The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Buying & using a grain mill

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

Buying & using a grain mill

I am looking at buying a grain mill, possibly Komo Classic or Mockmill 100.  Before I take that giant leap, a couple of questions from other TFlers.

IF I mill the grain myself, then sieve it to remove the bran, does this give me the equivalent of AP or bread flour depending on the type of wheat I use?  I ask as I wonder about flour for cakes etc.  and those breads not 100% whole grain.

would a flour sieve with 0.5 mm mesh give me something close to AP flour?

Does the Komo cope with sprouted grain provided it is properly dried? 

love to hear your experiences before I actually buy.

Leslie

 

 

bigcrusty's picture
bigcrusty

Leslie,

I have a Mill and use it for grinding Rye and Whole Wheat flours.  I tried to get to 1st Clear which is somewhat white but even with a 30 and a 15 I never got to a white.  It took me 2 -3 hours to get maybe 1500 grams of close to white.  I can't imagine sifting at 50.  I love the mills. I have two.  A NutraMill and an attachment mill for my Anskarum which I use to make cracked rye.  The Nutramill gives me a fine flour The Anskarum gives me a good course product.  I stopped sifting and found a local bakery with 1st Clear for my sour Rye bread.  White is just to hard unless you want to spend lots on an electric sifter.  

Good Luck with your shopping.  I highly recommend Pleasant Hill Grain for the mills. They have good variety and service and competitive Prices.

Regards,

 

Big Crusty

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

thanks for your feedback, that is the sort of info I am after.

HansB's picture
HansB

Is a good source too.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

they seem to have quite a good relationship with Wolfgang Mock - I watched the video too. an interesting site.

Leslie

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

I use our Fidibus XL a couple times/week for bread and pastries.  It's a beautifully engineered machine and produces excellent flour that requires no sifting unless one is after <100% extraction flour, which I never am.  Best to keep grain in the freezer as milling at the XL's high throughput rate heats the flour a lot (no, I know of no practical or nutritional detriment to such heating).  I also rubberband a plastic produce bag as a flap above the spout and catch-bowl, to keep the warm flour dust cloud down and in the bowl, not on the surrounding kitchen surfaces.

You cannot (and, imho, should not try to) make AP flour at home with a mill.  Period.  [I think proth5 has authoritatively preached about this on TFL, if you search].  AP is produced from industrial  roller mills that effectively remove the outermost seed layers, leaving pure white starchy endosperm, which, after milling, is highy screened (bolted).  And APs are always a mixture of wheats selected to achieve specific measured "all purpose" characteristics (protein, ash etc.).  The pros will always be much better at making true AP than any of us home hobbyists can ever be.  Just not worth it, imho.

That being said, if you are obsessively self-reliant enough (and I can appreciate that), you could try to find a combination of hard and soft wheatberries that would give you the ~9% protein of AP and sieve your product down with a 50# tami and then maybe even 75#.  I'm not sure I would call it "AP" with a straight face, but it could be used in place of storebought AP, with results I wouldn't dare predict, but would of course be happy to read about here on TFL.

In my experience, home milling is a great pleasure, both for the satisfaction of self-reliance, the freedom from potential rancidity of storebought wholegrain flours (the more exotic the flour > the less demand > the longer it sits in the bulk bin or on the shelf > the more likely it's gone off), the wide range of flours you can produce (any grain you can buy can be milled: buckwheat, durum, einkorn, farro, millet, basmati rice, amaranth -- explore away!) and the fine flavors of the baked products.   25-50# sacks of grain can be had for less per pound than equivalent milled flours.  A lot of plusses.

Good luck with it!  Highly recommended.

