Tag Archives: kamut

Awesome 100% KAMUT Bread

My wife is gluten sensitive so she was trying some gluten free breads and they are nasty and go bad fast. I was able to make some gluten free breads from scratch but they are not as good as real bread. One night I made up some experimental kamut bread (using whole grain kamut flour that I milled my self in the WonderMill grain mill) and she had some and it did not cause her issues like other wheat products did, spelt grain and Kamut grain still have gluten in them but they are much easier to digest than regular wheat. So I decided I needed to develop a really good kamut bread so my wife could have some real bread that is easy on her tummy.

I have used kamut grain a lot in the past but not much for breads. One problem I have had with spelt grain and Kamut grain is that the bread dough has less gluten than regular wheat so it tends to not rise as well and is prone to collapse. It can also tends to come out very dense, which is OK but not ideal.

I have found that using a narrow bread pan helps in supporting the frame of the rising bread better than the regular shape of bread pans commonly found at stores. The narrow width keeps the bread from collapsing while rising and it seems to rise better, giving you a better crumb in the finished bread. I also found that it helps in cooking the bread more evenly through to the middle if the pan is narrower.

I also like dark color bread pans better as well since they conduct heat fast and don’t take long to get hot. Do not use glass bread pans, they will fail you.

Get a good bread pan, it will make a big difference in your bread, especially whole grain breads. The bread pans I now use is the Norpro 8 inch bread pans as shown in the photo to the right. This pan is narrow, dark, a nice non-stick beveled sides, and is a great price too.

After quite a few experiments while my wife was on vacation in California I got the kamut bread close to the way I wanted it to turn out and got it nailed down over Thanksgiving vacation. My little 8 year old enjoyed eating all the experimental bread with me, especially with our homemade peach jam.

So here is the recipe for two 1 1/2 pound loves of 100% KAMUT grain bread, with no added dough enhancers or added gluten.


KAMUT Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups hot water
  • 1/3 oil (I use vegetable oil)
  • 2 tablespoons agave (honey or sugar will work too)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 egg
  • 5 cups KAMUT flour (fresh ground in the WonderMill Grain Mill)
  • 2 teaspoons yeast (I like Saf yeast)

Directions:

Add water, shortening, sugar, and salt to the WonderMix mixer bowl.

Add 3 cups of the flour to the mixer bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour.

Add the egg on top of the flour.

Turn on the mixer and add the remaining flour (you may need a little more or a little less than 5 cups).

Mix for 5-6 minutes, just until the dough looks good.

Remove from mixer and place in a oiled container to let rise for 1 hour.

Punch down dough and form 3 loaves and place in 1 pound bread pans.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees while the dough rises in bread pans for about 30 minutes.

Put bread in the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Bake for 26 minutes.

Remove from bread pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes (1 hour for best results but we all know how hard it is to resist bread right out of the oven).

*NOTE: you can use this dough recipe for rolls if you cut the KAMUT flour down to 4 1/5 cups so it is a stickier dough, which is better for rolls.


My Kitchen Mixer
I use the WonderMix Revolution kitchen mixer for all my breads, it does an excellent job developing the dough’s gluten for a silky smooth elastic dough. For batches of dough smaller than 5 loaves I like to use the dough divider attachment, I do spray it with oil before I put it on the mixer so it works much better instead of dough sticking to it.

How to grind your own kamut flour
I use the WonderMill electric grain mill for all my grain grinding, it does the job fast and it has a top brand motor in it that will last and perform. It is so awesome to pour 5 cups of grain in the WonderMill and it is done in a minute or so, and the flour is so fine and perfect.

Corn-Free “Corn” Bread

Whole Grain Corn Bread, corn-free

That’s right, corn bread without the corn! Just use Kamut flour and Millet flour to get the same cornbread texture effect and taste. Bread Beckers posted a recipe for Kamut “Corn” Bread on their Facebook page yesterday and I had to try it.

My WonderMill grain mill can grind both Kamut and Millet into fresh flour and luckily I had both of them on hand today, just pour the millet into the WonderMill slowly like you would any other small grain. The end result of this recipe was superb, my new favorite cornbread, thanks Bread Beckers.

