Deciding if you want to begin using fresh milled flour can be an overwhelming decision. I want to help answer all your questions so that you can feel confident about your decision either way!
What is Fresh Milled Flour?
Fresh milled flour is flour that is ground (milled) from the wheat berry into flour as you plan on using it. Fresh milled flour is typically used the day it is milled or the day after to preserve all the nutrients that oxidize when exposed to air.
What Tools and Equipment do I need for Milling Four?
Mill
There are many grain mills on the market. You may be able to find some second hand too. I would look at second hand sites first if I needed a new one again.
There are two types of mills: Impact mills and Stone Mills.
Impact mills are like a blender they spin fast and grind the flour with blades.
Stone Mills are more traditional. They have two stone plates that grind the wheat berries into flour.
There are arguments back and forth about which type is better for milling, because impact mills heat the flour a little more than stone mills. Heat can destroy nutrients in the flour.
However, the research I have done demonstrate to me that impact mills don’t heat the flour enough to hurt the nutrients.
I decided on the Komo Classic Mill from Pleasant Hill Grains. This is the one exactly that I purchased.
I had to wait 5 months to receive my mill, so you might have to preorder the mill too! Believe me it is worth the wait!
Wheat Berries
There are so many wheat berries to choose from, once you own a mill. It is really exciting to test out all the different varieties!
My favorite two are Spelt and Hard Red Wheat. I use spelt for everything! I use half hard red and half spelt for my bread loaves.
Bowls
Any mixing bowl that fits under the mill spout with enough room for the flour will work! Your everyday mixing bowls probably work.
Containers for Wheat Berries – Long Term and Everyday Use
My long term storage for my wheat berries is 5 gallon plastic buckets with gamma lids. You can buy them at Azure or Home Depots in the USA.
In my kitchen, I have half gallon mason jar containers that I refill from the buckets for everyday use.
Scale that Measures in Grams – Recommended
When you need to mill flour for recipes, having flour measurements listed in grams is helpful! You can use volume measurement, but then you have to store the extra flour for later.
Conversion Chart – Recommended
If you are converting from volume measurements to grams, having a conversion chart is helpful! You can mill the exact amount of flour you need so that you don’t have any leftovers.
You also may be someone who prefers to bake with volume measurements and the recipes you find are in grams. So having a conversion chart from grams to cups of wheat berries is helpful too!
I have made some conversion charts that I love!
Rubber Brush – Recommended
After you mill it is best to clean the spout where the flour comes out of. I have a rubber brush that works really well! I like that it is rubber and I can put it in the dishwasher when I feel it needs it!
My rubber brush is just like this one.
Do I have to Buy a Mill?
You do not have to buy a mill right away. Take some time to decide on this purchase!
You can start by purchasing fresh milled flour in your local grocery store. Bob’s Red Mill sells freshly milled flour and is in most big grocery stores. See if you like fresh milled flour first before you dive into purchasing a mill.
You will not be getting all the nutrients as home milled flour, but you can try out the different varieties of wheat to see which you like and test if you want to purchase a grain mill.
If you want to buy whole wheat berries, then you can soak the wheat berries over night and use them to make cream of wheat (oatmeal but with wheat) to test out the different flavors too.
Trying out wheat berries and milled flour can help you be more confident in your decision to purchase a mill.
How to Make Fresh Milled Flour
Step 1 – Prepare the Mill
Make sure it is set to the right grind setting. Fine for flour or course for cornmeal or cracked wheat.
You should have a pamphlet that helps teach you to adjust your mill if it can. Otherwise you can look up the maker and there should be videos to help you.
Add a bowl under the spout.
Step 2 – Measure the Wheat Berries
You can use a scale in grams to get the exact amount of flour you need for a recipe.
If you want to measure with volume, you will add fewer cups of wheat berries than flour you need.
Step 3 – Make Flour
Turn on your mill and add the wheat berries. Flour should come out of the spout quickly.
What is the Wheat Berries to Milled Flour Yield?
1 cup of berries yields about 1.5 cups of fresh milled flour.
When I am using volume measurements, I like to mill more flour than I need and store the leftovers in the freezer or use it to feed my sourdough starter.
This is why a lot of home mill bakers switch to weighing out their flour because the weight of the wheat berry is the same as the weight of the flour it makes.
What is the Difference Between Fresh Milled Flour and Store Bought Flour?
Fresh milled flour has not been sifted, but store bought flour has been sifted. Fresh milled flour has all of the nutrients intact.
Parts of a Wheat Berry
There are 3 parts to the wheat berry. The bran, the endosperm, and the germ.
The bran is the outside that is full of fiber, B vitamins, copper, zinc, iron, magnesium, antioxidants, trace chemicals, and phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are naturally occurring chemical compounds that are found in plants that help prevent diseases.
