The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

A Very Positive Experience With Mockmill

Justanoldguy's picture
Justanoldguy

A Very Positive Experience With Mockmill

In February of 2016 I purchased a Mockmill for use with my KA mixer. The mill performed as it should and turned wheat berries into flour and corn into cornmeal with no problems. But the mill was difficult to disassemble for cleaning. I soldiered on. That little problem paled in comparison to learning to use fresh milled flour, lots of little pitfalls and those subtle nuances kept me focused on the baking. Besides, I figured disassembly would get easier with time. It didn't. So this week I emailed the company late one afternoon to find out if there was a trick I had overlooked. I wan't even expecting to take advantage of a guarantee. Bright and early the next morning I had a reply from Paul LeBeau about my problem. It seems that this was a problem with some early production mills and Mockmill had retooled their production to eliminate the problem. He offered me a new mill without any if's, and's, but's or prorated compensation. It may very well be 'in the mail' as I'm typing this and there's no need to return the old one. Whooopie! It is so satisfying to deal with a company that backs their products and doesn't put up hoops for the consumer to jump through. WHAP! That's the sound of a little gold star going up next to their name (younger folks may not be familiar with 'earning a gold star' but it was a good thing many years ago in elementary school). 

A Follow-up

The mill arrived bright and early the following Monday morning and the slight modifications to the sleeve and inner housing appear to have eliminated the disassembly problem. I have to say that I've got a lot of confidence in the company's commitment to satisfying their customers.

HansB's picture
HansB

Happy to hear, Mockmill sure seems like a first class company.

My Mockmill arrives in a couple of weeks. Can you share any tips for baking with freshly milled wheat?

Thanks!

Justanoldguy's picture
Justanoldguy

Well, I'm still learning and, judging from some 'bricks' that I've produced, there's a lot to learn. There are many different types of wheat, hard, soft, red, white, etc. and each one has certain characteristics that will make it more or less appropriate for the item you're planning to bake. So a little research into types is probably a good idea. In addition most commercial flour is a 'blend' that is put together by the company to meet their specifications for the product they're going sell. In turn that means that each lot of wheat that you mill may be slightly different from others you've worked with even though they're the same type. Hydration with freshly milled flour will most likely be different from what you've grown used to with off-the-shelf products. In my experience it will be just a little bit 'thirsty'. In the past I didn't autolyze most of my bought flours but fresh milled flour seems to need 30 to 45 minutes at the 'watering trough' before the salt and leavening goes in. There are some compounds in fresh flour that affect gluten development and you may have to deal with that by using a dough conditioner like Vital Wheat Gluten or Vitamin C, ascorbic acid. You're going to be dealing with bran if you don't take any steps to sift your output. It will also affect the development of long gluten strands. Just mill the flour you're going to use in the bake. With the germ still in the flour it can go bad fairly fast. Overall you're off on a learning curve so good luck. Even the 'bricks' will be tastier than off the shelf.

HansB's picture
HansB

Thanks for the info, I'm looking forward to the experience.