After buying the Vitamix blender, I realized that there is a separate 32 oz. container with a dry blade that will grind wheat and mix the bread in one container. When I make wheat bread now, I have to get out the wheat grinder, grind the wheat, put it away, get out the Bosch mixer, mix up the bread dough and then put it away. The whole wheat dough is just too much work for my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer which stays out all the time.
So, I ordered the 32 oz. container with the dry blade. I was a bit concerned about keeping up with which container was which . .
Containers
. . til I paid closer attention and realized it’s written right on the container.
Dry Blade
The container with the dry blade came with a cookbook so I started with one of their recipes but tweaked it a bit.
Wheat in Container
I put the wheat in and was anxious to see how well it ground the wheat berries into whole wheat flour.
Flour
Perfect! It does produce more heat than does my wheat grinder so I did it on pulse and didn’t let it run continuously but even with pulse, it’s much quicker than my wheat mill.
The dough seemed perfect.
Dough
It rose nicely.
Ready to Bake
And the finished loaf looks good.
Whole Wheat Bread
We had it for breakfast this morning and I’m happy to report that it’s my new favorite way to make whole wheat bread. Everything is done in one container, from grinding the wheat to mixing the ingredients to kneading and even the cleaning is a breeze. .
This makes a smaller loaf than most recipes and since whole wheat bread is best consumed the same day it is made, or at least by the second day, it’s good that this is a smaller loaf. By the time we have toast for breakfast and sandwiches at lunch, there’s not much left of this after a second day. This is so quick since it’s all done in one container, I don’t mind making this bread every other day. I also like that it rises once in the pan. I am so forgetful that the recipes that have to rise in the bowl, then rise again in the container, sometimes get forgotten about on my counter.
The 750 model, and probably other models as well, has the “clean” feature. I squirt a drop or two of soap in there, add water, turn on the “clean” cycle.
Cleaning
I dump out steaming hot soap water, rinse and it is perfectly clean . . even from that sticky whole wheat bread dough.
Here’s my version of the Vitamix recipe.
Whole Wheat, Oat and Flax Seed Bread
1 cup warm water
2 T. honey or molasses
1 packet active dry yeast (or 2-1/4 teaspoons yeast)
2 T. rolled oats (not instant)
2 T. flax seed
3/4 cup wheat berries (or 1 cup whole wheat flour)
1-1/4 cup bread flour
1/4 cup non-fat dry milk
1 tsp. dough enhancer
1 tsp. vital wheat gluten
1 tsp. salt
2 T. olive oil
Directions:
1. Mix warm water, yeast and honey or molasses and allow yeast to proof. Set aside.
2. Add wheat berries, oats and flax seeds to the container. Select variable 1 and slowly turn up to #10. Grind for 30 seconds. Pulse several more times until the flour is the consistency desired.
3. Add the flour, salt, dry milk, dough enhancer and gluten. Pulse til blended well.
4. Add yeast mixture and olive oil. Blend on high several times, stopping and starting until ingredients are mixed and kneaded a bit. Scrape down the sides with an oiled rubber spatula. Continue the off/on procedure until dough is soft an elastic.
5. Because I love to hand knead dough, I dumped mine out (actually dug it out . . it gets pretty stuck under those blades) and kneaded it on an oiled plastic pastry mat, with my hands oiled also.
6. Shape into a loaf and place into an oiled 8″ x 4″ pan (this is smaller than most bread pans).
7. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise for about half an hour.
8. Bake at 375º for about 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
Every time I use this blender, I ask myself “Why did you wait so long?”
Cindi says
What is dough enhancer?
Michelle says
Hubby keeps his wheat berries in the freezer. When they start out cold, the Vitamix doesn’t cook them nearly as much while it’s grinding.
Lewis Goudy says
If you put the grains in the freezer overnight you get them ground without overheating and destroying nutrients. There is a natural batch size (2-3 cups) where the grains don’t come flying out of the container. You need to use a stick like a chopstick or handle of a wooden spoon to stir around the edge of the material as you are grinding it (CAREFUL EYE HAZARD) otherwise the unground material doesn’t enter the well which forms in the flour.
