December 2, 2018 - 12:31pm
Fineness of grind
I've read that the grainmaker can make fine flour but it may take two grindings to get there, similar results from wondermill jr, and the country living. I've read the Komo, and Mockmill can grind a very fine flour on the first pass.
It seems the blendtec and wondermill electric can grind a fine flour on the first pass as well.
I'm curious if any of these will grind to a "cake" or "pastry" flour fineness or more of "all purpose" level.
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I have the older Wondermill (formally called the Whispermill). The WonderMill is the replacement for what used to be the GrainMaster WhisperMill. The owner's of the WonderMill (Grote Molen, Inc) are making the WonderMill in the same factory. It's the same high-speed, quietmydesign in the same compact design. As I understand it, the new Wondermill is improved over mine as unlike my older model, you can stop and start the mill with grain in the hopper and is it quieter.
I have had mine over 15 years, at least 1000 lbs of grain run through it flawlessly. My setting for flour fineness is in the middle and the flour is fine. I grind both wheat and rye berries. There is room on the setting to make it finer still but haven't had the need to. I will run this mill till it dies and then will buy the new updated and improved Wondermill. The design is high speed impact mill which keeps the flour cool and talcum power fine. Do more research. Not sure where you hear the flour needs two passes but that is absolutely not the case. there are YouTube videos too and the home site. The price is an amazing value too. You will be very happy if you choose this mill...
Good Luck.
I have a Komo Fidibus XL. I have never aimed for cake or AP fineness. But I bake 60% ww breads and 100% ww pastries from its first pass products every few days, with hard and soft white and red wheat. If I ever wanted finer flour, then the first pass would have to be sieved and remilled. I have never had the need nor patience for any finer sieving than my #55 tamis. You can of course repeat sieving and remilling until you get the fineness you seek.
But note of course that cake and AP flours are not just fine, but they are also the products of fractionation such that the outermost layers of the kernels are removed beforehand and all that is fine-milled is the kernels' white starchy hearts. You cannot do that at home with any mill. It takes precision seed tempering and industrial roller-milling to strip off those layers. As many TFL posts have echoed, you cannot replicate supermarket cake or AP flour at home with a mill.
Happy milling,
Tom
The designation of "cake flour" is mainly determined by the protein (gluten) content of a flour. "Cake" flour is made from a soft wheat(the grains are easily chewed). "Bread" flour is made from a high protein hard wheat (tooth breakers!). "AP" is a blend of many types of wheat and it is generally "ok" to use in cakes and will make an "OK" loaf of bread. Hence the name "all purpose". Commercial millers sieve their ground wheat multiple times to achieve the fineness they sell.Also, every batch of wheat is tested for its protein and moisture content before milling so they can achieve the correct blend. Every crop is different depending on the variety planted, the rain, temp and weather situation that growing season.
Home milling is very much like baking bread-how detailed and persnickety do you want to be? You will not achieve the fine-ness of grind of commercial flour without sieving. It is a more involved process than I do but there are Fresh Loafers that sieve down to great fineness. I hope they chime in for you. I accept the finest grind on my current machine and adapt the recipe technique around it. I buy AP flour for those items that need it and cake flour if I'm really particular.
I own a "Whispermill" (very loud so where did the name come from?) which implodes the grain and a Kitchenaid MockMill (a stone grinder). Whispermill can do up to 8 cups but I find I have to freeze the grain or it heats the flour to too high a temp-which can cause starch damage. My favorite is the Mockmill. The Mock Mill is slow but it is designed to grind a few cups of flour prior to its immediate use. Can't get any fresher than that. There are tricks and tips to using any piece of equipment but the best teacher is trying one.
Careful-learning curve ahead!
We have three flour mills. We have a Mock Mill Professional 200, a Wonder Mill, and a Magic Mill. The Mock Mill does great milling a fine flour but over heats a lot. The Wonder Mill is great but we have to run the flour through twice. It goes faster than the Mock Mill even using it twice. My personal favorite is the Magic Mill. It has a big heavy duty motor on it and is very fast and produces a fine flour. They are hard to find. We found our first one for $25 that an old farm wife (term if endearment) just wanted to get rid of. We bought a second one for about $200 on eBay.