Product: Palouse Hard White Wheat Berries (Organic Non-GMO)
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars (excellent)

I bought a 5lb starter sack as part of a 3 grain assortment, to try out my new KIitchenaid grain mill attachment.

QUICK WHEAT VARIETY PRIMER: In general, hard wheat varieties, with their higher protein and gluten content, are best suited for leavened breadmaking, whereas soft wheat varieties contain roughly a third less protein and gluten and as a result are better suited for cakes, cookies, batters, flatbreads and egg-based varieties of pasta. Hard red and hard white varieties are nutritionally comparable and similar in all baking characteristics except one - the white variety is essentially a variant of red wheat with a bran layer that is much lower in tannin, resulting in a flour that is lighter in color and milder in flavor. Commercial "all purpose" flour is a finely-ground ultra-sieved blend of soft white and hard white wheat, so fellow home grinders are advised that if you want to approximate AP Flour, you MUST sieve your flours, and soft wheat will probably be your primary base grain (to which you'll add other flours depending on what you're making).

LIKES:
* Excellent quality grain, low breakage, low moisture. Using my Kitchenaid Grain Mill Attachment, I ran it though once on the coarsest setting, then once on the finest setting, which I sifted with a 40 mesh sieve, and then ran the contents of the sieve through a second time on the finest setting, and once more though the sieve. The final flour yield (after double-fine grinding and sifting with 40 mesh) was about the same as for soft white wheat - roughly 84% by weight of the grain used. The resulting flour made good buttermilk biscuits (albeit a tad denser than for soft white wheat), and the 16% leftovers (mostly bran) I reserved for use in soft oatmeal cookies and hot oatmeal, so there was actually no waste.

* I haven't tried sprouting these yet, but I'm assuming they'd perform the same as Palouse's Soft White Wheat Berries, which after an overnight soak sprouted quickly and developed 1/2" tails in a mere 24-36 hrs, so I'm guessing fans of wheat grass will be very pleased. I added mine to a split pea soup.

* Grown in the USA.

MINOR NITS:
* PACKAGING (-1/4 star): The grain arrived in a light burlap sack with a plastic inner liner. There was no zip strip, necessitating the use of a box cutter to open the bag, which resulted in string fragments falling into the grain, which I then had to sift out. When I re-order in bulk, I'll be sure to buy in plastic pails, rather than bags.

* DUST (-1/4 star): As with the soft white wheat, I encountered some fine silo dust, which I sifted out along with the string fragments mentioned above before putting the grain in my storage container.

BOTTOM LINE:
* Excellent hard white wheat berries that are organic, non-gmo and viable for grinding into flour or spouting. For baking, sifting with a 40+ mesh sieve is recommended, particularly if you like a dough that's as soft smooth and refined as possible using home ground flour. For the most economical value, and convenient storage, I recommend buying large plastic pails rather than the small burlap bags.

I am very impressed with the quality and cleanliness of Palouse hard wheat berries! I just got a new grain mill to grind up corn and wheat mainly for bread making and was very surprised and its freshness and quality, looking forward to making more bread very soon! Also shipped very quickly. Thanks Palouse, glad to see there are people still committed to quality and service- thanks for the follow up emails, happy new year :)

Hard White Wheat is also known as Durham wheat. In Italy, the "wheat middlings" of it are Semolina. I ground this into flour. So far:
I have used it as a bread flour and got light fine texture - with a whole grain. Nice. Lower in gluten than Hard Red Winter Wheat, but it rose beautifully as a yeast type bread. A couple of tablespoons of melted coconut oil was used per loaf.
Biscuits, using Rumford non-aluminum baking powder, did very well. too. Again, melted coconut oil was used in them as well as to line the cookie sheet.
I have also used it for pie crusts with only purified water, coconut oil and salt with good results.
I hope to hear soon how my son did making pizza dough with it. He once managed an Italian restaurant and they made gourmet pizzas as part of a much larger menu.
In my opinion, flour ground from this this does everything that standard White or Unbleached flour does, but in a whole grain. All good!
Oh yeah. Just want to say that the Non-GMO cert was a factor in my buying this or any type of wheat today.
Quality looks good. I think I remember finding a couple of hulls but no big deal.

These white wheat berries are outstanding. I use them for bread-making as part of my vegan diet. I decided to change the way I eat after a health crisis and now eat very intentionally, following a modified vegan diet (with fish) to keep my heart working well. These wheat berries are my favorite (even better than the excellent red wheat berries sold by the same company). It's great to be able to make my own bread by controlling the ingredients I am consuming. I'll be reordering from this company for years to come.

Excellent wheat berries. I grind several cups every 2-3 days to make fresh bread. Your wheat has taught me that I've never really known, until now, how deliciously nutty and fragrant bread made with whole grain can be. Best bread ever, and so much more satisfying than bread made with "dead" flour. Thank you for what you do so well!