Any Home Bakers Here?

Sally PB said:

I grind my most of my own GF flours. I make oat flour in my high speed blender from old fashioned oatmeal, so that is cheap. I found brown rice grinds better in the grain attachment that came with a juicer, so again, cheap.

Unless you don't have a high speed blender. I got one of those years ago, and love it, even though it was $400. The juicer I bought used from a friend, just because it was only $25, a high quality brand, and the grinder was "something that came with it." My blender can't grind the rice quite as well as the juicer. Even so, you can feel a bit of grittiness in the flour, but it disappears when baked.

I feed my SDS (sourdough starter) half oat, half rice flour. The few times I've made actual sourdough bread, I've used some sorghum and tapioca flours with. Still experimenting to get more rise, but the flavor is awesome!

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I've thought about trying to mill my own flours, but I spent my kitchen set up budget on other things instead. I love my KA Mixer and my Excalibur, but gosh, a way to mill my own flours would be wonderful.

Recently I bought some large quantities of oatmeal with the hopes of making my own oat flour, but haven't done it yet.
And yeah, I'm with you...flours that sometimes feel gritty often bake up nicely (IMO) so I'm not one of those who needs a certain brand of extra fine white rice flour. I myself prefer the brown rice flours even though they are heavier. They taste better.

Half oat and half rice...interesting. Is that the ratio you started with? Or did you work in the oat flour once you had a good one going?
With all the oatmeal I have around waiting to be cut to oblivion, I could certainly start with a half and half and not cringe so much at the cost.

SnapdragonQ said:

I've thought about trying to mill my own flours, but I spent my kitchen set up budget on other things instead. I love my KA Mixer and my Excalibur, but gosh, a way to mill my own flours would be wonderful.

Recently I bought some large quantities of oatmeal with the hopes of making my own oat flour, but haven't done it yet.
And yeah, I'm with you...flours that sometimes feel gritty often bake up nicely (IMO) so I'm not one of those who needs a certain brand of extra fine white rice flour. I myself prefer the brown rice flours even though they are heavier. They taste better.

Half oat and half rice...interesting. Is that the ratio you started with? Or did you work in the oat flour once you had a good one going?
With all the oatmeal I have around waiting to be cut to oblivion, I could certainly start with a half and half and not cringe so much at the cost.

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I do have my own grain mill, my son
(20 years ago) had an intolerance to gluten, so for a year, I had to cook and bake without milk product, eggs and gluten, it wasn’t easy, that’s when I bought the grain mill. My son finally grew out of his sensitivities, and can eat almost everything now, but I kept the mill. It is great, and I have enough experience with gluten free baking to tell that freshly milled whatever has much better baking quality than ready milled store bought stuff! I used to bake a lot with a mixture of brown rice, buckwheat and amaranth, millet is also a good choice for gluten free baking ( always mix the different grains, back then, you weren’t supposed to use oats) if you are allowed eggs, they are great at holding together the dough and getting it fluffier

SnapdragonQ said:

Half oat and half rice...interesting

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Whizzing oatmeal into flour in the blender is quick and easy. (One note: it makes a lot of heat, and even in the dry winter air, stuff starts clumping. Do one batch, and let everything cool back down.)

Getting out and setting up the juicer/grinder, however, takes about 10 minutes. I was going to use all rice flour until I realized that I'd go through a LOT, fast. That's when I tried making oat flour to use as well.

I could make rice flour in the blender. White rice ground up finer than brown. Figuring out the grinding attachment to the juicer was a challenge, but I felt a sense of accomplishment too.

I was seriously looking at spending the $$$ on a grist mill when DH said, "Can't that juicer you bought do it?"

SnapdragonQ said:

my Excalibur

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Oh, man, I LOVE my Excalibur! It's gotta be 25-ish years old, and still going strong.

I baked and cook as well.. Lately, I killed my sourdough starter, so am trying to start a new one in this cold weather.. so that I can make sourdough bread..

Welcome, @Suri!

MotherofOrpies said:

I do have my own grain mill, my son
(20 years ago) had an intolerance to gluten, so for a year, I had to cook and bake without milk product, eggs and gluten, it wasn’t easy, that’s when I bought the grain mill. My son finally grew out of his sensitivities, and can eat almost everything now, but I kept the mill. It is great, and I have enough experience with gluten free baking to tell that freshly milled whatever has much better baking quality than ready milled store bought stuff! I used to bake a lot with a mixture of brown rice, buckwheat and amaranth, millet is also a good choice for gluten free baking ( always mix the different grains, back then, you weren’t supposed to use oats) if you are allowed eggs, they are great at holding together the dough and getting it fluffier

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Wow, a mill must be awesome! I can certainly imagine how much better any grain is when fresh milled. I used to live in Ag country further north with a lot of Mennonites and Amish around. It was easier to find good stuff because many of the farms still did their own. I've only had a taste of the fresh stuff.

We pretty much have the same story. My kiddo is a celiac and is severely allergic to all dairy. Has been since he was itty bitty. Eggs were iffy for a while, but fine now. Back then there were no easy products to find at grocery stores so I had to get creative for sure.
Now that GF and DF had gotten easier the last 5 years with some products readily available, I can try making more things.

Sally PB said:

Whizzing oatmeal into flour in the blender is quick and easy. (One note: it makes a lot of heat, and even in the dry winter air, stuff starts clumping. Do one batch, and let everything cool back down.)

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Oh, thank you for that. I planned to use my food processor and did not know about heat build up. Makes sense though.
I have Irish, Old fashioned rolled, and the more fine quick cook.
My favorites in general are the Irish and plain rolled, but initially should I start with the finer cut quick cook? Maybe less work for my processor?

Oh, man, I LOVE my Excalibur! It's gotta be 25-ish years old, and still going strong.

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They are the bomb. Mine is probably 15+ years old.
I veggie and herb garden too.....we will never go hungry here.

Another grinding question...
I prefer millet and sorghum based flour blends that I mix up at home over the store mixes. How have you all ground those up?
Teff, amaranth, buckwheat?
I'm guessing a mill will grind anything, but what about the blender or an attachment to a KA?

I've grown the sugar types of sorghum before and bought some grain types and millet to play with. Figured if I could grow it here at least the chickens would like them.

Blooie said:

I went with a gas cooktop and an electric wall oven. I’ve been so pleased with both!

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Similar set up here. 1931 propane cooktop with side oven and a 2013 Bosch electric wall oven. Have to rotate stuff in the wall oven though, it is hotter in the back than the front.

Sally PB said:

Oh, man, I LOVE my Excalibur! It's gotta be 25-ish years old, and still going strong.

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OK, I give .... what is an Excalibur other than King Arthur's sword?

SnapdragonQ said:

Another grinding question...
I prefer millet and sorghum based flour blends that I mix up at home over the store mixes. How have you all ground those up?
Teff, amaranth, buckwheat?
I'm guessing a mill will grind anything, but what about a mixer or attachment to a KA?

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I've only done oat and rice. I bought some sorghum flour because a lot of sourdough recipes called for it, and I wanted to try it. I've thought about trying to grind up quinoa, but haven't yet.

bruceha2000 said:

what is an Excalibur other than King Arthur's sword

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Food dehydrator.

MotherofOrpies said:

Aren’t they too heavy?! I do love it, but have trouble handling them cos they are too heavy for me

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High carbon steel is very similar to cast iron pans and much lighter.