Corn-Free "Corn" Bread (100% Whole Grain)
 
Prep time

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Author:
Serves: 10

Ingredients
  • 1 cup Kamut flour
  • 1 cup millet flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1½ cup buttermilk (I use powdered buttermilk and water)
  • 2 large eggs

Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
  3. Add all the wet ingredients to the mixing bowl and whisk for 40 seconds.
  4. Pour batter into greased cake pan and bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
  5. Best served while still warm (leftovers heat up nice and moist in the microwave).

Notes
Recipe source: Bread Beckers Facebook page.

 

I warmed up some pumpkin turkey chili for lunch to eat with this wonderful “Corn” Bread. Another great thing about this corn bread is that it contains millet which counteracts the gas effect you get from eating beans.

Corn-Free Cornbread and Pumpkin Chili

Both Kamut and Millet whole grains can be purchased from BreadBeckers.com if you can’t find those grains locally.

corn-free-corn-bread-2

Spinach Artichoke Kamut Pizza

Spinach Artichoke Pizza with KAMUT Crust

Pizza Dough Rolled Out

Pizza Dough Rolled Out

Half-Baked Pizza Dough Topped

Half-Baked Dough Topped

One thing that I really enjoy using for pizza dough is KAMUT flour, it adds such a great taste. I commonly use a half KAMUT half white flour combo for a light textured crust with the wonderful flavor of KAMUT.

I could probably pull off a 100% KAMUT crust but I am not a purest and I like this recipe better right now. I based my recipe off of whole wheat pizza recipe I found from Donna Miller that I have been using for about a year now. I have altered this recipe several times now but the recipe below is what I like most.

KAMUT Pizza Crust

When I buy pizza, I really like Papa John’s Spinach Alfredo Pizza with bacon, spinach is a great pizza ingredient. Recently I found this recipe for Spinach Artichoke pizza that has just become my new favorite toppings. Combine the Spinach Artichoke with homemade KAMUT pizza crust and I am loving life, and so is whoever we invite over to share it with us.

On with the recipes…

Kamut Pizza Dough
 
Makes 2 large thick pizza crusts.
Author:

Ingredients
  • 1½ cups hot tap water
  • 4 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon onion powder
  • 2 cups KAMUT flour (freshly milled)
  • 2 cups all-purpose white flour
  • ½ teaspoon yeast

Instructions
  1. Start the night before and bake the next day for lunch or dinner.
  2. Add all ingredients into the mixer except for the all-purpose white flour and yeast.
  3. Mix on low for 30 seconds.
  4. Add the all-purpose what flour to mixer bowl and add yeast on top of the flour.
  5. Mix on medium speed for 3½ minutes, add a little more flour if you feel it is needed.
  6. Remove dough from mixer and place in a greased bowl that is 3 times the size of the dough.
  7. Cover bowl lightly with plastic wrap and let rise over night.
  8. The next morning, dust the counter top with some flour and dump the dough out onto the floured surface.
  9. Divide the dough in half.
  10. Form each piece into a ball by pushing the edges into the bottom center of the dough until the top is a smooth round shape.
  11. pinch the bottom together and place each dough ball into a separate zip-lock bag with some air in each bag.
  12. Placed bagged dough in the fridge for use later, at least 30 minutes.
  13. Remove dough from fridge and roll each out onto a piece of parchment paper, leaving the edge a little thicker than the rest.
  14. Place pizza stone in oven and pre-heat to 425 degrees.
  15. Let oven pre-heat for 30 minutes.
  16. Transfer parchment paper with rolled out dough into the oven (flat cookie sheet works well for this) and bake for 4 minutes, then remove from oven. Repeat this step for 2nd pizza dough.
  17. Top half-baked pizza crust with sauce, toppings and cheese.
  18. Bake for 8-12 more minutes, until bottom of crust is well browned but not burnt.

