Whole 7 Grain Bread Baked in a Solar Oven

I taught a class at Preparing Wisely today and wanted to share a few of the tips that I shared with the many students who were in attendance.  We focused specifically on whole grain bread.  

Hard Wheat, Soft Wheat, Oats, Rye, Barley, Triticale, and Spelt make up the whole grain mix we used.

It is specifically the  7 grain rolled cereal from Wheat Montana.  It has long been a favorite at our home because of how hearty and flavorful it is. Mildly nutty and just a nice filling cereal.  Cooked it is outstanding.  In this bread...it acts as a moisture retainer.  This recipe makes 4 loaves.

You will need:

Step one:

In a 3.5 Gallon White Bucket without Lid:

6 cups rolled 7 grain cereal (or just rolled oats)

5 cups warm water (not too hot)

1 cup Country Cream Real Instant Milk 

1 cup honey

1 cupShortening Powder  (or olive oil)

1T plus 1 tsp instant SAF Yeast

Allow yeast to activate and grain the chance to absorb moisture 30 minutes.

In a separate container combine:

6 cups Wheat Montana white wheat flour (I mill mine from prairie gold)

2 tsp Real Salt 

1/2 cup Honeyville Vital Wheat Gluten

Stir 3/4 of the flour mixture into the grain water mixture until a thick paste is made.

The dough will appear very moist.  Wait 5-10 minutes and allow the flour to absorb water before adding any more flour (if any). This will make a very moist bread.

Knead consistently in the same direction for 7 minutes by hand (or 300 strokes).

Kneading dough in a bucket is ideal in that you have a straight sided container to tell when the bread has doubled in volume. Also, if you were in a camping situation or emergency situation where you didn't have access to a kitchen counter it would give you a sanitary place to prepare the dough. After kneading for the 300 turns, take a minute to wash your hands. 

Touch the dough with your clean hands. If it doesn't stick to your fingers, it is done. You may not need to even add more flour.

There will be visible amounts of whole grain throughout the dough.

Roll dough into a ball.  Place lid on the bucket and allow to raise until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Open your solar oven and place it in direct sunlight.  Oil two NorPro 10" Loaf Pan  

Divide dough into 4 balls. Again, in a camping situation, this may be done directly in the bucket if the bucket is turned on it's side.

To form a loaf with good structure and nice shape, take the dough and pat it out flat on a surface that has been lightly coated with water. Yes. Water. When working with whole grain, I use water on my counter tops. 

Fold the dough into thirds.

Turn a half turn.

Roll into a tight loaf.

Place in the oiled loaf pan.

Lightly cover the top of the bread with oil. You may also top with seeds if desired. I like to use a combination I use for my "everything" bagels.

It is ready to put into your hot solar oven after raising 45 minutes to an hour.

You can bake it in a regular oven at 375 degrees 40 -45 minutes.

One of the best tricks I've found for knowing this bread is done, is by using an instant meat thermometer. When the dough reads 170 degrees or hotter, it is done.

There you go. Make some whole grain bread in your solar oven...and then send us some pictures! We'd love to add them to our blog!

Oh Sugar... Honey, Honey!

I've never met a living soul who didn't love a good honey.  Finding an amazing honey however, can be be challenging.  Unprocessed honey, straight from the hive, has been used worldwide for millennia to promote healing. For more natural healing benefits of raw honey, click here . Troy Adair wrote a great blog entry on Raw Desert Blossom Honey. This is why we carry Crockett Raw Honey it's a mild honey with fruity hints. Collected from natural sources and bottled here in the valley of the sun. at Crockett Honey Co. they  produce and package the finest honeys of the Southwest. The Sonoran Deserts produce a mild delicate flavored honey from many desert floral sources. These sources include Cactus, Mesquite, Catclaw, Palo Verde, as well as many other flowering plants. These honeys are unique in that they are only produced in the Sonoran Desert regions.  Our desert honey is 100% pure and natural. Honey is Nature's Natural Sweetener and is proven to be more easily digestible than refined sugars. They do nothing to the honey except carefully package it in a manner that will not alter its natural quality or change its delicate and mild flavor. 

But what do you do when you buy crystallized honey? Can it be uncrystallized without changing it's natural ability to heal? Well, some say no. If you add much heat it can kill the natural healthy enzymes. 

If however you aren't worried so much about the enzyme content and want a honey with a better viscosity...Here's how to do it.

If you don't plan on using the full container of honey, transfer the amount you want to use into a seal able jar. I use a half pint canning jar.  Then I put the jar into a cup or pot of hot water for 10-15 minutes, refreshing the water once so it stays hot (or if you use the insert to your slow cooker as the container for the water bath it will hold the heat fine). 

Honey comes out crystal clear.

 Enjoy our Raw Honey! We love it!

How to Use Your Dutch Oven to Bake Pie

I wanted to share a little from the class I co-taught today at Preparing Wisely . I was all about the Beginner's Pie Crust and gave some basics on how to actually make the pie. Troy Adair, amazing emergency preparedness guy of glory was there to teach some basics on how to turn a regular outdoor dutch oven into a baker for pie. I was most interested in learning myself how to know that the oven was the proper temperature for baking. Since, y'all know I'm a bit of a baking geek...right? Why bake it in a Dutch oven at all? You know, I'm all about alternative cooking methods and I adore solar baking all summer and winter, but I'm also looking at the fact that my son Little Man will soon be attending BSA camps. I'm getting my game on to cook in the rough...should I ever need to assist in that area. Plus, will I ever be sad I didn't know how to cook something another way? Nay. I dare say I will always be a cub master-chef...even now as I'm not a cub master any more. I can also do a yodeling goat on the mountain impression and sing,"Be prepared! Be prepared! This lesson must be shared..."

