Why I Started Milling my Own Flour

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Last Updated on June 20, by Michelle

Bill and I pictured ourselves milling our own flour when we were newlyweds. Then we priced the grains and researched the giant, awkward mill options and realized it was too costly and cumbersome for our small kitchen and smaller budget.

Wow, how things have changed!

Yes, we have a bigger kitchen these days.

But what&#;s really changed?

• Home grain mills&#;they&#;re so much more compact than they used to be, not to mention beautiful, no?
• And wheat berries&#;they&#;re readily available, at great prices.
• Today&#;s mills can grind so many alternative grain options! See all the options my Harvest Mill can grind below.

Why Do I Mill My Own Flour?

I mill my own flour for 4 reasons really:

Nutrition&#;

Since the wheat berries you use to grind flour at home haven&#;t been processed yet, the berries retain all of the grain&#;s vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, which makes fresh flour so much more nutritious for you and your family than commercially-ground flours. Those were ground long before they reached your kitchen, stripped of all the really good-for-your stuff, and then left to sit on a store shelf for months. 

Variety&#;

If your family uses alternative flours, having a grain mill at home can be helpful to grind rye, corn, rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, lentils, and more, which can save tons of money over purchasing non-wheat flours at the store.

Cost&#;

Milling your own flour can be cheaper than purchasing flour at the store. Obviously, this depends on what kind of wheat you purchase, where you live, and what flour you normally purchase, but for our family, we&#;ve done the math, and it&#;s cheaper for us to grind our own flour at home than it is for us to purchase flour at our local supermarket. (See the breakdown of my cost benefit analysis below.)

Taste&#;

Fresh flour just tastes better. Freshly ground wheat takes on amazing variety of flavor, based on what wheat berries you choose&#; the flour is a little sweeter, or maybe little nuttier, like the flavor profile of these delicious chocolate chip cookies made with fresh flour&#; it&#;s hard to describe, but it&#;s always a richer flavor when the flour is fresh.

What are Wheat Berries & Why are They Good for You?

Wheat berries are hard kernels of wheat. In each little berry, there are 3 parts:

• the bran (loaded with fiber and nutrients)
• the germ (loaded with oils, vitamins, proteins, and minerals)
• and the endosperm (loaded with starch)

When you purchase flour at the store, the only part of the wheat berry that remains is the endosperm, or lots of starch. That&#;s it. And that&#;s why flour companies have to add back in good stuff and call it &#;enriched.&#;

The germ and bran parts of the wheat berry are removed from commercial flours because they&#;re oily and turn rancid quickly, making fresh flour not shelf stable.

But wheat berries? They last (pretty much) forever. And since you&#;re grinding in the germ and the bran, which flour companies have to strip away, freshly ground flour is a much more nutritious option than even the best flours you can buy.

Added bonus? Wheat berries aren&#;t just for making fresh flour! If you want some inspiration on ways to cook and eat wheat berries you&#;ll find that right here.

Bread Making Tips if You&#;re Milling Your Own Flour

I&#;m still learning all the ways I want to incorporate fresh milled flour into our kitchen, but here are a few tips I&#;ve figured out along the way.

• Don&#;t hesitate to use 1/2 fresh milled and 1/2 commercial flour in your recipes. There is definitely a different texture and that helps keep things more like you&#;re used to.
• Use about 3 TBs less per cup, compared to commercial flour, because fresh flour absorbs more liquid.
• Try to not add any extra flour as you&#;re working with your dough. Wet your hands well when working with slightly sticky dough to help it stick less to your hands.
• Avoid over-kneading. Try mixing your ingredients together then walking away for 10 or 20 minutes. Bonus, letting your bread dough sit will make it less sticky when you&#;ve returned.
• Add vital wheat gluten to your dough if you have trouble with your bread rising. Add 1 TB per 1 cup of flour. (This is where I get my vital wheat gluten.)

Is it Expensive to Mill Your Own Flour?

I was so pleased when I sat down to do a cost-benefit analysis of freshly milled flour versus what I buy in the store. I mean, after all, the healthier option is always more expensive, right? Well this is one instance where I discovered I&#;m actually saving money by going with the healthiest option.

What I&#;m saving on flour will eventually pay for my mill!

