Got a Mock Mill - now what?
I bought a small amount winter hard wheat berries to use in my vitamix dry blender to try it out and I used the same recipe I use about once a week for a half whole grain/half white flour pain de campaign bread. Since I know that recipe well, I knew what it should look and taste like and it did. So, I decided that it was time to get a mill and some berries.
BUT... there is so little information out there to know what berries to get! And on a fb group I found, most people use a mill to get the whole grain ground but buy white flour too. Can a grain mill not do white flour?
So first question: here in the Maryland/DC area can I find affordable wheat berries? I can get them from whole foods bulk, but is there other places to look.
Second question: what types of berries do I need for what? Like can I mill a white flour with some soft white wheat berries?
I know I have more questions, but these are the most pressing as I'm about out of milled flour. I have the remainder of the hard winter wheat berries to use yet, but soon I'll need more of something!
A home mill will not give you white flour, that requires special equipment we don't have which would separate just the endosperm from the wheat berry. The best you can do at home is sift out some of the bran. But don't bother, use the whole thing as-is if you are mixing with white flour anyhow.
1. You can buy wheat berries in bulk from Whole Foods. I buy directly from Central Milling their organic berries. They will ship to you and, properly stored, wheat berries can last many years. I buy 50lb bags at a time.
2. For bread, you want to get "hard" berries which have a higher protein content. Avoid "soft" varieties. There is a lot to know about all the different kinds, so start off easy: Get "hard, red, winter or spring berries" and you should be fine.
*Keep in mind that home milled wheat is probably going to be lower in moisture than what you buy in the store pre-milled. In the USA, all milled flour has to be 14% hydrated out of the mill. At home, you are likely lower than that, so you will need to experiment and add a little more water into your recipe than you used in the past.
Hope that helps.
It lacks the tannin compounds that make red whole wheat "red" (more light brown, actually). White whole wheat flour won't be as white as an unbleached white flour but it will be considerably lighter in color than flour made from red whole wheat.
Paul
White berries are wonderful, I use them all the time. I suggested red because white is usually harder to find locally.
Agree that you should start with either winter white, or red winter or spring for bread. Other options for berries include checking with an organic food store, my local one lets me order 25 pound bags from Central Milling. Walmart of all places also lets you order online and pick up in the store in bulk, and at times their prices are very good. You will likely find that most of us buy in bulk since the pricing is much better, though the whole foods near me had some pretty good prices for white and red berries in the containers that you can scoop and buy by weight. Another option is the Church of the Later Day Saints store. I understand that you don't have to be a member to buy though their coop. There are none anywhere near me, but they do have a lot of locations, and their pricing is very low. https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng
Thank you. That is what I bought for starters to try and I agree, they worked great in the vitamix.
On the facebook thread, several people said they use soft white wheat for things like pastries/quick breads. I'm guessing the protein or gluten is too low for soft white for bread.
Yes, think of soft white for things like banana bread, or pasta .
Welp, I just bought some soft wheat berries, some einkorn berries, and some hard white wheat berries as well as two books for baking with ancient grains and wheat berries.
Thanks for your help and I'll post photos of what I make and ask questions as I figure it all out.
Thanks all! I made a tried and true recipe yesterday because I figured it was best to start with what I know to see how it goes and it went great. It was probably the best loaf I've ever made with this recipe. Now, it's not perfect as it didn't open up from the slashes as I see in so many beautiful photos, but it tasted great and had a lovely texture.
I used Laurel's Bread Book recipe for Lemony Fennel Bread. 100% whole wheat using hard white wheat berries.
Hey that bread looks great, and more importantly, it tasted great. I have made tons of loaves that were overproofed, many that were underproofed, ( and a few that I got right ) , but they all tasted great using winter white whole wheat. BTW, you have the right equip, a mill, and an Ank .
Thanks! I've had that DLX assistent mixer for about 15 years and I use it ALL THE TIME and I bought it secondhand on eBay for way cheap as it was misspelled in a listing AND since this machine has gone under so many names, it's hard to pinpoint it as a used product - Electrolux, Magic Mill, Anskurum, Verona, AEG... that alone probably put people off on on this mixer. Doesn't sound like quality if people keep selling it off! (WRONG!)
I bought one used, and loved it so much I bought another when I found a good price on ebay , just as a backup, though I doubt I will ever need it. I can't explain how much I like using it , not only it is well made, the engineering makes it a joy to use.
LOL - I do understand as I'm the same. The ONLY thing I use the KA for is Italian Meringue icing. I have the plastic bowl for the DLX, but I'm not confident about putting boiling sugar in it! And yes, I've thought about getting a back-up too. And years ago I told my husband that if anything ever happened to it, I would buy one new if I couldn't find a used one again. I use it twice a week at least. I don't know why I ever put it away because I use it so much, but at least it isn't super heavy!
Now that you've used your mockmill, what's your opinion of it?
What setting did you use?
How did the flour compare in fineness (or other qualities) to the flour you made with the Vitamix?
...and any other observations you'd be willing to offer.
Very nice bread, BTW. Congratulations.
I've only used it twice, so I can't be of much help except to say it works very well. I looked up a video of how to use the mock mill in Breadtopia and it was pretty easy to follow. (Like how to open it, run it with rice first to clean the stones, how to get the right sound for the type of grind you want). here is the video: https://youtu.be/mKaLuC9j9VM
Just now I watched this one. I hadn't seen it before. And it is my sentiment too, "Why the heck haven't I done this earlier? Why? because the price was too high and the technology/design hadn't caught up to yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2OZULLAkCc I got it not long after it became more available.
It's not too heavy and sure, it's not the beautiful wood of the Komo, but it's an appliance! And I don't keep it sitting out. It looks fine and works great. I am glad I didn't need to spend extra money for a pretty package. Brilliant.
As far as taste? I think the bread tastes like it did before I milled my own. My husband, after my first loaf (above) said it tasted great. I hadn't told him it was freshly milled at first. Then, we had another slice and we both agreed, it tasted better. It COULD be because I had made that loaf better than before, but I think it was the ingredients.
Now, I'm buying all sorts of wheat berries with no worry about it going rancid. I'll grind it as I need it.
For setting, I use it at the finest so far and that seems to be pretty typical for wheat.
As far as how it compared to the Vitamix - I got a pretty good grind with that too, but it took more pulses. I had to sift through it a bit to make sure I got it all (and I had). So, the Vitamix worked FINE. I just wanted to expand to more - soft wheat for quick bread, corn for cornmeal, semolina flour, etc. The Vitamix would make do, but I knew I wanted to take it up a notch.
I have bought them at Amazon and a couple of other places but then I found that we had to clean them. I'm able to buy CLEAN organic hard red berries from azure market for $25. I buy the white ones for just a little bit more. They have so many wonderful things for cooking bread including a huge thing of organic coconut oil I will be adding to my next month's order. They come through the country once a month and have local pickup locations with volunteers. It is an awesome setup. I put a link below if you would like to try it out.
www.azurestandard.com/start