The endosperm is the middle that is full of carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of B vitamins and minerals.
The germ is the oily part that is full of nutrients and needs to stay away from air otherwise they will oxidize. When the nutrients oxidize we lose the nutrition. The germ is the part of the flour that goes rancid the fastest.
The germ is full of healthy fat our body needs to function! That healthy fat protects and provides healthy fat, vitamin E and B, antioxidants, and phytochemicals from oxidizing.
The Truth About Store Bought Flour
Store bought flour has to be shelf stable. That is it’s main purpose.
To be shelf stable the flour has to be sifted. They separate out the three parts of the wheat berry.
White flour is mostly endosperm. It is all carbohydrates and not much fiber to balance it.
Whole wheat flour has some of the bran and germ added back into the white flour. It is missing most of the bran and germ, so it is not balanced at all.
This separation strips away over half of the B vitamins, 90% of the vitamin E, and almost all the fiber. The bread that is sold in stores is not even close to as nutritious as it should be.
So flour producers started fortifying the flour to add some of the healthy promoting components of whole grains back in, but not enough. Adding nutrition is not equal to leaving the healthy parts whole in the first place.
Home milled flour has all the pieces of the wheat berry together in the correct amounts. You are eating the germ with all the nutrients intact and the bran is there to help your body absorb the carbohydrates from the endosperm slower.
Having all the parts of the wheat berry leads to a more steady blood sugar level instead of the blood sugar spike that most people get when eating bread with store bought flour. If your blood sugar level does spike, it typically does later than white flour, because of all the bran.
Is Fresh Milled Flour Healthier than Store Bought Flour?
YES!
Fresh milled flour is healthier than store flour because store flour has sifted out the most nutritious parts: the germ and bran.
Home milling allows you to be able to consume the wheat quickly after it is milled. Eating it quickly after it is milled is important because within 3 days of the wheat berry being ground into flour, 96 percent of the nutrient have oxidized.
Not only do you have the whole grain, but you have all the nutrients too!
Is Baking with Fresh Milled Flour Different than Store Bought Flour?
Yes! Fresh milled flour can be hard to figure out at first!
I had success transitioning from white flour to store bought whole wheat flour and then transitioning to freshly milled flour from there. Whole wheat flour from the store has more bran in it and is the most similar to modern wheat fresh milled flour.
When switching to fresh milled flour I recommend switching to spelt, hard red, or hard white first. Those flours will rise for baked goods and are similar enough to whole wheat flour that they shouldn’t cause too much trouble for a beginner.
Fresh milled flour needs more water because of the bran and the bran needs time to absorb the water too. Start with a dough that feels a little wet, wait 15 minutes after you add all the ingredients, and then decide to add more flour if you need to.
Don’t give up on home milled flour! It is so delicious and with practice you will be baking so many wonderful things you won’t want to go back!
Does Fresh Milled Flour go Rancid?
Fresh milled flour can go rancid because it has all the germ in it. Wheat germ is oil based because many nutrients will oxidized in the air.
Putting your milled flour in the fridge or freezer will help keep the germ from going rancid for a while. Try to use the flour within a week or two from milling it, if you have to store it.
Is my Fresh Milled Flour bad?
If you open up a bag of flour and it smells bad, then it is bad.
Do you see mold? Then it is bad.
If your flour smells different than how it does coming out of the mill, then it is bad and throw it away.
What are the Disadvantages of Milling Flour?
We talked a lot about why you should mill flour, but there are some ways that milling makes baking more complicated.
Money
Milling your own flour is expensive in the beginning because you will want to purchase a mill. You will also want to purchase storage containers for the wheat berries.
Space
Wheat Berries take up space in your pantry. Usually I buy in bulk, because it is cheaper. That means that I have to dedicate more space to wheat berries in my home than I did for store bought flour storage.
Noisy
Milling your own flour is noisy, so you may have to work around nap schedules or work schedules. Milling is about as loud as a blender or food processor.
Time & Education
Fresh milled flour is healthiest milled and used immediately. So, you have the added step of making flour every time you want to bake.
You don’t want to store milled flour because it is most nutritious fresh. So you may want to switch to baking with weight measurements instead of volume measurements.
It can be tricky to learn how to use fresh milled flour for baking at first. It behaves differently than store bought whole wheat and totally different than white flour.
Denser Breads
Recipes with fresh milled flour tend to be denser than store bought flour. You can make your breads fluffier with additives or sifting out some of the bran and germ. I choose not to do that because then I am not getting the whole wheat berry.
Bread and food made with fresh four tends to mold faster because it has so many more nutrients than store bought flour.
What are the Advantages of Milling Flour?
While there are some disadvantages of milling your own wheat, there are many advantages to milling your grains at home too!
Nutrition
I love milling my grains because I know that I am getting the whole wheat berry and all the nutrients in it. It gives me a lot of confidence that I feed my family whole nutritious food.
