The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

How many sieve their home milled flour?

UnConundrum's picture
UnConundrum

How many sieve their home milled flour?

While working with my new mill, and searching for advice, I found several threads on sifting.  I milled some flour last night and decided to tray my fine 12" tamis to see what would sift out.  I was really surprised at the amount of bran.  The two loaves I made this morning turned out beautiful, but I haven't cut them yet as they're still cooling.  The ease of removing "some" bran surprised me and I was wondering what percentage of our members do sieve their home milled flour to some extent.

althetrainer's picture
althetrainer

I thought the purpose of milling your own flour was to make best use of the natural nutrients and fibers?  I supposed if you want to use freshly ground flour yet don't like the bran, that's the way to do it.  When I mill flour, I don't sieve, just use it as is.

Al

UnConundrum's picture
UnConundrum

I'm sure a lot of members agree with you.  My purpose is to search for the ultimate bread. Extra nutrients are clearly a plus, but not my driving motivation.

LeadDog's picture
LeadDog

I have been using a sieve for about a month now.  It does take out the large pieces from the flour and that amounts to 5% of the milled flour.  I'm thinking in another month or so I'll get a sieve that is a little bit finer to see what kind of flour I'll get when I use it.

proth5's picture
proth5

and have sifted anywhere from sifting out "some" bran to pure white flour.  Details are in my several blogs on the topic.  I have moderately coarse to very very fine sieves.

The reasons we home mill are many and varied.  Sifting can be part of those many reasons.

Hope this helps.

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

...are being used by those who *do* sieve their flour? (>proth5<  you don't have to answer - I know what grain mill you use b/c I follow your blog)

Hoping to hear from those who have posted. Thx.

UnConundrum's picture
UnConundrum

I have a motorized Country Living Mill..  But I'm new to milling and today was the first time I sieved.

LeadDog's picture
LeadDog

I have a Schnitzer Country Manual Grain Mill.  I converted it from a hand cranked mill to a pedal powered mill.  You can read about it here.

charbono's picture
charbono

I have a Retsel Mil-Rite. It is a relatively slow stone or steel burr electric mill. While waiting, I usually sift out and re-mill the larger particles of wheat or wheat bran. Most of my breads are 20% AP flour. As explained here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16034/new-site-and-milling#comment-103109 and here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16034/new-site-and-milling#comment-113326, I sift corn/maize to classify it, not to remove bran.

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

Pardon my ignorance, but my understanding is that a Retsel mill can produce a very finely milled flour from hard wheat in a single pass. When you say

Quote:
I usually sift out and re-mill the larger particles of wheat or wheat bran.
why are you doing this?

Does the Retsel mill fail to produce a sufficiently fine whole wheat flour in a single pass?

OR

Are you milling your whole wheat grain slightly coarser to produce a high extraction flour by removing some of the bran?

OR

I'm just clueless - ?????????

Can you explain your milling method(s) using the Retsel for hard wheat in more detail? What kind of flour milled from hard wheat are you trying to achieve?

charbono's picture
charbono

When milling wheat with the Retsel Mil-Rite, I set the stones to mill as finely as possible. Nevertheless, at least 5% of the resulting flour will not pass a 20-mesh strainer. (In the flour world, #20 is not very fine.) The held material is mostly flaky and is not white, so I assume it is mostly bran. The material that does pass the strainer feels pretty fine, but it is not as fine as refined all-purpose flour. It could be that, while the bran comes off in relatively large, thin flakes, the endosperm is finely milled.

The Mil-Rite is my only mill experience, so the only comparison I can make is to commercial flour. Without sifting, I’d say the Mil-Rite flour is slightly coarser than commercial whole wheat flour; but it is adequate for bread-making.

LeadDog's picture
LeadDog

This has been my experience to and I have a different mill.  I set my stones to grind the flour as fine as possible and a #20 sieve removes about 5% of the resulting flour.  The flour that remains still feels a little bit more course than store bought all purpose flour.  Either flour makes great tasting bread I'm just exploring the possibilities of what I can do with my flours.

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

to charbono & LeadDog - thanks to both for answering my question. Very educational.

- SF

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

I am experimenting with sieving whole wheat flours, soaking the bran, and adding it to the dough at the end of the kneading process.  The idea is to keep the bran from cutting the gluten as much as if it stayed in during the whole kneading process. 

I've had two bakings with this approach and so far I like the result. 

UnConundrum's picture
UnConundrum

That's interesting.  So you're adding everything you sift out back in after you're finished kneading?

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

Just before kneading is complete.  Like I said, someone else wrote about the technique here.  It took awhile to find the right mesh sized strainer. 

Cinnabon's picture
Cinnabon

Hello Frequent flyer!

May I ask please what size mesh did you end up going with to extract bran and wheat germ?

I am currently looking into a good grain mill and of course the right sieves to extract with.

I look forward to your reply!

Thanks

 

 

 

SydneyGirl's picture
SydneyGirl

Also new to milling but I don't see a problem with sifting out some bran.

I want to get flour to the consistency I want it to be to bake the things I've always baked. The bran really changes the consistency of the final product and I don't want everything I bake to be dense and chewy. 

Anyway, I think I've solved the bran problem: The sifted bran goes in a bowl with some rolled oats, a few other seeds (amaranth, quinoa) and some water. Add a few raisins or prunes or other fruit to your liking and water. Leave in the fridge overnight and for breakfast add some plain yoghurt or fruit juice and sweeten to taste. I swear it's the best muesli you can imagine (and I'm not a cereal person at all).

I can have my cake and eat my bran! 

MangoChutney's picture
MangoChutney

Well you won't get a percentage if you don't have a total, so here's one person who does not sift her home-milled flour before baking bread with it.  I do soak it all overnight when I make bread, in one form or another (in either a pre-ferment or a pre-soak).  I think my bread would not be described as dense and chewy, although the crust is a bit chewy in the first half-day or so before it picks up enough moisture from the crumb to become soft.  It's not as soft as Wonder Bread, but I've never been able to spread things on a slice of Wonder Bread without it squishing flat.

My mill is a Tribest Wolfgang.

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

type 203 coffee mill and do not sieve.  If I need sieved flour I buy it.  After 12 years of hard work grinding coffee once a week it was retired to flour milling in small batches every 2-4 weeks or so depending on what bread is at hand to make.  It seems to work OK for me and would probably be OK for 2 or 3 people in a household - if you weren't seeking the perfect or ultimate bread.  My wife likes Oroweat store bread for toast and sandwiches and  our daughter is off to college and she is much like her mom so our bread baking is only for the two of us if you include my baking apprentice.  This coffee mill has been grinding various grain berries for many years now.  I'm sure a lot bread bakers started this way and moved up to other milling methods as they saw the need and had the wherewithal.

Ju-Ju-Beads's picture
Ju-Ju-Beads

I'm grinding in a Golden Grain stone grist mill using white wheat and corn for grits and cornmeal.  The cornmeal comes out just fine without sifting but I want to sift the finer particles out of my grits  and to try sifting some off the bran out of my wheat flour.  I've been reading about Proth5's sieves of various sizes and wondering which ones will be most useful and where to get them.   Suggestions?


agres's picture
agres

I sift for some breads and not for others.  Breads that I would serve with vodka -never. Breads that I would serve with beer - maybe. Breads that I would serve with red wine - likely. Breads that I would serve with white wine - not likely. Breads that I would serve with Earl Gray tea - always.

And, if you are eating the bread with peanut butter - it really does not matter.