Here&#;s how the numbers break down for me:

• When I ordered a bulk bag of wheat berries recently, I paid $23.80 plus $2.02 in shipping for 25 pounds. (See below for my two best sources of wheat berries.) Since 50 pounds of wheat berries doesn&#;t translate to 50 pounds of flour, I had to do some math.
• Grinding 2 c. of wheat berries yields about 3 1/3 c. of flour for me (there are many variables here though, you may have slightly different results). Grinding the wheat adds air to it and produces more volume. So, in my experience, every 1 cup of wheat berries yields about 1.65 cups of flour.
• Then there are roughly 2 1/2 cups of wheat berries for every 1 pound, so that equates to a little more than 4 cups of flour per pound of wheat berries.
• An average 5 lb. bag of flour from the store contains about 18 cups of flour. So you need about 4.5 pounds of wheat berries to equal a bag of store bought flour.
• I&#;m paying $0.96 per pound of wheat berries, so I&#;m spending about $4.32 for 5 pounds of flour.
• King Arthur Whole Wheat flour is currently listed for $5.95/5 lbs. on their website.

So I&#;m keeping $1.63 in my pocket for every 5 pounds of flour!

Given that a large family can use up to 240 bags of flour in a year, you can save $391.20/year guys!

So my mill was paid off in about 9 months time, and every year thereafter I can save as much $400 while feeding my family the most nutritious flour option!

Now here&#;s where I&#;m totally transparent and fess up that I still use a combination of King Arthur flour and fresh milled. So in reality I probably only save a few hundred dollars, but hey, I&#;ll take it!

That&#;s a win-win squared, or something like that. &#;

How much fresh flour will 5 pounds of wheat berries make?

The pounds of wheat berries you grind should translate to the same poundage of flour. Although grinding the wheat aerates it and creates much more volume, 5 pounds of wheat berries should make 5 pounds of flour.

In terms of measurement, I&#;ve found that grinding about half the amount of wheat berries compared to the amount of flour I need does the trick. So if a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, I&#;ll need to grind about 1 cup of wheat berries.

Where Do You Get Wheat Berries?

I found the best option for me is Azure Standard. Here&#;s the wheat berries I use for bread making. And here is a finder to let you know if Azure has a delivery drop near you. (I was elated when they recently expanded their reach into our area of New England.)

But I&#;ve also ordered a 35-pound bucket of these wheat berries and been very pleased.

If you can find a local farmer who grows and sells wheat berries that would be the best option.

What Alternative Grains Can You Mill at Home?

My Nutrimill Harvest Mill can grind all of these grain options:

hard wheat, soft wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, barley, einkorn, farro, quinoa, millet, amaranth, sorghum, brown rice, wild rice, oat, dried corn, buckwheat, soy beans, lima beans, black beans, pinto beans, lentils, chickpeas, and more.

But each mill has different alternative grains that it can process into flour. Watch here for many alternative grains that I ground into flour in a Mockmill Lino 100.

There are many options for grain mills. These are the 3 I recommend: The Classic Nutrimill does a great job, at the lowest price point. The Harvest Mill wins for most beautiful to sit on your counter. And the Mockmill is a beautiful workhorse that wins for best engineered, best at milling alternative grains, and finest flour, but it also sits at the highest price point.

I talk about my grain mill, as well as the 11 other kitchen tools I seriously would hate to be without in this episode of my podcast:

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to inspire me with what you&#;re baking @souly.rested.

More Fresh Flour Recipes:

Sourdough Bread, Without Wasted Discard

The Secret to a Perfect Giant Cookie

Tortillas Made with Fresh Flour

Chocolate Chip Cookies Made with Fresh Flour

Learn All About Fresh Flour in my free e-course

My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 31:14

The company is the world’s best Wheat Flour Machine Price supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

I was really excited to see the enthusiasm with the &#;Real Food&#; food budget series.  It seems like many of us are living on a budget and could learn from one another on how to save money, yet, keep good wholesome food on the table.

I wanted to start the series off with my favorite kitchen appliance, and most used, that saves my family real money in our grocery bill.

Owning a grain mill.

I have never actually spent time documenting exactly how much I save, so starting this month I&#;m going to keep real records on my end and hopefully share that with you in a month.  That will show me how much I&#;m spending and saving by owning a grain mill.

For now, I&#;m going to show you exactly what a grain mill does, the different kind of wheat berries that I use, with an estimate of what I&#;m spending a month on baked goods.

What is a Grain Mill?

A grain mill is a home mill that grinds wheat berries into homemade flour.  If you&#;d like information on wheat berries, check out my post on sprouting wheat berries.

Not only are we saving money by grinding our own flour, but we&#;re also getting the benefits of a flour rich in all of its nutrients.

