Anybody grind their own flour?

[erinchelsea]

I've always made all our bread but (after years of research) I just ordered a Nutrimill to grind my own flour. Hubby wants to try growing some wheat and open-pollinated corn next year but for now I just ordered some.

Anyone around here do this? Any advice, or recipes? I did order a cookbook so hopefully it will be helpful.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have a kitchen aid attachment to grind flour. I have done it, but not recently. My advice is to keep your flour stored in the freezer or refrigerator as it will go bad quickly. That is what we did. In fact that is what I do with my white flour too so we don't get bugs.

I tried growing wheat one year and it is easy to harvest. Just take a new shower curtain and thresh on a windy day. Kamut has even larger grains and I grew a little of that too. But the bread that it makes is VERY dense and thus I just mixed a little of the kamut flour in with the other regular whole wheat.

Enjoy!

 

[erinchelsea]

Cool, thanks! That is great info!

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

We just purchased a Grainmaker and have been milling some flour. Made some bread from it, but not totally satisfied with the results...so will be following this thread for thoughts, recipes and help!!!!! We ground hard spring wheat and I used it and the loaf was very dense and heavy, so mixed some white flour in for the next one and it was better. Good luck with raising and threshing your grain...wish we had a place to do that!!! We ground some Indian corn and tried to make cornbread and it was too sticky and soft, today's mission....grind some popcorn and make cornbread and see what happens...lol.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Except for the occasional dog and burger buns I make all of the bread my family eats and I mill the flour to make it with.

Over the years we've come to prefer a 50/50 blend of hard red and white wheats. Not so strong tasting for the kids, but still with some color for the adults.

The two best pieces of advice I can give for making bread from home milled flour is to work with a wetter dough and to make sure it's been kneaded enough. Dry, stiff doughs do not rise well.

The order in which you put the ingredients in has an impact on how well the gluten develops. Anything that can impeded good gluten development should only be added after the dough has already begun to develop. In my case the water, eggs, salt, sugar, milk, flour, and yeast go in all together. I then let it mix for a while to get a good start on the gluten development. Only after that will I add the oil, and any other grains such as rolled oats and what not. This keeps them from interfering with good dough creation.

The dough will still be pretty sticky when it comes out. Handle it with wet hands. I always use two rises and if I have the time I'll even do it three times.

You can make good bread from home milled flour without having to add additional gluten or a lot of "dough enhancers". The only enhancers I use are milk and eggs.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

A.T. Hagan :

Except for the occasional dog and burger buns I make all of the bread my family eats and I mill the flour to make it with.

Over the years we've come to prefer a 50/50 blend of hard red and white wheats. Not so strong tasting for the kids, but still with some color for the adults.

The two best pieces of advice I can give for making bread from home milled flour is to work with a wetter dough and to make sure it's been kneaded enough. Dry, stiff doughs do not rise well.

The order in which you put the ingredients in has an impact on how well the gluten develops. Anything that can impeded good gluten development should only be added after the dough has already begun to develop. In my case the water, eggs, salt, sugar, milk, flour, and yeast go in all together. I then let it mix for a while to get a good start on the gluten development. Only after that will I add the oil, and any other grains such as rolled oats and what not. This keeps them from interfering with good dough creation.

The dough will still be pretty sticky when it comes out. Handle it with wet hands. I always use two rises and if I have the time I'll even do it three times.

You can make good bread from home milled flour without having to add additional gluten or a lot of "dough enhancers". The only enhancers I use are milk and eggs.

+1 with the above posters that say 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour for the homemade breads!!! My kids prefer a little white flour in there and so do I.​

 

[mtnhens4]

I own a Magic Mill 3 that I've had for 20 yrs. and I still love it. I use to bake 20 to 70 loaves a wk. for sale but I don't have time for that any more. I get it out now and then when I need whole wheat flour (it really make s the best flour). The bread from freshly milled flour is WONDERFUL.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I grind all my own flour. But then, I don't eat wheat and gluten free four is very expensive to purchase and not all that good. So making it at home works really well.

My SIL baked all her own bread from fresh ground wheat and she did not grind any wheat until she was ready to bake. Then she would grind just what she was going to use and baked a week's worth all at once.

The wheat stores better when it is whole. Fresh ground flour has a different and better flavor than stored flour.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Thank you guys for the information; I was preparing to order more wheatberries and was only going to order white; but I think I will order red too and try and see how it works, sounds like it would be good. Cornbread is on hold for today, broody is hatching her babies a day early; so she gets priority...lol...I have to watch!!

 

[erinchelsea]

Oooh, I can't wait! I'll update later this week when it gets here and I try it. Thanks for all the helpful info!