Home milling allows you to be able to consume the wheat quickly after it is milled. Eating it quickly after it is milled is important because within 3 days of the wheat berry being ground into flour, 96 percent of the nutrient have oxidized.
Wheat Berries have 40 out of the 44 essential nutrients. The 4 nutrients missing are:
1 – Vitamin A – Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli, Carrots, Spinach
2 – Vitamin B12 – Meat, Fish, Poultry, Eggs, and Dairy
3 – Vitamin C – Citrus Fruits, Broccoli, Tomatoes
4 – Iodine – Seaweed, fish, Iodized Salt, Dairy, Eggs
As you can see, if you have a slice of toast made from freshly milled flour for breakfast with an egg and broccoli, then you have all the nutrients present in one meal!
That knowledge gives me piece of mind knowing that my family is nutritionally set for the day everyday!
You can read more about the nutrition of wheat berries here.
Taste
It tastes better. My husband and I were so surprised when I made bread for the first time out of home milled flour. It actually had a flavor!
Every variety of wheat berry has a different flavor to it. There are so many options now!
Money
Milling my own flour saves us money now, because we choose to eat at home more because the food I make with it is more filling and delicious than take out.
I also make all our bread products at home now, so we save money on groceries too!
Health Problems Improve
People who are gluten sensitive have had success eating home milled flour because it is gluten in balanced with fiber and the nutrients that their body needs!
Some people have posted different testimonials about health problems they have had for years going away after they switch to fresh milled flour. Read about some here.
Easy to Store
Wheat Berries are easy to store for long periods of time, which makes buying them in bulk the best option for most. Wheat berries last properly stored for many years.
Soft wheat berries store for 8+ years. Hard wheat berries store for 10+ years and are sometimes considered a forever food.
I never have to run out to get flour anymore because I have enough wheat berries to last for a long time!
Is Milling your Own Flour Worth it?
I believe that milling my flour is worth it. I enjoy baking, and since getting a mill, I have begun making every wheat based food we eat.
My husband at the beginning of our marriage ate mostly wheat based foods, and adding nutrition into his diet was a real priority. My husband has branched out into other foods, but now I have a toddler. I have confidence that my toddler gets quality nutrients from the bread he eats because I make it using fresh milled flour.
Everyone has to make the decision for themselves if milling is worth it or not, but I truly believe that it has been one of the best decisions we have made for our family.
What are the Different Types of Wheat Berries?
There are 2 important ways to categorize wheat berries: Modern vs. Ancient and Hard vs. Soft.
Modern wheat varieties are the ones that have been hybridized since world war 2. Ancient wheat varieties are pre world war 2 and are not mass produced any more.
Hard wheat is wheat that has a hard exterior and is used to make food that needs to rise and hold air in. Think a loaf of bread, rolls, or pita pockets.
Soft Wheat is used to make things that are soft and don’t need to rise or trap air. Think tortillas, cookies, apple crisps, or thickening stews.
Sometimes you hear the terms winter or spring wheat, which are labels about when the wheat was harvested. Winter wheat was harvested in winter and spring wheat in the spring.
This is for the people purchasing to know when it was harvested, but does not change the way the wheat is used.
Here are my VERY general thoughts on each variety of wheat berries. I go more in depth on each one in this article.
Modern Hard Wheats
Hard Red – King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour is made from Hard Red
Hard White – White Whole Wheat is made from Hard White
Ancient Hard Wheats
Durum – Semolina Flour is part of Durum. It is mostly used for Pasta
Spelt – My favorite! It is kind of like the all purpose flour of whole grains.
Emmer – Can also be called Farro. I like to throw this one in breads when I run out of spelt.
Khorasan (KAMUT) – Khorasan is the name of the actual wheat berry, but KAMUT is it’s trade marked name. KAMUT is easier to find.
Rye – It is great for sourdough starters and tastes so unique! It does make doughs much stickier.
Einkorn – The original wheat berry! Is hard to work with in the beginning.
Soft Modern Wheats
Soft White Wheat – Mixed with Hard red to create All Purpose flour
Need to buy wheat berries? Check out my article about wheat berries here.
There is so much to learn about before you start milling your own flour. I hope you feel more prepared on where to start on your fresh milled flour journey!
Sources and Resources to Learn More
What are Wheat Berries – Bob’s Red Mills
Wheat Berry Nutrition Facts – Bob’s Red Mills
Exposing the Deception of Enrichment – Bread Beckers
How do You Feel about Fresh Milled Flour?
Are you excited to try something new? Or maybe you are already a pro at milling flour? Somewhere in the middle?
Let us know in the comments below!
Other Articles You May Enjoy
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Wheat Berries Basics You Need to Know
Wheat Berry Varieties – Basics You Need to Know
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