I know there are a number of excellent mills for different applications, so I hope I get this detailed enough to really pinpoint which will work best for me. Thanks in advance for your advice!

I'm looking for a mill that can accomplish the following;

can mill coarse or very fine flours (dry grains) for baking, pasta, hot cereal, pastries, gravies, cakes, breads, etc.

does not heat the flour (over 120 farenheit)

can sift the milled flour to make white cake flours (meaning that it's capable of not crushing the outer layer into the flour making it too difficult to sift out to get a white flour)

can mill for a large family (meaning does not heat up or mess up with heavy use)

does not need to be cleaned

does not throw flour dust everywhere

has electrical and hand mill capability

lasts for 30 years+

does not need to be babysat (won't catch on fire or break with a distracted operator)

does not have quarks with getting odd sized or shaped grains stuck and cracks, or constantly needing to be taken apart to fix

low maintenance

less than $1000

can be purchased in or shipped to the U.S. without incredible waits, fees, or bribes, and with the knowledge that defective or damaged products will be fully replaced in a timely manner without uneccesary inconvenience

Any thoughts?

I've been trying and trying to get my sourdough bread up but have had little success.  The 1-2-3 recipe worked out ok except it was always too gloppy to make anything but ciabatta.  So I started experimenting with different forumlas, twice a day for two weeks. I think I've hit on something and I'd like some of you guys to maybe try it out and see if it works as well for someon else as it does for me.

I maintain two starters...a 100% hydration white and 100% hydration whole wheat.  I used Gold Medal AP Flour for everything, both refreshing the starter and making the dough.  If I want a wheat bread I use the wheat starter in the recipe, the same a white bread.  All ingredients are measured in grams for simplicity's sake.  So here's the formula:

1. part ripe starter

1. part water

2. parts flour

2% salt

Here's my technique.  I take a nice ripe starter and measure out the first part.  Normally I use 150g as a base.  Then I stir in 1 part water (150g) to make a slurry.  To this I add the 2 parts flour (300g) and mix in to incorporate.  I use a fork and my fingers to get everything mixed completely.  After everything is mixed I let it sit for about 20 minutes to autolyse.

After the autolyse I sprinkle in the 2% salt (12g) and give the dough a quick 5 minute knead in the bowl.  Part of this experiment was to cut down on the amount of crap I had to wash and clean up.  After the knead I let rise until doubled.  This could take anywhere from 1-3 hours.

After the dough has doubled, I flour a work surface and scrape out the dough.  It's should be a little on the sticky side but easily workable on the bench.  I've only made batards and baguettes so far, but the dough could probably hold other shapes.  I shape it into a rough oblong, give it a flatten, then do a quick letter fold and let it rest about 10 minutes.  Now a stretch, flatten and make either the baguette or batard.  I have a makeshift couche (read: old napkin) that sometimes doesn't work so well, so I tend to place the formed loaf right onto parchment with a little cornmeal on it.

After the loaf is formed you can do two things,  cover it and let it rise to about doubled.  I use spray oil to lubricate a piece of saran wrap so it won't stick to the loaf.  Again, this takes about 1-3 hours for me, your mileage may vary.  About halfway through the second rise preheat oven to 450.  Steam the oven, slash the loaf and put bread on a stone or cookie sheet.  After five minutes I give the oven another spray for more steam.  After another five minutes I give the bread a turn for even browning and reduce heat to 425 for another 15 minutes or so.  Here's how the white bread turns out...

and here's the wheat...

I've also formed the loaves and retarded overnight in the fridge.  This really brings out the sourdough twang.  I'm also experiemting with the salt percentage, 2% feels too high in some loaves. 

I would appreciate it if someone else could validate this recipe and let me know if it worked out as well for them.  Thanks!

This is Glacrwlf with a puzzling question: Where can I find ancient wheat? I read the latest chapters of Yakitate!! Japan, and I heard about this product. I want to find some ancient Filipino Wheat for my Filipay (Filipino Tinapay) and I need to know where to find any Filipino province that has it.

I made Dan Lepard’s Golspie Loaf from his Handmade Loaf book this weekend. It is 100% whole wheat except for the starter which the recipe says to do with either barley or rye flour. I actually did a whole wheat starter. A layer of coarse oatmeal (pinhead or steel cut) is on the crust and then it is baked in a round cake pan. The recipe instructs to score the loaf all the way through the dough to the bottom of the pan so that it can be pulled apart into sections after baking, but I did not score at all for fear of completely deflating what appeared to be a very wet and volatile dough. The recipe includes 3/4 teaspoon of fresh yeast, which I included because my starter didn’t seem very active at the time. However, Next time I will omit this and just use starter to see if it is really necessary or not.

I think I may have over-proofed after shaping because when I uncovered it and put it in the oven, the dough sank slightly. Despite this, my loaf turned out nicely and had a much more open crumb that I thought it would have and than what the picture in the book suggests. It also seemed to have a more open crumb than any other 100% whole wheat loaf I have ever made which was unexpected and reassuring.

Will post pictures.

