought flour as the only different ingredient. Then do a blind taste test on the people you serve it to. I’d like to know if anyone notices a difference that way.