The Fresh Loaf

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New grain mill,grain type suggestions?

Davefs's picture
Davefs

New grain mill,grain type suggestions?

Just got the grain mill attachment for my KA mixer.What are some favorite"non standard"grains?How much do you generally use?

I have bought some rye berries,quinoa,spelt,oat groats,and millet so far.I've only used wheat berries at this point.

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

Kamut. An ancient relative of modern durum wheat. For more info on this grain see http://www.kamut.com/en/about.html

The KA gain mill attachment is well suited to cracking grain. I prefer to crack kamut with my KA grain mill to the size of bulgur (each kernel is broken into about 5 pieces) and use it as a rice substitute. It also makes an excellent tabouli.

Like spelt, kamut does not produce a flour that develops gluten as well as flour milled from modern strains of hard wheat. Like whole wheat flour, spelt or kamut flours absorb more water during mixing than commercial white bread flour. However, bread dough containing spelt or kamut flour tends to release that moisture during baking, which reduces oven spring. Also, breads with a high percentage of spelt or kamut have a tendency to collapse somewhat during cooling. (This advice was in a newsletter from the San Francisco Baking Institute. My experience bears out their observations.)

When you first begin experimenting with kamut or spelt, use it with wheat flours and keep the amount to 10% - 20% of the total flour weight until you develop a better feel for how it performs.

Buckwheat - Make buckwheat pancakes. Or substitute some buckwheat flour for white flour when making crepes for savory dishes.

Barley - a small amount (about 5% of the flour weight) helps bread maintain moisture and retards staling. You only need a little; too much produces a heavy, cake-like texture.

Corn  - If you can't get dent or field corn, popcorn produces excellent corn flour. The KA grain mill cannot produce a really fine flour (even with milling the grain several times at increasing fineness for each pass) but the corn flour it produces gives an interesting texture in polenta or corn bread.

Brown rice - Finely cracked rice (I prefer brown rice) makes an excellent hot breakfast cereal. Many grains can be cracked and used to make hot cereal (try using some of your oat groats for this).

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Hope this gives you some ideas. Be adventurous. The KA grain mill has limitations (unlike more expensive mills, it cannot produce a truly fine whole grain flour) but you can find many uses for it. Enjoy!

Davefs's picture
Davefs

Thank you so much!I actually have ordered some dent corn,it's on the way.I'm enjoying the mill,I figured for $98 on Amazon it was a good way to "test the waters".If I find I really use it a lot I may splurge on one of the others.