I saw Jay "longhorn"'s blog post about Tartine Bread and quickly joined TFL because of my current obsession with Robertson's loaf. I have been baking since 2006 when I learned about Jim Lahey and No-Knead bread from Mark Bittman in the NYTimes. Since then I've discovered the magic of using a levain and freshly ground whole wheat flour. I use the grain attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have a bulging bread book shelf but have hardly begun to figure out how to deal with whole grains. Our household currently numbers only 2 but I have wonderful baking and (especially) eating support. I have also worked out a deal with my friends such that when I am overly ambitious, I may cut into a fresh loaf, check the crumb for research purposes, and then gift the loaf. We live in the SF Bay area: an embarassment of bread riches. I've been reading TFL since I started baking but this is my belated thanks to all of the wonderful bakers who so generously share their experiences, and to FloydM, who makes this site such a treasure.

joan

If you want to explore *fresh* home-milled flour from whole grain but don't own a grain mill, I am willing to mill your grain for you.

I own a Nutrimill grain mill which can mill wheat, rye, spelt, kamut, rice (brown or white) and other grains of similar size.

You must have purchased the grain and be willing (and able) to come to a location in upper Manhattan. I will mill your grain for you on the spot at no charge. This offer is only for TFL members and is primarily for home bakers who wish to have from 1 to 5 lb of freshly milled flour for home use.

Interested home bakers should PM me for further instructions.

Does anyone know if there is any qualitative difference in the nutritional value of flour that has been ground by hand as opposed to flour which has been ground by an electric mill?

People who juice their own juices say that slower is better. The heat generated by a fast motor destroys nutrients from the vegetable.

Is this also true of milling flour?

If a small electric mill can grind 100 pounds of flour in one hour I imagine the heat generated must be significant. But then again, flour intended for bread gets cooked.

I just bought a grain grinder and I bought Wheat Montana white hard spring wheat.  I ground some of it and it mixes way different.  When I use my recipe that I had been using it takes about 1 and a half cups more flour as it is really wet and sticky.  Is it normal for it to do this?  I ground it on the finest setting.  I have read that mixing too much flour in will make it heavy which is what happened with the first batch.  Is there something I am missing with this grinding process?  I have even tried mixing it with the regular amount of flour and then letting it sit for 45 minutes before I kneaded it.  I had read that the whole grains will soak up the moisture but that didn't seem to make a difference, I still had to knead in about a cup and a half of flour.  Any thoughts that you have are greatly appreciated.

June is one of the two months out of the year here in Arizona for harvesting mesquite pods. These are often used in place of hardwood chips to smoke meats, AND to grind into flour. The pods make a rather sweet flour (no gluten, obviously). I've read that a tablespoon or two adds a distinct flavor to breads. I have never tried this flour in a bread recipe (yet). Has anyone every tried mesquite flour? I think I'll try it tonight . . . I'll let you know.

Phxdog (Scott)

When I first read Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, I discounted a passage in which he writes about home grinding. I wish I could find the exact quote, but essentially, he says that while fresh flour tastes wonderful, it needs to be used within 7 hours or so of grinding -- otherwise, one needs to wait 2 weeks because enzymatic activity will hamper performance. After two weeks, the process is finished and the flour will perform well.

I didn't believe him ...