It turns out there is a very technical way of knowing the internal temperature of a dutch oven. We used the Lodge Camp Dutch Oven 14 Inch deep dutch oven. It was just about the perfect size for a 9 inch pie. To determine the temperature of the oven, you use what is called, "the rule of 4." If the oven is 14 inches, you subtract 4. You will need 10 coals on the bottom of the dutch oven and twice that many on top of the dutch oven to get the internal temperature to 350 degrees (preheating 20 minutes). Adding 5-7 minutes to the baking time on most items. Add two coals to the bottom and 4 to the top for every additional 25 degrees you want inside your oven. So...for 400 degrees we added 4 to the bottom and 8 to the top. Does that sound technical enough? It almost hurt my brain to do that much math.

Once hot, Troy used a metal hook to take off the lid, with the coals still on top:

Single layer pie crust for a custard pie takes about 25 minutes.

Oh...this is important, we put the pie on top of a metal trivet inside the dutch oven so the bottom didn't burn. This also applies for most other pans you are baking in the dutch oven. Leave a little circulation space under the item's pan so it isn't in direct contact with the dutch oven. This is why we used the deeper dutch oven (5 inched deep instead of 3 inches deep).

A fruit pie generally takes about 45 minutes to bake (50-55) in the dutch oven.

The crust was golden delicious.

For the filling we used freeze dried peaches, raspberries and blueberries, reconstituted and lightly sweetened with agave. The general rule with thickening fruit is this:

4 cups of fruit mixed with 1/4 cup corn starch or ultra gel and 1/4 cup agave nectar. We also added 1 tsp of Chef Tess Wise woman of the east spice blend.

Now I'm ready to go camping! What about you?! Who wouldn't love pie in the mountains?

There you go. Dutch oven baking. We're starting with pie...but bread is next!

Sometimes I do some simple basics, not only because we live on simple basics around here, but also because I know a lot of cooks who need the basics. Any student needs the basics in order to have a good foundation. This one is for my beginners. I love you guys! Cream of Wheat made from the whole grain at home, is nutritionally the best option. I think the flavor is off the charts. There isn't a hint of bitterness from rancid old ground wheat if you make it fresh. It's sweeter from the fresh wheat. It has all the benefits of whole grain! I know my kids are more apt to eat it if they help grind it. It's a funny thing. The other plus? Hard White Wheat Berries Organic 25 lb Bag for 40$. That makes 15 servings of hot cereal per pound. How's that for cheap healthy eats?! This same method can be used for any of these:
 Rye Berries Organic 25 lb Bag
 Spelt Berries Organic 25 lb Bag 
 Spelt Berries Organic 5 lb Bag
 Pearled Barley 2.5 lbs 

Here's my hand grinder.WonderMill Junior Deluxe 

WonderMill Junior Deluxe :

I love hard white wheat, but red would work here. You could also add other grains like barley. Malt-o-meal is just that...barley and wheat. They toast the barley before they grind it.

I grind it once on a rough setting. If I cooked it at this point it would be called "cracked wheat". It's much more coarse, but a wonderful texture.

I run it through the mill on a finer setting. Did I mention my kids love to watch this process? Especially if I say things like "stop...save me! I'm too devastatingly beautiful to be put through the grinder". They laugh hysterically.

At this point, it looks like commercially prepared cream of wheat.

I like my cream of wheat not too thick and not to thin. Call me Goldie-locks. It takes 1/3 cup of the cream of wheat to 1 cup of water. I also use a pinch of sea salt.

Bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the cream of wheat in a stream, whisking with a whisk. Stir for 5-7 minutes until thick. It will look like this...

Serve with honey and cinnamon if you want or enjoy the savory version with pepper and butter.

Simple basics. There you go.

Using Your Sun Oven as a Slow Cooker 101

Today we used my Global Sun Oven just like a crock pot.  Most often that is how I use it but today felt especially cool after the seminar  on Saturday.  A lot of people are surprised to find that the Global Sun Oven can be used as a slow cooker using the insert from their crock-pots! At the Solar Cooking Seminar with Paul Munsen, (President of Sun Ovens International, Inc.)he  told us a few things that are less known about using the solar oven. I realized I had already been using it for my crock pot but when Paul said it...I just felt so cool. Like, "hey...I thought of that too..."  The cooking times with the slow cooker recipes is exactly the same as the "low" setting. So, any recipe you have for the slow cooker...can be done solar. 

For this recipe we used : 

Quick and Easy Slow Cooker Chili
1 lb cooked hamburger or equivalent of the Honeyville Freeze Dried Ground Beef 

(or vegetarian use 1 cup TVP Taco )

1/2 cup  Dehydrated Onion 

Add to the following in a 4-6 quart slow cooker:
1 small can diced green chiles
2 15 oz can Pinto beans ( undrained) or 1 lb cooked pinto beans
1/2 cup dehydrated bell peppers
2 cans stewed tomatoes or diced tomatoes (undrained) *
2T-4T chili Powder (depending on how hot you like it)

1T garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat in the solar oven 2-3 hours in direct sunlight. Serve with tortilla or corn chips. Optional, top with grated cheese, sour cream, diced onion and even fresh diced tomatoes if you like.

You will need to remove the metal shelf within the unit and just put the pot right on the bottom of your cooker.

This is a six quart insert that fits just perfectly in the Solar oven.  I keep it on a rolling Craftsman Tool cart that has been a perfect perch for my oven out in the sun.

Chili cooked perfectly in the solar oven instead of using the electricity and heating up the kitchen! How cool is that?! In Arizona, the cost of cooling my house goes way down if I don't use the regular oven and the slow cooker on the kitchen counter. The solar oven has offered a great alternative method for cooking that my family loves.

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