Tom

 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

 TFlers out there that mill their own flour have knowledge I am lacking and every little bit shared  will help immensely.  

thanks a lot Tom

Leslie

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

just wanted to chime in with my experience --- which echoes everyone else in that I find it far more practical to purchase my AP flour instead of trying to sift it that finely.  Realistically, I only use AP flour in my breads in order to reduce the amount of fibre due to a personal health constraint, and I eat enough bread that it is something that I have to keep an eye on.  Even so, I prefer the flavour and texture from using the fresh milled whole grains, so I very rarely do a loaf of less than 50% whole grain (usually 65% or more).  I would prefer to use all whole grains, and just use the sifters (https://breadtopia.com/product-category/bread-baking-supplies/flour-sifters/) to extract the bran to feed the levains...

For other baking, especially things like cakes and muffins and cookies and scones --- well, I most often use a combination of milled, whole flours and don't use AP at all.  I don't eat enough of these for the fibre to be an issue, and I find that we much prefer the flavour and textures that we get when I mill and sift together some soft white winter wheat, with some oats, some khorasan or durum, and often a bit of rye or barley or corn or spelt, too.  I don't mill it myself, but I also often include some arrowroot starch (or tapioca, or potato, or whatever I think will suit the flavour) in order to lessen the overall gluten and soften the end crumb.

I think you'll end up loving the ability to pick and choose your grains, and mill them freshly to suit the specific bake of the day.  AP flour is a great thing to have on hand, but I suspect you'll also find that the higher extraction flours resulting from the sifters aren't exactly a direct replacement (while still being a great option when you want them) and that it is more practical for you, too, to buy AP as needed.

Can't wait to see what mill you decide on - as it most surely will add a lot of fun to keep you baking happy!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I wondered about the use of freshly milled flour for cakes etc. You have given me some options I would never have thought about.

I won't be buying from Breadtopia even though I agree it is a great site. I will have to buy from our local supplier here in NZ and am waiting to hear back about price and availability. ... 

Leslie

cgap's picture
cgap

Make sure that whatever mill you buy can be serviced if it needs it in NZ and that you get a good warranty with it.

The Mockmill seems to have a 2 year warranty whereas other mills can have up to 10 years.

I have sifted a couple of batches of flour to remove a bit of bran to get a bit lighter bread (just for a change) but it's hardly worth the trouble because after all, you are milling grain to get your own flour with everything still in it.

Saying that, we haven't made a sponge cake yet but biscuits, pancakes, roux etc all come out ok. It does take a bit of messing about to convert recipes from commercial white flour to whole wheat flour but that's all in the fun of it. At the end of the proverbial day, I reckon that you can't beat the taste of your own freshly milled flour.

Sourcing reliable grain at a reasonable price will probably be your biggest problem.

I bought  Hawos mill this year which hasn't missed a beat. I don't know if they are available in NZ but here's the link to the Aussie site: https://www.skippygrainmills.com.au/

So go for it... and don't forget to vote tomorrow, preferably for the Home Millers Party. What? There isn't a Home Millers Party?

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

my bit. Back to mills.  The Komo is cited as having 12 year warranty but I am still waiting on a supplier here to let me know about the Mockmill.   and yes the Hawos is available here too.  I haven't read a great deal about them but maybe I should consider Hawos alongside  the Komo and the Mockmill.  

thanks for your comments - I am looking forward to making better tasting bread etc with freshly milled flour.  

happy baking cgap

Leslie

cgap's picture
cgap

I have read some mixed reviews about the Komo mills but then again, if you look hard enough you'll find something negative about everything.

The Hawos mills, if you look at the specs, basically come in 2 different motor sizes. You will pay more for the fancier housing, which is why I went for the cheapest one. One thing about it though, I do have to pull it apart every week or two and clean it out because it gets a build up of fine flour inside it. This takes about 10 minutes with a brush and the vacuum cleaner, so not really a big deal.

 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

decision still waits on info so this is so helpful

leslie

WholeGrainNut's picture
WholeGrainNut

We have the Mockmill 100 grain mill and use it at least 3 times per week for our sourdoughs and other home baking.  For us it was a great choice on a budget.  if we're making pastries then will we sieve the flour but all of our breads are done with the flour straight out of the grain mill.  We bought ours here and the service was excellent.  https://www.livingwhole.com.au/grain-mill-australia/