 

Spinach Artichoke Pizza Toppings
 
This makes enough sauce for about 2 large pizzas.
Author:

Ingredients
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons cream cheese
  • ¾ cup fresh-grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoons granular Parmesan, the stuff in the can (or use more Parmesan cheese)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 6 ounces fresh spinach leaves, chopped smaller
  • 1 can artichoke hearts, rinsed and dried and chopped into 8ths
  • Dash Italian seasoning
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • About 1½ cups mozzarella cheese to top pizza

Instructions
  1. Add butter, heavy cream, and cream cheese to a sauce pan and stir over low heat until fully melted.
  2. Add grated and granular Parmesan cheese to sauce pan.
  3. Stir together and continue to cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Cook spinach with 2 tablespoons water over medium low heat until wilted.
  5. Drain spinach and squeeze spinach dry in a few paper towels.
  6. Add spinach to sauce and stir well.
  7. Spread sauce over pizza crust and top with mozzarella cheese and artichoke.

 

Spinach artichoke pizza topping compliments whole wheat pizza crust quite well also, or any other pizza crust you want to put it on.

artichoke-pizza-3

A KAMUT Bread Recipe I Like

KAMUT bread loaves

After trying several KAMUT bread recipes, I finally found one that I really like. KAMUT usually turns out a denser bread loaf which doesn’t rise much but this KAMUT bread recipe from Vickilynn Haycraft is nice and light. She uses a quick soaker method that I think helped the bread have a nice texture and increased flavor.

I did make 2 changes to the recipe when I made it the second time. I doubled the salt in the recipe because it didn’t have enough for my taste buds. Second, I cut the recipe in half because I usually only make 2 loaves at a time for our small family.

Click here to view the KAMUT bread recipe by Vickilynn Haycraft.

I plan on using the quick soaker method, introduced to me by this recipe, in the 100% Whole Wheat Rolls recipe I have been working on, which I hope to finalize soon. Stay tuned for that recipe but for now you should try Vickilynn’s recipe.

I entered this post into the Bake-Your-Own-Bread event, Whole Foods Wednesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Tasty Traditions, Nomday Monday link-ups.

I Love Using KAMUT Wheat

Kamut-wheat

KAMUT (ancient khorsasan wheat) is a very special wheat that I have really loved using this past year, 2012. As I have mentioned before, I am always trying to use several different types of grains to my diet instead of just whole wheat and KAMUT is one I find easy to add to the things I make. The taste is unlike any other wheat I have tried yet, to me KAMUT has a slightly buttery & nutty taste. It does not seem to have the slightly bitter taste that most wheat has from the bran.

I usually only use KAMUT flour as a portion of the flour in yeast breads because it is low in gluten. I hope to try making 100% KAMUT bread soon to see if I can make it light enough to use as sandwich bread, right now I am looking for a recipe that looks good to me (update: I found a good recipe). I have used KAMUT in bread, rolls, tortillas, pancakes, and muffins; I hope to try it in several other baked goods in 2013.

KAMUT wheat can also be cooked as a whole grain for cereals, salads, or soups but I have yet to try this. I am sure that it would cook up fast in my pressure cooker. I could even make cracked KAMUT with my hand grain mill for oatmeal-like cereals.

KAMUT wheat has not been modified like most modern wheat and the farming of KAMUT is highly controlled for the highest quality wheat. Because of this, KAMUT is superior in nutrition and is easier to digest than modern wheat. KAMUT is also considered a high-energy wheat and it has higher protein levels than modern wheat, which keeps your body going longer.

Like other wheat, KAMUT can be stored almost indefinitely if stored properly, this makes it great for preppers and your food storage. A good example of KAMUT’s ability to be stored for a long time is the story of how it was re-introduced to the world. Khorsasan wheat was commonly used by ancient Egyptians and was found in an Egyptian tomb in the mid 1900’s. It is estimated that this wheat was 4,000 years old. That 4,000 year old wheat was planted, farmed, and became what we call today “KAMUT”. Amazing that this wheat seed was preserved this long and was still good. I’m sure my stored KAMUT will last my life time, except that I will eat it all before then.

gamma lidI buy my KAMUT wheat in bulk from Kitchen Kneads in Ogden, Utah. I store it in 5 gal food-grade buckets in my basement storage room, which is always below 76 degrees even in the summer. I always have a Gamma twist-off lid on the bucket of wheat that I am currently using so that I can access it easier.

