Fresh Milled Flour
EZEKIEL 4:9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof…
You may remember this post from December where I received my new grain mill. Well, I had just recently been to the commissary, where I’d stocked up on 3 months worth of groceries, which included about 100 pounds of flour. As such, I had to work through my existing stock of flour before I started playing with this new gadget.
Thanks to a couple of toddlers I know, I worked through the flour pretty rapidly…
(well, them and the fact that I’ve been making pasta, bread, and desserts for 50+ people for the last three Wednesday nights.)
Today, I pulled out the grain mill
opened the containers of wheat berries,
and read the book that will tell me all that I need to know.
You may be asking, “Why? Surely you have enough to do without grinding your own wheat.” Well, in answer to that, I’ll tell you that I grind my own coffee beans, too, because fresh ground coffee is superior tasting compared to store-bought ground coffee. Much the same way, fresh milled wheat is superior to store-bought milled wheat. With God’s perfect creation, the whole-wheat berry will keep indefinitely without losing any of its nutritional value as long as it is kept in a relatively airtight environment. Wheat has been discovered in the Pharaoh’s tombs and when it was sprouted or ground, it still contained all of its 26 essential vitamins and minerals even after thousands of years. It contains iron for the blood, potassium and Vitamin E for the heart, vitamin B for the nervous system, etc. However, within 24 hours after it is ground, it loses 45 % of all its nutrients, and within 72 hours, it loses 80-90 per cent of its nutrients.
We have hard red wheat berries,hard white wheat berries, and soft white wheat berries.
Reading my book, I learned that hard red wheat is used for bread making and has a nutty, wheat flavor. Hard white wheat is also used for bread making, but is sweeter and lighter. Soft white wheat berries are used for pastries or any time you need a delicate, flaky flour.
So, after reading up on it, I decided to mix the two hard wheat berries equally to make my Honey Oatmeal Bread. I first loaded the grain mill with 2 cups of hard red wheat berries, then with 2 cups of hard white wheat berries. Together, they made 6 cups of fresh milled flour.
Over the last year and some months of reading homemaking blogs, I’ve read all sorts of pros and cons about soaking grain. I still don’t know that I understand it all, so I’ve decided that I’ll soak my grains for bread and not worry about it for desserts. That ought to be just indecisive enough to cover all of my bases.
After soaking the mixed wheat for the bread for 30 minutes, I loaded it into my stand mixer and added the ingredients for my Honey Oatmeal Bread. It rose beautifully, baked perfectly, and I’m happy to say that my first batch of bread made from home milled wheat was a resounding success.
While the bread rose and then rose again, I made a batch of Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Cookies and Chocolate Brownies out of fresh milled soft white berries. These two were hugely successful.
Milling took mere seconds. I am THRILLED with how easy it was and how easy it cleaned up. This was definitely an asset to my kitchen.
Hallee
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is it cheaper? sounds easy enough with the right equipment!
It is not cheaper. We paid $31 for 45 pounds of wheat. That is not comparable to $2.50 for a 10 lb bag of whole wheat flour at the grocery store. But the health benefits and the TASTE benefits are worth the extra cost.
Something I’ve been toying with the last couple of years as I make more and more in my kitchen and buy less and less from the store. I’d love to know how much the mill was if you don’t mind emailing me!
My sister does this as do a lot of my friends. Some even grind the berries for me and I store it in my freezer. Do you use Breadbecker’s or Montana Wheat?
The health benefits may be great, but I have a hard time justifying all the carbs in our diet if I went to using all the ground wheat. I definitely don’t see any of my friends losing weight while grinding wheat. What’s your take on all that?
Cool! Another one of my friends is doing this as well. I don’t think I really have the patience for it or the budget. Hopefully I can taste yours some time. ;-)
I use two different sources when researching foods – The Abs Diet (and I read the Abs Diet for Women) and The Maker’s Diet. The Abs Diet has 12 “Power Foods” – whole grains being one of them. Whole grains prevent your body from storing fat, and provide fiber, protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, potassium, iron, calcium. The Maker’s Diet considers properly prepared whole grains to be a benefit to the diet.