I've made about 8 different recipes from PR's book, always with success, although with experience I improved.  Then I tried his regular Whole Wheat.  I used corn for the soaker, but only regular "store bought" whole wheat flour for the Poolish and main ingredient.  As I kneaded the dough, I noticed that it would not pass the window-pain test.  I tried adding more flour and then less flour, and then simply kneading some more (hoping for the gluten to develop), but NO GO.  Finally, I just put it in a bowl for the first rise, which was fine!  I then formed it into loaves, but after an hour the texture of the dough was no longer smooth and they had not risen much at all!  The two loaves looked all broken on the surface, giving me an indication of poor gluten formation.  I'm going to bake them off, but I expect a poor result.

Q:  is this due to my not using high-protein wheat flour?  That was my only variation from the recipe, and the book does say I can use it.  I was skeptical because I've noticed that other "whole wheat" recipes call for both white and wheat, perhaps because of gluten?  I am a novice here, and upset over my first failure with this fellow's wonderful recipes.  Where did I go wrong?

I have some bread recipes that I am trying to "fix".  Whole wheat, multigrain and white sandwich loaf recipes specifically.  They currently yield very airy, light loaves.  This may please some but I am interested in chewy, relatively dense loaves with buttery crusts.  The current recipies produce crusts that are light and tear easily.. I am looking for more "chew" than "tear".  Any suggestions?  Do I need to type the recipe or does something jump to mind that I need to adjust, ie more sugar, more oil, more proofing time?

Many thanks!

There it is my very first loaf of bread, honey whole wheat. It went pretty well, I had my first sandwich today. Boy was it good, so much better then store bought. I'm making another loaf tonight...I just couldn't wait. I'm make a different version of the honey whole wheat. I'll let you know how it goes.

Where do those of you who grind your own flour buy your grains?  I have only found one source who doesn't charge more for wheat berries than for flour ground from those same berries, and that source was 2000 miles away, so the shipping costs are prohibitive.  Just this week, I got another price list from a buying club I can join locally.  They have several brands of stone ground whole wheat flour at around 40 cents a pound in 50# quantities.  The best price they have on wheat berries in bulk is nearly twice that.  Even their King Arthur fancy bakers' flours are cheaper than the plain old wheat berries.

Does this make any sense?

Dave

I thought I'd start a quick thread listing where to get supplies locally in southern Ontario.  Please feel free to comment with your favorite places and I'll add them to this list.

Flour / Grains:

A and E Fine Foods, 19811 Woodbine Ave, Queensville, 905-478-1500

Stocks some organic flour

Arva Flour Mill, 2042 Elgin Rd, London, 519-660-0199

Mills and sells organic flour directly

Bulk Barn, Various locations listed on their website

Usually a good selection of flour and baking ingredients

Merrylynd Organics, #3010 Hwy 28 (formerly 134), Lakefield, 705-755-1081

Mills and sells organic grains/flour directly

New-Life Mills, Hanover, 1-800-265-5510

Local mill, see Liam's posting

Oak Manor Farms, 756907 Oxford County Rd #5, RR#1, Tavinstock, 519-662-2385 (website down?)

Mills and sells organic grain/flour directly

Organic Abundance, 3066 Bloor Street West, Toronto, 416-234-5258

Stocks some organic flour

Ouderkirk and Taylor, 3 Wyndam St. N, Guelph, 519-827-9378

Stocks some organic flour from La Meunerie and Ontario-grown Red Fife

Baking Supplies

Ayres Baking Supplies, 354 King St. N, Waterloo, 519-886-7001

Mostly cakes and decorating but some useful supplies.

Golda's Kitchen, 2885 Argentia Road, Unit 6, Mississauga, 1-866-465-3299

Both retail and online stores for kitchen supplies.

Harvest Corporation, 249 Watline Avenue, Mississauga, 1-888-925-6644

Baking/Restaurant supplies.

McCall's, 1290 Fewster Drive, Mississauga, 1-800-541-3415

Mostly cakes, decorating & chocolate.

S.T.O.P. Restaurant Supply, 206 Centennial Crt., Kitchener, 1-800-265-2961

Restaurant supplies with sales to the public.

Bakeries

ACE bakery, 1 Hafis Road, Toronto

Altitude Baking, 1346 Queen St. East, Toronto

Bonjour Brioche Bakery, 812 Queen St. East, Toronto

Brick Street Bakery, 55 Mill Street, Toronto

Cob's, Toronto

Epi Breads, 1526 Bayview Avenue, Toronto

Golden Hearth Baking Co., 343 King St E, Kitchener

Pan Fresco, 414 Locust Street, Burlington

Sproll's Fine German Bakery, 300 Trillium Dr, Kitchener

St. John's, 153 Broadview Ave., Toronto

Thuet, 609 King Street West, Toronto

Links

Foodlink lists farms with local produce for sale in Waterloo/Wellington.  There is also a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) directory and a listing of farmer's markets in Ontario for those that are interested in buying and supporting local farmers.

The story thus far:

I've used the starter recipe here and gotten myself a...blob. Nothing but a blob. It doesn't do much, isn't very entertaining, and I can't bake bread with it. However, it smells VERY nicely sour. I don't want to give up on it yet.

I fed it with 1/3 cup of white flour and a little under 1/4 water today. It is the consistency of thick paste.

So as I said in the tutorial thread, if I don't see action by tomorrow I'm going to feed it with 1/4 cup rye flour and 1/8 cup water and see what happens.

I'll keep things posted here so that I don't take up the other thread with personal experiences. :)