Fresh Milled Flour vs Store Bought
By D.Schmidt Culinary Coordinator
If all you have available is store bought flour then by all means use it. But, if you want more flavor, more control on the texture of baked goods and most of all, more nutrition then look at options to mill your own flour.
The first question you may have is why mill your own flour? If you are concerned about nutrition like I am, you are always trying ways to maximize your intake of foods that will feed you and your body. Flour that is sitting on your grocery store shelves begins to lose its nutritional content the moment it is milled. Flour loses much of its nutrition in the first 2 weeks after milling . When it is whole wheat flour the loss of nutrition along with the risk of the flour going rancid can happen in as little as 2- 14 days depending on the storage. Yet the grains, the wheat berries themselves can last for decades, yes decades if stored properly. In addition, each type of grain has different nutritional profiles even within the category of wheat. The other advantage is if you have a mill, you can control the coarseness of the flour or grain. In addition I now have the ability to make flours which are costly in the store. Brown rice flour, whole grain corn flour and oat flour. Also due to the extra grains I have on hand it is no problem for us to cook up a batch of Dr. Greger’s BROL (Barley,Rye,Oats,Lentils) as we always have these on hand.
How to Begin Milling If you already have a high speed blender then you already are on the first step towards milling your own flour. We began with our Vitamix. It will pulverize grains in an instant. I even make chickpea flour still with my blender. The one downside to using a high speed blender is it can heat up the flour destroying some of the nutrients. The other thing which you may not notice as much are the grain sizes of the flour are uneven. Using a mill made for grinding berries into flour is more uniform in how it pulverizes the berries into flour and a stone grinding mill though it does warm the flour it doesn’t overheat the flour.
Why get a Stone Mill? Well first off, it grinds very evenly without destroying any of the nutrients. Another benefit is that you can control the grind. Want to make cracked oats for oatmeal? Just adjust the stones to grind coarser. In addition it opens up a whole new variety of grains for you to use in your baking or cooking as I mentioned earlier. I have on hand about 10 different grains. I have durum to make my own pasta, soft wheat for things like cakes and muffins. I have winter wheat that I blend when I make bread. I also have Ancient wheat like Einkorn, Kamut and Spelt. All these I can grind into flour or cook as grains. For those of you who need to avoid gluten there are benefits to you too. Gluten free flour mixes can be pricey with a mill you can make your own.
Have Questions? Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or thoughts on this post.
Yours in Health,
Doug
Greger video https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dr-greger-in-the-kitchen-cran-chocolate-pomegranate-brol-bowl/
KitchenAid Attachment
Books Using Fresh Milled Flour The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book: Learn Complete Milling and Baking Techniques, Includes 100 Delicious Recipes by Sue Becker
The Fresh-Milled Flour Bread Book: The Complete Guide to Mastering Your Home Mill for Artisan Sourdough, Pizza, Croissants and More by Tim Giuffi
Whole Grain Flour Power: Sharing the Secrets of Baking with Irresistibly Flavorful, Nutrient-packed, Fresh Milled Flour! by Lounell Claybourn and Marianne Claybourn
Home-Baked Gluten-Free Bread Cookbook: Easy, Tasty Low-Fat Recipes to Keep You Healthy. Tips & Techniques for Baking Crusty Loaves and Saving Money. by Sharon Greenstock
Mills on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stone+ground+mill&crid=24214Q77YJ6XC&sprefix=stone+groun d+mill%2Caps%2C167&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Articles referenced in this post
Preserve the Harvest: Storing Wheat https://extension.usu.edu/preserve-the-harvest/research/storing-wheat
NUTRITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS of ORGANIC, FRESHLY STONE-GROUND, SOURDOUGH & - CONVENTIONAL BREADS By Judy Campbell, B.Sc.,Mechtild Hauser,Stuart Hill, B.Sc., Ph.D., P.Ag., https://eap.mcgill.ca/publications/EAP35.htm
Basic BROL (Barley, Rye, Oats, and Lentils) Recipe by: Dr. Michael Greger & Robin Robertson from The How Not to Diet Cookbook https://nutritionfacts.org/recipe/basic-brol-barley-rye-oats-and-lentils/
The Role of Ancient Grains in Alleviating Hunger and Malnutrition Mahsa Majzoobi 1,* , Shima Jafarzadeh 2 , Shahla Teimouri 1 , Mehran Ghasemlou 1 , Milad Hadidi 3 , Charles S Brennan 1 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10252758/
Have Questions?
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or thoughts on this post.
Yours in Health,
Doug