Grinding your own flour -- is it worth it?

[aikigypsy]

I am thinking about buying a grain mill. I've been doing more baking in the last couple of years (mostly cakes and more recently, bread) and am primarily interested in the nutritional benefits of fresh flour, though I'm also intrigued by all these reports of how much better flour tastes fresh-ground.

In particular, I'm worried about buying an expensive grain mill and loads of grain only to find that I don't use them. I did check craigslist, and noticed that no one is selling old grain mills there... which means that they must still be using them, right? Has anyone here ground flour then given it up? Or have you had a grain mill for years and feel that you've gotten your money's worth out of it?

TIA!

[A&A]

Bread with just-grained-flour is SOOOOOOOOOOO much better!!

[annethcz]

Are you used to cooking with whole wheat flour already? There is quite a bit of difference between baking with store-bought white flour, store-bought whole wheat flour (which usually has the ?bran? removed) and baking with home milled whole wheat flour. There is a taste difference, and depending on the grain mill you buy, there may be a texture difference as well.

I bought a WHOLE bunch of wheat and a grain mill a few years ago. I haven't used nearly as much of it as I thought I would. However, I don't think it was a bad investment. I have no doubts that we'll use the wheat up eventually, but it'll take a few years. I ordered wheat packaged in 5-gallon food-grade plastic buckets and ordered a few gamma lids as well. That has been enough to keep the wheat fresh while we slowly go through it.

[mom de terre]

I have a nutrimill and use it weekly. I find the fresh-milled ww flour much lighter in flavor; dh was surprised to find that my pizza dough is 100% ww, and he is a hater on the subject . Totally worth it, imo.

[tngirl11]

It's sooooo worth it! I have a nutrimill and have been grinding my own wheat for about a year-and-a-half now and would never give it up. I used to try to bake things with store-bought whole wheat flour and was never happy with the results. With the fresh-milled flour, I can sub out all of the flour without any problem. The big clincher is that my DH absolutely can't tell that I'm using whole wheat, even in cookies and deserts!

[LemonPie]

The taste alone is worth it. Toast that has been made out of bread made out of freshly-ground whole wheat flour smells ~*INCREDIBLE*~

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I switched over for the health benefits. My DH reacts to gluten, but doesn't to the gluten in fresh ground grain. I never buy flour anymore, only grain in bulk from Azure, and always grind it fresh.

It was well worth the investment for me as well because the bulk grain is much cheaper than flour, so in the end it may pay for itself.

[Adamsmama]

I love it ... I've been grinding grain for almost a year ... but in the last week have cut out all refined white flours and only use my grain mill for grinding mostly soft white wheat for muffins, waffles ... breakfast food ... and have lost several pounds just from doing this. I love the taste, the kids love the taste...it is just so much better and makes me feel better than eating white flour. Check out my blog for more info on flour mills ... plus there is a good deal on the vital mill out there right now.

[mamadelbosque]

IDK. We have a diamant grain mill... and I honestly can't tell the difference between store bought WW & fresh ground WW. Other than to say that you inevitably will need to use about 1/4-1/2 cup extra per cup of flour w/ fresh ground vs store bought. And tbh, I bake less now than I used to because grinding flour is such a PITA... definetly go for an electric model - the diamant is supposedly the 'best' hand mill and it still takes forever, and is just hard and totally not worth it. I usually get DH to grind 7 or 8 cups of wheat a couple times a month cause when Iwant to bake something, I want to bake it now, not after I've stood around and ground flour for an hour...

[LemonPie]

I too have a NutriMill and love it. In fact, my SIL has a Wonder Mill and I've played with hers and come to the conclusion that I like the NutriMill better and would buy it again. If you're going to invest in a grain mill to do frequent baking, definitely invest in an electric model. Hand-cranks are nice for certain things (for example, it's hard to get cracked wheat or cereal grade flour out of an electric mill, but a hand crank will do them beautifully), but they're very inconvenient for doing large batches of bread flour.

As for needing more of the fresh-ground flour, I think that's simply because the freshly ground flour is more aerated, where the flour you buy at the store by the bag has had more time to compact.

[CookiePie]

Great thread! I've been wanting to get a NutriMill & it is nice to see positive reviews here! I recently got back into baking our bread again and I'm really excited & wanting to use fresh flour so that there is more nutrition in our bread. I read all about the benefits of soaking the flour which I did with my most recent batch. This bread came out better than any other whole wheat bread I've made! It even came out better than the 50/50 white to whole wheat! This is the recipe that I used. I didn't use any dough enhancers & it still worked great! Are you mamas soaking too?