Within 72 hours of the wheat berry being ground, most of its nutrients will be lost and the wheat germ will begin to go rancid.  Often, whole wheat flour you buy at the grocery store has been sitting in a warehouse for some time and can be void of any nutrients at all.

When you grind your own at home, you are able to use the flour immediately retaining all of it&#;s minerals and vitamins in your baked goods or store your leftover flour for up to 3 days in the refrigerator, or longer in your freezer.

How Does a Grain Mill Work?

There are many different kinds of grain mills on the market.  I own a Nutrimill and absolutely love it.  It grinds my wheat berries into a fine powder just like you&#;d find at the supermarket.

Below is a video which will show you how my Nutrimill grinds wheat berries into a fine flour.

What Kind of Wheat Berries Should I Use?

There are different kinds of wheat berries that you can use.  Myself, I stick to two types of wheat berries that work beautifully in my baking.

I could experiment with other kinds of grains, but when it comes to baking, I&#;m in my zone.  I like to use what my family loves and works.

I use a combination of organic soft white wheat berries (left) and hard red winter wheat (right).

I use two different types because they each contain a different amount of gluten and protein.

Soft White Wheat

The soft white wheat berry is a lighter wheat with less gluten and protein.  I compare it to white flour.

I use it for&#;

• pancakes
• pie crusts
• cakes
• cookies
• any other low rising baked good

When you need to make a high rising baked good, you&#;ll need to use a &#;hard&#; wheat berry for the gluten which will allow your baked good to rise.

Hard Red Winter Wheat

The hard red winter wheat is high in gluten and protein.

I use it for&#;

• whole wheat bread loaf
• hamburger/hot dog buns
• english muffins
• pizza dough
• tortillas
• any other high rising baked good

For most of my high rising breads, I use a combination of both flours.  More hard red than soft white.

The Taste

For myself, the best thing about grinding your own whole wheat flour is the taste.  It taste nothing like the whole wheat flour you buy at the store.

It&#;s soft, sweet, and it&#;s flavor is comparable to a white flour.  It&#;s not the dense and gritty type of end product you get with store bought whole wheat flour.

No one will be left saying, &#;you used whole wheat, huh?&#;  Really&#; it&#;s amazing!

How Do You Use it in Recipes?

When I find whole wheat recipes online, they usually are a combination of whole wheat and white flour.

I substitute it one for one.  So if a recipe calls for 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour, I use 2 cups hard red wheat and 1 cup soft white wheat.

Easy peasy.

Now, since it is freshly milled and lighter for every cup of flour I add an additional 2 heaping &#;big&#; spoons of flour.  You know, the big spoon, not the little spoon &#;

That&#;s really it.  Every recipe turns out great.  I never have any problems.

The Cost

The Nutrimill cost around $230.  I was able to buy mine over two years ago on Craigslist for $190.  It was pretty much brand new and still works like the first day I used it.

It is expensive but worth it.

Organic wheat berries cost around $30 per 50lb bag.

Two, 50lb bags of wheat berries last my family about four &#; five months, depending on the season.  I bake more during the winter.

Even if it lasts 4 months, that means I&#;m spending $15 per month on baked goods.  (Well, without adding in honey and whatever fat I&#;m using to add in.)

Per Month I bake (approximately)&#;

• 8 loaves of bread
• 16 hamburger buns
• 24 tortillas
• 8 batches of pancakes
• 4 batches of pizza dough

All of that for $15 per month.

If I were to buy all of that at the grocery store it would cost over $50 and that is on the low end.  If I were to buy organic, the price would be higher.

Now remember, this is an estimate.  I&#;m going to start keeping records to find out approximate costs.

Time

What this doesn&#;t add in though, is time.

I do own a kitchen aid stand mixer which does all of my kneading for me, so really, the time is cut down that way.

But what if you work full time, outside of the home, and don&#;t have the time?

I&#;m going to start sharing my recipes to give you an idea of how much time it takes to make these things.  Things like pizza, tortillas, and pancakes are quick to make.

Bread and buns can be made on a weekend or if you don&#;t want to spend your free weekend baking (which I understand) just buy the longer rising breads at places like Trader Joes or Whole Foods that offer great varieties on sprouted, whole wheat, and organic breads.

You gotta do what works for you family &#;

But for those of us budgeting on mostly a one income family, a grain mill is a great investment to save on our groceries.

Do you own a grain mill?  What kind?  Please share any advice with us in the comments below.

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