Grinding your own flour might sound too complicated or too time consuming but it’s actually really easy. Especially if you have an electric grain mill. I have a Family Grain Mill that I run off an attachment to my kitchen aid mixer. It also has a base that I can use if I need to hand crank, as well as other attachments like a flaker (home flaked oatmeal is soo delicious), a grinder (I’ve found the grinder doesn’t work well for meat. I have not tried it to make nut butter or spaghetti shaped pasta), and a food processor , which I don’t have.
My grain mill in action.
Wheat comes in hard and soft varieties. I like the softer, golden, variety because it it tender and bakes up results closer to that of refined white flour. When making sourdough or just using a smidgen while cooking I grind once on the smallest setting but if I want the flour for other kinds of baked goods then I grind the flour once again. It takes a bit longer but the results are finer and fluffier.
Wheat Berries- Golden Pairie
Berries in flour out.
I store it in the container you see above. My kitchen stays pretty cool and I use up the flour fairly quickly so I don’t store it in the fridge but it still stays fresh. I usually grind one hopper full (the white thing on top holding the wheat berries). Once ground it equals just a little more than what’s in the container above.
It is pretty loud; although not much louder than running a kitchen aid mixer to make cookies is.
You can also sprout your wheat berries first and dehydrate them. Then, once you grind them, you can bake without soaking or going the sourdough route. I really like the results of fresh ground flour in sourdough- especially sourdough crackers. When baking with fresh ground flour hold back on the liquids until you can see just how much liquid the flour will absorb. Other than that use your fresh, full of nutrients flour the same as store brought.
mossy_stone
sharing with traditional tuesday, real food wednesday, simple lives thursday and fight back friday
I just recently tried making a yummy wheat berry salad–cooked wheat berries, added dried cranberries and walnuts! Wonderful lunch. So now I’m a bit interested in the idea of grinding it into wheat…wonder about an attachment to my very old Kitchenaid…
Jaja sends love.
I can’t remember the exact requirements off the top of my head but the kitchen aid does need to be powerful enough to grind- so I’d check that first.
mossy_stone
Oh I’m so jealous of your gadgets! I would looove to grind my own flour. Yours looks so fluffy and nice!
I’d love for you to come share this post at our new blog carnival, Sunday School! It’s up right now if you’d like to come stop by!
http://butterbeliever.com/2011/11/13/sunday-school-real-food-link-love-blog-carnival-4/
Emily thanks for the invite! Somehow your comment ended up in the spam box. can’t wait to check out your site.
mossy_stone
So…I love your blog:) This post is so informative and so perfect! I think my subscribers would really enjoy reading this. I would love for you to come share it at Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways on Frugally Sustainable today (we’re live right now).
I really hope that you will put Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways on your list of carnivals to visit and link to each Wednesday! Here’s the link: http://frugallysustainable.blogspot.com/2011/11/frugal-days-sustainable-ways-1.html
Warmly,
Andrea @ Frugally Sustainable
Here’s the link: http://www.frugallysustainable.com
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