Home bakers, I have three methods for how to make flour without a grain mill! Packed with more nutrition and flavorful than store-bought flour, you'll also save money! Using freshly milled flour is perfect for homemade bread.
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I have a really hard time spending money on appliances that I don't need because:
a) they serve one purpose
b) take up more room than I have available
c) or cost A LOT of money
That's why I don't own a yogurt maker. Or a quesadilla maker. Or a juicer.
Now neither of these are must-haves. You can make high-protein smoothies just fine with any standard blender (which we used for a long time, without a lid mind you, before getting the Blendtec). You can use a simple hand-held mixer, like what Walmart offers for $5 on Black Friday, for cakes and cookies, and your own two arms for bread dough.
When it comes to grain, you need something a little stronger than a mortar and pestle so I poked around my kitchen to see what might work.
A coffee grinder is one of those must-have appliances for die-hard coffee drinkers. I mean, it's seriously just better that way.
It doesn't have to be a fancy grinder. This basic coffee grinder will work just fine.
To get a finer grind, run the wheat berries through two cycles on the grinder. My grinder has an auto-timer and shuts off when the cycle is complete. If yours does not shut off automatically, grind for 45 seconds and then repeat.
You will need to sift out a few larger pieces with a fine mesh sieve. But you are left with a fairly decent whole-grain flour that's on the coarser side.
Note: If your grinder is a bit aged like mine, you may notice it getting a bit warm during the process. Just take your time, letting it rest and cool as necessary. If you know you'll be needing the flour for bread baking immediately, you may want to grind it a day or two ahead of time. See the tips below on proper storage.
If you don't have a coffee grinder, you probably have a food processor. You may have even received one like this for your wedding or Christmas. Don't let it collect dust any longer and put it to use grinding your grain for fresh bread!
When I tried mine, it worked similarly to the coffee grinder. I had to run my berries in it twice to get the powdery grind needed for baking. There was a little bit left over when sifted.
Using my blender is my favorite solution to my no-grain-mill problem, especially since it can turn an Apple into dust.
As you read above, I use often use my blender multiple times per day. Blending protein smoothies is my favorite way to start the day. And I use it for my kids' favorite snack, chocolate chip cookie dough hummus. Even tomato soup and pancakes can be made in a blender!
A blender like the Blendtec is quite an investment, but one I highly recommend considering its various uses.
Grinding grain in a high-powered blender works amazingly well. I sifted the flour after I was done to make sure it was all ground and barely got any bits left over. It was the best grind I got out of any of these three methods.
One thing to consider with these non-mill methods of grinding. These machines aren't designed for grinding hard grain. If you use any of these appliances for lots of other things, you might wear out your blades quicker than desired.
Once you determine if grinding your grain fresh works for you, I suggest saving up for a mill. (We ended up getting this grain mill after a while.) This will save your other appliances and also give you a better grind of homemade flour.
Absolutely! When you mill your own flour, it will be as nutritious as it can be! The taste is more flavorful than store-bought flour.
Milling your own flour will save you a lot of money in the long run. Wheat berries can be cheaper than buying the same amount (in weight) of flour. Although, this depends on what is available in your area. It's worth checking out!
There are several types of wheat including hard white, hard red, soft white, and white wheat to name a few.
You may be wondering why freshly milled flour is desirable when whole wheat flour is readily available at the stores. When you grind fresh flour, you retain the highest amount of nutrients available in the grains. The entire bran (outer coating), which has a lot of nutrients, remains with the flour.
Now, I know whole wheat flour at the store is darker in color like the wheat you grind at home, but oftentimes companies will refine all their flour and then add it back in the bran to make it 'whole wheat'. Similar to how they enrich all-purpose white flour.
This defeats the purpose of whole-wheat flour being less refined and more nutritious. Don't get me wrong though, there is a time and place to buy pre-ground flour! I've been in that boat as well before we could regularly grind our own grain. When you soak the flour or make homemade sourdough bread this helps you regain some of the nutrients that turn dormant after grinding.
Another reason grinding your own flour is better is because of the cost. It is much more cost-effective to buy bulk grain and do the work yourself. Palouse Brand has good prices on bulk grain. Also, check your area for a local coop. That is often the best way to get the most from your dollars.
If you are looking into getting a grain mill, I highly recommend the Mockmill Grain Mill. You can find my review here.
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Last Updated on June 20, by Michelle
Bill and I pictured ourselves milling our own flour when we were newlyweds. Then we priced the grains and researched the giant, awkward mill options and realized it was too costly and cumbersome for our small kitchen and smaller budget.
Wow, how things have changed!