When I grind KAMUT in my grain mill, I find that the flour is slightly coarser feeling than my whole wheat flour. KAMUT flour also tends to adsorb a little more water than whole wheat flour. I grind KAMUT wheat between the pastry and bread settings on the WonderMill grain mill. Fresh ground KAMUT flour, like all whole grain flours, will begin to loose it’s nutrition fast. I like to grind my flour the same day I use it and I don’t keep my leftover whole grain flour more that 2 weeks from the day I milled it, the flour is still good but I like fresher flour.

Some Recipes to Try

KAMUT Buttermilk Rolls

KAMUT Buttermilk Rolls

100% KAMUT Bread

100% KAMUT Bread

Grain Mill Wagon Challenge Recipes

I recently started participating in a Grain Mill Challenge and I made some KAMUT recipes that you might be interested in (click the image to see the recipe).

Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes

Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes

KAMUT Breakfast Muffins

KAMUT Breakfast Muffins

Whole Wheat Tortillas with KAMUT

Whole Wheat Tortillas with KAMUT

Some of these recipes have been featured on Kamut.com, the official website of KAMUT.

Kamut Rolls for WonderMill Challenge

I haven’t been on my blog for a while, we moved to a new house earlier this year and I am just getting back into blogging again. A friend of mine told me that WonderMill is starting to have a regular WonderMill Blogger Challenge and so I thought I would participate to help me expand my uses of grains on my blog. The current challenge is to make Homemade Rolls using flour made in the WonderMill or Wonder Junior grain mill. I also entered this into the Bake-Your-Own-Bread event and Nomday Monday recipe link up.

I have a Wonder Junior Deluxe grain mill that grinds up a nice flour from Kamut grain. I really like the taste of Kamut flour when it is added to bread, rolls, tortillas, and pitas. So I thought I would use Kamut for WonderMill’s Homemade Rolls Challenge. These Buttermilk Rolls came out wonderful, as you can see from the photo above.

The addition of Kamut flour gave them almost a buttery taste without adding butter. You wouldn’t want to make the rolls with Kamut flour only or they will come out dense, in my experience. I subbed just less than half of the all-purpose white flour out for Kamut flour and they still came out nice and fluffy. The original recipe is from the Taste of Home website and I made some slight changes.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Kamut Buttermilk Rolls
 
Prep time

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This Buttermilk Kamut Rolls recipe makes 24 rolls but it can easily be cut in half if needed.
Author:
Recipe type: Appetiser

Ingredients
  • 4½ teaspoons yeast
  • 3½ cups warm water
  • 12 tablespoons (or ¾ cup) buttermilk powder
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 4 cups Kamut flour (freshly milled prefered)
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions
  1. In your mixer bowl, add yeast, sugar, water, buttermilk powder, and Kamut flour. Then turn on the mixer for about 10-20 seconds. Let this sit for about 1 minute to let the yeast get started.
  2. Add oil, salt, and baking soda. Turn on the mixer and then start adding all-purpose flour 1 cup at a time till all flour has been added, allowing it to mix in before adding the next cup. Dough will be a bit stickier and wetter than bread dough.
  3. Let the mixer mix on medium speed for 8 minutes.
  4. Transfer the dough to a very large greased bowl. spray the top of the dough with oil. Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise till it has doubled, this usually takes mine about 1 hour 15 minutes.
  5. Punch dough down and divide dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place it into a greased baking pan (I use 2 casserole pans or 3 round cake pans, both fit in the oven all at once). Spray the top of the dough balls with oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
  6. Bake at 400° for 16-20 minutes, until golden brown, and remove from oven.
  7. Turn rolls out on a cooking rack.
  8. With a stick of butter, lightly rub butter on the top of rolls for a wonderful butter-top taste (optional).
  9. Let them cool down completely, about 45+ minutes.

 

These rolls are very cheap to make and they taste so good because they are homemade. The only ingredient that really cost much is the buttermilk powder. They are still way cheaper that buying rolls from the bakery, and healthier because of the addition of whole grain Kamut flour. I hope to devote an entire post to Kamut in the future to give you some more information about this ancient grain, hopefully soon.

Below is a picture of my little helper who is always pulling a chair up to the counter and trying to help me prepare food, so totally cute but not very helpful yet. They got to start somewhere, hopefully she is still interested when she gets a little older.