So, that said, as long as whole grains, and in this case fresh ground wheat and items made from it, don’t replace good fats and vegetables, then they’re good to eat.
Hallee,
Gregg received your cookies, brownies and vanilla wafers today! They have made Gregg the most popular person here. I am a huge fan of your Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Cookies! I really appreciate you making them for my promotion celebration. Great website! Take care.
Hello Hallee,
I work with your husband Gregg here in Afghanistan. I came into the office after a heated discussion with another on our work mates. I wasn’t in the best of moods. Gregg offered me one of your cookies and instantly I felt great. I turned around looking at Gregg with a big smile on my face, and said this is one of the best cookies I have ever tasted in my life. Thanks for making my day great. Looking forward to sampling more of your baked goods. Thanks.
At first i was starstruck. the room began to spin and my tastebuds were melting away. I couldn’t fathom words let alone normal thought that would describe the… ehh bliss i experience eating those brownies. I had a look of sheer stupidity on my face when i ate them and then learned they were healthy because someone put some real love into them.
I was at first going to curse every expletive in every tongue imaginable. Just to put maybe a dent in the fender of how good these were to me. Revealed to me, in a moment of clarity by actually reading the website, that this might not be a good idea because what may say down range may not be ready/fit for normal human consumption.
So i ehh stopped. I actually stopped everything i was doing to come to this moment to say thank you. I havn’t enjoyed brownie like that in a long time.
Hello, My name is SGT Shaun Snyder and I am stationed at the ISAF HQ with your husband. I just wanted to tell you that today he decided to share cookies and brownies with us and to let you know that they were incredible. First, the vanilla wafers were fantastic then on to the brownie that was very good, too! I must say that the cinnamon raisin oatmeal cookies were the best thing to happen to me in the last 7 months, The only thing bad about the cookies is that now I am finding it hard to eat anything else because it all just tastes awful now. Thank you very much for taking your time to make these fantastic treats and send them here, You will never know how much a single cookie can be treasured and enjoyed.
Thank You,
Shaun Snyder
Just found your blog, Hallee, when I was searching for brownies using freshly milled flour. My husband, who has a cold, had a hankering for brownies. ;-) They are baking as I type this. We used the soft white wheat. I was looking through the pictures in this post and I saw the one of your wheat buckets. I thought, “Hey! I know those buckets! Those are ‘Bread Beckers’ buckets!” I get all my wheat from them too. How cool is that! :-) As a matter of fact, my new bucket of hard white arrived just yesterday evening. (Note: I always feel so bad for the UPS man carrying that box on his shoulder.) Anyway, glad I found you!!
I’m glad you found me, too! Welcome!
I made a batch of fresh milled soft white wheat brownies yesterday. They were awesome. I am going to put a new recipe up, because instead of using unsweetened chocolate, I used cocoa powder and coconut oil. This was the 2nd time I did this and they were amazing! So, I’ll be putting a “healthy” brownies recipe up very soon!
I now want a mill. Your baked goods must taste amazing.
I’m just curious exactly how you soak your grains (with what, how much, etc.) and if you add extra liquid to a bread recipe when you use fresh milled flour. Someone else told me that it needs to be packed instead of spooned like regular flour. Do you do that as well? Thanks!
I am not diligent about soaking my grains. I should be, according to those who are into soaking, but honestly, I’m not.
IF I were, however, I’d use the moisture content called for in the recipe, add a TBS or so of vinegar or buttermilk, and let it soak overnight.
I have discovered that I need to pack it into the measuring cup – not hard – just kind of gently press down as you fill the measuring cup.
O.K. Thanks!
What kind of mill do you use? Also, a great resource for soaking grains is the GNOWFGLINS blog.
Susan
Hello Hallee,
I’m encouraged by your web page and I’m also trying to do better about my diet. I’m very interested in the book/booklet that’s on this page (Cooking & Baking With Fresh Ground Flour).
Is this a book that I can purchase from your website? I appreciate your bible based website. Thanks alot.
HY
Hi Hyacinth: You can find my bread cookbook here: http://www.bridgemanfamily.com/hallee/book-samples/the-walking-bread-the-bread-will-rise/
Thank you!
Hallee