Photo: Collected
After spending some time honing in on my sourdough bread baking skills, I felt ready to take it to the next level. I decided to start milling my own flour! But of course, as with anything in bread baking, this brought about a whole new set of skills, knowledge and experience to grasp. Here are some things I learned…
First things first, CAN you mill your own flour at home, and why would you want to? You can mill your own flour at home using whole wheat grain kernels (known as wheat berries), either using a home grain milling machine, or other home kitchen methods to grind the wheat berries into flour. The benefit of using freshly milled flour is the higher nutritional content and better flavor.
Using freshly milled flour, regardless of if you’ve bought it, or milled it yourself at home takes a bit of getting used to. It doesn’t behave in exactly the same way as store-bought flour, so it’s important to know the ins and outs of using freshly milled flour before embarking on the adventure.
This guide will give you a round-up of everything you need to know about milling your own flour at home, including:
* Why/when you should or shouldn’t mill your own flour
* What you need (and what you can use instead if you don’t have it!)
* How to mill flour at home
* What you should know before using freshly milled flour
Why Mill your Own Flour? The Pros and Cons
Milling your own flour is definitely not for everyone. As with anything, there are pros and cons to milling your own flour (or using freshly milled flour if you have access to a local mill). And it’s important to know beforehand if it’s for you or not.
Let’s get into some of the reasons why you may want to mill your own flour or get a hold of some from a local mill.
7 Benefits of Milling your Own Flour
Here are 7 benefits to milling your own flour that may help you decide if it’s for you. (Later, we’ll go into some reasons why it might NOT be for you too) :
Freshly Milled Flour is More Nutritious
Wheat berries hold their nutrition completely intact, right up until the point at which they are broken open i.e. milled and turned into flour.
You can sort of liken it to eating a fruit that has been freshly picked from it’s source. At this point, the fruit will be at the peak of its nutrition. Once you have picked it, it slowly diminishes in nutritional value.
Eating the fruit a few weeks later (or possibly a few months later if you’ve bought it from a store!) is less nutritious than eating it when it’s been freshly picked.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the fruit is bad for you, it simply means it’s not at it’s peak nutritional value. And it’s the same with flour.
See details.
Source:
Online/GFMM
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