March 17, 2018 - 7:12am
problem (?) with batch of hard wheat grains
I switched grain suppliers, and my first order of hard wheat about 5-10% of the grains still have their papery coating. Do these need to be picked out, or can I just grind them along with the rest?
By papery coating, do you mean the husk? Are you sure they are wheat?
Yes to both questions. Hard white wheat.
Agree with charbono - wheat doesn't have a "coat". Sounds like gross contamination with eg undehusked spelt or barley.
Lance
I'm thinking 5-10% is too much to pick out, and that much extra fiber will hurt your rise. Assuming you can't return the grain, I'd probably grind it and use it for pancakes or muffins.
I would contact your source and let them know about this amount. It should be cleaned better than that.
You can try separating the grains in the husk and put them in a jar to shake and "thresh" . Pour them from a height (outside) into another bowl near a fan on low or a breezy day so the chaff is blown away. You will get a real sense of what the farmer went through to separate wheat without machinery. You may or may not want to do the whole bag.
As for using that wheat, of course you can. It will add great roughage but make sure the husk is finely ground and has a good soak (autolyze,soaker or long retard.) If it is another grain, you have 5-10% multigrain flour. If it doesn't work out, there is always porridge, upma or boiled wheat.