February 25, 2009 - 8:20pm
Nutrimill Settings
Hello all. I was just wondering, for those who have a nutrimill, which settings they use to grind. I read the manual when I got mine and left it at the fastest setting to get the finest flour, but I haven't had much luck with the flour I've milled in it . So I was wondering, what settings everyone uses for their milling. At some point I might mill a bunch of flours at various settings and test them out, but for now I'd like to hear from others, what works for them.
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I am thinking of getting this grain mill and have a couple of questions about your situation...
What problems have you had with your milled flour? Has it been too wet, too dry when making your dough?
Is your flour too fine or too course? What type of grain berries are you milling i.e. Wheat, Rye, Oat?
Have you had problems with your bread rising? What exactly has been the problems that seem to come from the flour your milling from your Nutrimill?
Dennis
I just . . . haven't had my dough rise well. I've milled spelt and hard red spring wheat with the same results - when the dough is 50/50 WW, then it will rise about as fast as a regular white loaf, but if it's 100% WW it will rise very, very slowly. By the time it gets to the point where it's about to overproof, it's not very big at all. This might all mean that I need to be patient and gentler with shaping, but I don't really know - I'm not sure how I'd be more gentle with shaping, for starters.
I grind on slow and fine.
I did a test batch of 100% whole wheat bread last week. I made two batches side by side. One was with KA whole wheat, the other was with freshly ground Bob's Red Mill hard red spring wheat berries.
The results: identical rise during fermentation and proofing. The taste of each loaf was also very close. The only difference I noticed was that the loaf made with KA flour had ever so lightly bigger holes--but this was really a minor difference.
I think it is difficult to get oven spring when you 100% whole wheat flour. I have attempted these kinds of loaves many times. The last time I made this bread I proofed at 90 degrees and steamed twice. That gave me more oven spring and a more open crumb. I don't know if that loaf was a fluke or if I am on to something.
--Pamela
I, also, use the slow and fine settings. I use hard white whole wheat. The density depends on the recipe I use. Some recipes produce nice soft loaves, those are more enriched, and some are a little denser than they would be if done in white bread flour.
I have also ground pop corn for corn bread. I grind these on a coarser grind but still slow speed. Corn bread from pop corn is wonderful. Terry R
I've been looking for a source to buy whole kernel corn from for grinding but have only come up with a couple of internet sites so far. I did think about grinding popcorn though. How do you think ground popcorn measures up to ground whole kernel corn?
--Pamela
I think the moisture level in whole kernel corn would worry me using the nutrimill. Pop corn has a unique flavor that really imporves the recipes it is in. I do not plan to use other corn. Terry R
Thanks, Terry, I'll give it a try. --Pamela
The Nutrimill manual recommends the high setting for most flours; pg 2 of the Nutrimill manual is shown below.
Hi, I don't have a Nutrimill, but this is a mill I might buy later on... I ended up winning a Whispermill on eBay that was missing the flour catching bowl but had the top attachment. Since it didn't have the bowl, I figured I could buy one off the net and sure enough, I could.
I won the auction and got the mill at a great price, bought a catcher bowl and have been enjoying homemade flour since. It makes nice flour and I haven't had any problems with it since I got it... I just have to make sure it's running before I add my wheat kernals.
I have been really surprised how much better my breads have been since I started using homemade milled flour. I haven't had any problems with rise like mentioned here, not sure why, accept that I always do a sponge the day before I plan on making bread. I think this might be one factor that has made my bread successful, plus I feel it adds a better flavor to my bread.
My breads have been very soft, fresh and full of flavor. I should also mention that I use Fleishmanns yeast and have tried the SAF bread yeast but found it to be too neutral flavorwise for me. I prefer the yeasty flavor of Fleishmanns.
I also noticed that when making my bread dough that it would be more sticky when using homemade milled flour so I just added more Pillsbury white bread flour to my WW bread to make it less tacky. So far my breads have been excellent and have to admit I've been eating way too much bread these days because of my successes. :)
I've made a couple of totally homemade milled WW flour breads with no White bread flour and they came out the same way, very soft, springy and flavorful.
Oh, and one more thing... I use a Oster Kitchen Center to make and kneed my bread dough. I bought the unit at a Senior Citizen Rummage Sale for $12 and it's been a real help in my kitchen.
It came with all the attachments and had the bread dough hooks. It does a great job of kneeding my dough and allows me to give my bread dough a good workout kneedwise.
Since getting this mixer I really do not do much, if any, manual kneeding now and my breads have come out excellent. I run my machine for about 8-12 minutes of machine kneeding of my dough and it seems to be about right. My dough looks about the same as it does when I manually kneed it, but the machine does all the work. :)
Anyway, I hope you have better success with your homemade milled flours. Homemade milled flour has made a BIG difference in my breads.
Best of luck,
Dennis
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