I always use white whole wheat or pastry flour for muffins & pancakes & sweet things. So I'm very used to baking with whole grains. I feel ready to take the plunge. I've been googling for good prices of organic wheat but shipping always seems to kill the deal! So between the mill & the grains this will be an investment that I want to be sure about. Can anyone recommend an organic bulk wheat distributor that is reasonable with shipping? Azure is out because I'm on the east coast & will incur hefty shipping charges. I'm interested in getting a 5 gallon bucket with a gamma seal, but I first might try a few varieties in 5 pound bags to see what I like best. I'm also going to check locally to see if my HFS can order it for me.

One more thing if you don't yet have a grinder you can make soaked blender pancakes with whole wheat berries among other things check this out

[Adamsmama]

I really like the impact mill I use ... it is very quick and is on sale here for $129.99/free shipping: http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/prod...oducts_id/3948

[chattyprincess]

Cookie pie....I wonder if because your using white whole wheat flour it would be a big jump for you? I went from king arthur white whole wheat to king arthur 100% traditional whole wheat and it was a difference for sure.
Just a thought. I am intrigued by all this milling of your own grains....can anyone point me towards a link or might have the info off hand for the health benefits of fresh/preground??? (obviously im sure alot of it is like coffee or anyother food it just taste better when you do it right then)

[CookiePie]

Sorry chattyprincess, I use the white whole wheat for pancakes & muffins, where I use red whole wheat for breads, pizza & burger buns....

[mnnice]

Cookie Pie--Have you tried looking for local sources that you could just go to a farmer and get?

We just started grinding flour (with a old 1970 era Magic Mill that my MIL lent us) with hard red wheat that my DH bought 50 lbs from a local farmer for $7.

The milling takes just a few minutes and the cost per loaf is very low. The biggest expense is the couple of TSP of honey in the dough.

This particular mill doesn't seem to have any way to adjust the grind (and no actual directions) and it pretty coarse. DH and I have both made a batch of bread with it. It has great flavor, but still could use some tweaking. My batch was a bit heavy and his had better cell structure, but he used three pans when he should have used two (IMO) because despite being proofed just fine they were very flat on top. Both were a bit pale. I am thinking of trying a richer dough and see what sort of results I get.

[Adamsmama]

Originally Posted by chattyprincess

Cookie pie....I wonder if because your using white whole wheat flour it would be a big jump for you? I went from king arthur white whole wheat to king arthur 100% traditional whole wheat and it was a difference for sure.
Just a thought. I am intrigued by all this milling of your own grains....can anyone point me towards a link or might have the info off hand for the health benefits of fresh/preground??? (obviously im sure alot of it is like coffee or anyother food it just taste better when you do it right then)

Here ya go: http://naturallythriftyathome.blogsp...und-wheat.html

[chattyprincess]

Originally Posted by CookiePie

Sorry chattyprincess, I use the white whole wheat for pancakes & muffins, where I use red whole wheat for breads, pizza & burger buns....

Aha! I have to say I use all ww for everything and no one knows...shhh don't tell hubby!

Originally Posted by Adamsmama

Here ya go: http://naturallythriftyathome.blogsp...und-wheat.html

THANK YOU!

[CookiePie]

Originally Posted by mnnice

Cookie Pie--Have you tried looking for local sources that you could just go to a farmer and get?

We just started grinding flour (with a old 1970 era Magic Mill that my MIL lent us) with hard red wheat that my DH bought 50 lbs from a local farmer for $7.

That is an unbelievable price! I don't know if there are any farms that do wheat in my area, but worth checking into! Last I knew my health food store sold it for $0.79/lb, but I'm wondering if I ordered like 25-50 lb if they might give me a break. That is the cheapest I've seen for organic. Online tht prices are way higher, then add shipping!

Are you all into soaking your flour?

[mnnice]

For the record I'm pretty the wheat we bought is not organic, but DH and DS2 spent an hour poking around his small farm and it was a very small operation with lots of crop rotation and most likely even being grown conventional should be pretty low on the icky stuff.

[Adamsmama]

Originally Posted by CookiePie

That is an unbelievable price! I don't know if there are any farms that do wheat in my area, but worth checking into! Last I knew my health food store sold it for $0.79/lb, but I'm wondering if I ordered like 25-50 lb if they might give me a break. That is the cheapest I've seen for organic. Online tht prices are way higher, then add shipping!

Are you all into soaking your flour?

That is a great price, too ... our health food store is $1.29/pound with a 10% discount for bulk!