I include flax, sunflower, and dent corn for shortening (mostly flax–50% oil and very healthy even more so than olive oil). The only time I get my unit greasy is when I make pesto.
I mostly fly by the “seat of my pants” but this is typical for a 2-3 pound loaf:
one 500 mg tablet ascorbic acid
15 grams each amaranth, quinoa, dent corn, potassium bicarbonate (home brewed from wood ashes), dried sweet potato, cardamon/anise/fennel (to taste), poppy seed, beans, millet, chia, hulled sunflower seeds
30 grams each spelt, kamut, buckwheat, soft white wheat, hulled barley
60 grams each rye, flaxseed
100 grams hard red wheat
cup or so of proofed yeast solution with ~10 grams blackstrap molasses (read the labels, some stuff labeled “blackstrap” is fit only for pancake topping, buy the one that has the highest potassium, “Plantation” brand is pancake material); or honey, or even sugar if you are low-rent
one egg
sufficient King Arthur bread flour to adjust moisture content (like 200 grams for 1.5 cups yeast prep)
If you want to increase the bean content say to 50 grams add a second egg or include a teaspoon of soy lecithin granules in the liquid part.
Many recipes call for salt which retards fermentation and so prevents over-raising and subsequent collapse. It may be included for taste if desired (likewise potassium chloride) but the minor grains set forth compensate so you don’t need salt to throttle the yeast–let them rock.
Lewis Goudy says
I left out a few optional amendments: wheat germ, wheat bran, oat bran (same nutrition as oatmeal/steel-cut oats but more fiber and fewer calories), soy flour, powder milk, and cocoa. Cocoa is the secret ingredient of pumpernickel.
Here is a recipe my mother taught me. She was a mighty cook and challenged me with scrambled eggs on day one (age four). I burned them, stank up the house, and burst into tears. She dropped to her knees and hugged me. “Don’t worry Lewie you’ll get it.”
Six years later I baked a loaf of Swedish limpe bread (recipe sketched below). It had cooled and was ready to cut when she got home from work. I had set out some butter to warm. I cut her a slice (from the middle) and buttered it: “Lewie I can’t bake better limpe than this and neither can anyone in Chicago. If I didn’t have your father to deal with we would go there and open a Swedish bakery.”
Norwegians aka fisheaters use milk in there rye breads–Swedes don’t. This isn’t a recipe, just a sketch:
Say a cup each of water and vinegar, half a stick to a whole stick of butter, tablespoon caraway (I wrote cardamon in my last–that was a MISTAKE), teaspoon each anise and fennel, rolling simmer COVERED for 20 minutes, leave to cool to yeast temp COVERED, then proceed with half and half wheat and rye. Many bakers build a sponge with more wheat than rye, even entirely wheat, and add the rye last because it is so sticky. If you want to save time, add a bottle of cold Guiness to the hot liquid to bring it down to yeast temp (fisheaters and Swedes are on the same page with that).
Peggy says
Did you see that the vitamix company has a recall on some models? Check yours here http://www.containerbladerecall.com/
JudyL says
Yes, I posted about it earlier in the week.
EagleKnits says
What is dough enhancer? I bake a lot of bread, but have never heard of that.
norma v says
lol! and i have had the dry container and grinder for over a year and still have not used it…you have inspired me….maybe…
Linda Steller says
Wow! I may have to put one of those mixers on my wish list.
Kris says
Hi Judy,
You don’t know me, but I do enjoy your blog. My 10 year old daughter wanted to make sourdough starter. She tried and could not. I tried many times over the years and could not either. I came to your blog to look at your sourdough stuff and ordered starter from King Arthur (thank you for telling me about that!) We made our first batch of whole wheat sourdough bread today. I was hoping for “edible” and got “pretty good.”
So, my question, do you see yourself using the Vitamix for sourdough bread?
Thank you!
Kris in Tennessee
JudyL says
Probably not because I stir the sourdough up by hand and it’s just so easy to do it that way.