Yes, we have a bigger kitchen these days.
But what's really changed?
I mill my own flour for 4 reasons really:
Nutrition'
Since the wheat berries you use to grind flour at home haven't been processed yet, the berries retain all of the grain's vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, which makes fresh flour so much more nutritious for you and your family than commercially-ground flours. Those were ground long before they reached your kitchen, stripped of all the really good-for-your stuff, and then left to sit on a store shelf for months.
If your family uses alternative flours, having a grain mill at home can be helpful to grind rye, corn, rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, lentils, and more, which can save tons of money over purchasing non-wheat flours at the store.
Milling your own flour can be cheaper than purchasing flour at the store. Obviously, this depends on what kind of wheat you purchase, where you live, and what flour you normally purchase, but for our family, we've done the math, and it's cheaper for us to grind our own flour at home than it is for us to purchase flour at our local supermarket. (See the breakdown of my cost benefit analysis below.)
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Fresh flour just tastes better. Freshly ground wheat takes on amazing variety of flavor, based on what wheat berries you choose' the flour is a little sweeter, or maybe little nuttier, like the flavor profile of these delicious chocolate chip cookies made with fresh flour' it's hard to describe, but it's always a richer flavor when the flour is fresh.
Wheat berries are hard kernels of wheat. In each little berry, there are 3 parts:
When you purchase flour at the store, the only part of the wheat berry that remains is the endosperm, or lots of starch. That's it. And that's why flour companies have to add back in good stuff and call it 'enriched.'
The germ and bran parts of the wheat berry are removed from commercial flours because they're oily and turn rancid quickly, making fresh flour not shelf stable.
But wheat berries? They last (pretty much) forever. And since you're grinding in the germ and the bran, which flour companies have to strip away, freshly ground flour is a much more nutritious option than even the best flours you can buy.
Added bonus? Wheat berries aren't just for making fresh flour! If you want some inspiration on ways to cook and eat wheat berries you'll find that right here.
I'm still learning all the ways I want to incorporate fresh milled flour into our kitchen, but here are a few tips I've figured out along the way.
I was so pleased when I sat down to do a cost-benefit analysis of freshly milled flour versus what I buy in the store. I mean, after all, the healthier option is always more expensive, right? Well this is one instance where I discovered I'm actually saving money by going with the healthiest option.
What I'm saving on flour will eventually pay for my mill!
Here's how the numbers break down for me:
So I'm keeping $1.63 in my pocket for every 5 pounds of flour!
Given that a large family can use up to 240 bags of flour in a year, you can save $391.20/year guys!
So my mill was paid off in about 9 months time, and every year thereafter I can save as much $400 while feeding my family the most nutritious flour option!
Now here's where I'm totally transparent and fess up that I still use a combination of King Arthur flour and fresh milled. So in reality I probably only save a few hundred dollars, but hey, I'll take it!
That's a win-win squared, or something like that. '
The pounds of wheat berries you grind should translate to the same poundage of flour. Although grinding the wheat aerates it and creates much more volume, 5 pounds of wheat berries should make 5 pounds of flour.
In terms of measurement, I've found that grinding about half the amount of wheat berries compared to the amount of flour I need does the trick. So if a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, I'll need to grind about 1 cup of wheat berries.
I found the best option for me is Azure Standard. Here's the wheat berries I use for bread making. And here is a finder to let you know if Azure has a delivery drop near you. (I was elated when they recently expanded their reach into our area of New England.)
But I've also ordered a 35-pound bucket of these wheat berries and been very pleased.
If you can find a local farmer who grows and sells wheat berries that would be the best option.
My Nutrimill Harvest Mill can grind all of these grain options:
hard wheat, soft wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, barley, einkorn, farro, quinoa, millet, amaranth, sorghum, brown rice, wild rice, oat, dried corn, buckwheat, soy beans, lima beans, black beans, pinto beans, lentils, chickpeas, and more.
But each mill has different alternative grains that it can process into flour. Watch here for many alternative grains that I ground into flour in a Mockmill Lino 100.
There are many options for grain mills. These are the 3 I recommend: The Classic Nutrimill does a great job, at the lowest price point. The Harvest Mill wins for most beautiful to sit on your counter. And the Mockmill is a beautiful workhorse that wins for best engineered, best at milling alternative grains, and finest flour, but it also sits at the highest price point.
I talk about my grain mill, as well as the 11 other kitchen tools I seriously would hate to be without in this episode of my podcast:
If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to inspire me with what you're baking @souly.rested.
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Chocolate Chip Cookies Made with Fresh Flour
Learn All About Fresh Flour in my free e-course
My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 31:14
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