Cracked Grain Cereal Mix

Commercial health food companies offer cracked grain cereals. I like to mix up my own for 2 reasons:

1) I can use more differing grains. While I have seen 12-grain and 7-grain cereal mixes for sale, I have never seen any for sale with as many as the 14 different grains as I currently crack and mix together.

2) Deeper price discounts are given for purchases of greater quantities. The risk of getting bugs in grains is far, far less in whole grains versus cracked grains. So I buy large quantities of the whole grains and crack them as I need them. Typically, one batch of the following recipe will last us with daily use for about 2 weeks.

The following directions will help you crack grains in a Vita-Mix. Other grain mills also crack grains — refer to your mill’s manual for directions on this application.

Since we like a Cream of Wheat consistency for our hot cereal, these directions achieve a finer texture of cracking. Adjust accordingly for the degree of fineness or coarseness you desire.

This recipe results in 32 cups of cereal mix, which is quite a bit. Since one shouldn’t grind less than 2 cups at a time in the Vita-Mix dry container (otherwise the tamper doesn’t reach the grains to help them circulate), the only way to reduce the recipe’s size is by mixing the grains together before grinding. I would recommend mixing together your desired amount of the grains that require the same amount of grinding and then grind 2 cups at a time of the mixture of grains.

Cracked Grain Cereal Mix

Makes about 32 cups

Grind 2 cups of each of the following grains (separately). Use variable speed 8 and the Vita-Mix dry container for the indicated time period. Use the lid with tamper to increase the circulation of the grains in the dry container.

Amaranth — 15 seconds
Barley, hulled — 30 seconds
Kamut — 35 seconds
Buckwheat groats — 10 seconds
Corn — 60 seconds
Millet — 10 seconds
Oat groats — 25 seconds
Quinoa* — 10 seconds
Rice, brown — 25 seconds
Rye — 30 seconds
Spelt — 35 seconds
Teff — 15 seconds
Triticale — 30 seconds
Wheat, hard white or red — 35 seconds

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly in a 2-gallon size bowl. Store in airtight container(s), preferably in the freezer. Use in cracked grain hot cereal or soak the grains in boiling water and add to bread dough.

*Quinoa has a bitter coating called saponin. Using a fine sieve, rinse the quinoa under cold running water for about 2 minutes. Then spread the quinoa out on a baking sheet to dry before grinding. However, I do not rinse quinoa because my family does not notice any bitterness nor object to the natural flavor of this grain.

© Copyright 2007 by Wardeh Harmon.