General
Good morning and Happy Saturday.
My name is Kelly, I am from Iowa. I am mom of 2 grown daughters, grandma to 2 amazing grandsons, wife of an amazing hardworking man, dog mom to 3 rambunctious pups (oreo and Fig my cockerspanials and Molly my 14m Pyrenees) 3 house kitties and 8 barn kitties. I am an Oncology/Hospice Nurse and a self proclaimed foodie. I love to cook and bake , it is a destresser, and I love to find new cooking ideas. I workout regularily and I am always looking for better ways to feed and fuel my body but also love those little idulgences (like a loaf of warm bread). My mouth is watering just looking at all those amazing bread pictures, OMG, you are all amazing! I cannot wait to start making my own.
I am looking at purchasing a flour mill in order to make my own flour for breads and pastas. I am wondering if anyone has experience in this? The mills I have been reviewing all talk about flours for breads and not pasta, wondering if it makes a difference as long as the flour is milled fine.
Thank you for any input. I am sure I will be asking questions regarding bread making as I know I will make mistakes along the way.
Everyone have a safe and happy Saturday!
Happy Bread Baking!
Kelly
Hi Kelly!
The Nutrimill grain mill works great to produce fine flours. It also does not jam up if you shut it off with grain in the hopper.
Pleasanthillgrains.com sells many brands of grain mills.
Thank you. That is one I have been looking at....The KoMo Classic is the one I keep going back to. I think I may need to just bite the bullet. I have read all the reviews, plus its sold out till March so I think its a good sign its a fairly popular item.
thank you for your input, I appreciate it.
using grand-kids as bread models:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62154/oven-spring-possible-miche
Welcome!!
There is definitely a lot to ponder when it comes to home milling. It took some time, but I eventually figured out several features that were important to me personally. We had a small hand crank mill, and using that briefly helped me figure out a few things. Once I had my feature preferences nailed down, it narrowed my mill choices down and made it easier to choose. Not easy, just easy-er. ?
Things I used to filter my choices:
- I started at the back end first: what would I actually do with the flour? Would I really bake with it enough to make it worth doing? Is it hard to bake with home milled flour? Turns out there is a learning curve that's important to know. But I'm glad I went ahead and did it, for multiple reasons. Taste and nutrition are my 2 highest, tho the fun factor is a close third.
- Hand crank vs electric motor? I went with the motorized version. As my shoulder arthritis continues to develop, hand milling was becoming more unpleasant. And the motorized units mill much more quickly than I could do on our little hand mill.
- Sits on counter vs mounts to counter edge? I went with sits-on-counter. Mounting/unmounting decreased the likelihood of me actually using it, if the futz factor was going to be too high. I have had enough kitchen gizmos I didn't use in the past and I wanted to avoid that scenario again. I am using it 2-3X per week, in part because it is convenient to do so.
- Features. This was really hard for me to evaluate online. How do you determine how fine of a flour a particular mill can produce? That requires feel, and while photos, explanations, and comparisons helped some, this consumer wanted to touch the flour - an unrealistic desire. Ditto that for noise levels. A few videos helped somewhat. I figured if it wasn't much louder than their voice, it shouldn't be completely deafening in real time.
- Mill type - steel vs stone vs other. Thank you google, for your input on this one. The various materials can heat flour more or less, and have other factors that escape me right now as I type.
- Cost. This was a big one for me. We are retired and sticking to a budget. Going out and getting one of the spendier versions just wasn't an option for me, mentally or financially. And I didn't want to buy an uber expensive mill that would basically make it way more expensive to make bread than I was willing to pay.
- Grain types, both cost and availability. Perhaps you have a flour mill or co-op nearby you can get grain from easily? My local health food store is a great resource for some things like rye, barley, and oat groats, but less useful for wheat. We decided to get a 25 lb bag of wheat berries, and broke that down into smaller bags to help with storage. (We borrowed a friend's seal-a-meal and made ~ 12 airtight bags instead.) There are definitely places online you can get grains from, though shipping can sometimes be cost prohibitive.
- Availability. I bought mine in early Sept. Some of the ones I had been thinking about were no longer available, and it was hard to tell when they would be back in stock. We waited over 6 months to get our refrigerator (due to covid logistics issues apparently) and it was easier to just let that be another factor to continue to narrow down my selection.
My final 2 contenders were the Mockmill and the Komo Fidibus. I went with the Mockmill and don't regret it! Occasionally I wonder if I would have preferred the Komo, but more out of curiosity and not out of any regret.
Final thought. Someone above mentioned Pleasant Hill Grain - I have dealt with them for other things and they are superb, very focused on customer satisfaction. Another place to look is Breadtopia. They had a discount available that I didn't see until after I got mine from the manufacturer. No idea if they are offering anything now, but they are also a very reputable place to work with. And there are numerous other great companies! I brought up these 2 because I can speak personally from my experiences with them, and have been very happy.
Hopefully something in my ramblings sparks ideas for you to build off of. There is a lot to consider. Enjoy whatever you decide to get!!
If you want to jump in with both feet and get a running start, we host these Community Bakes for the past few years. All, and this means you!, are welcome to join in, learn some new skills hone some old skills, and find that the interactive community in TFL will help nurture you along, or you to us, as the situation arises.
Helping people get past their mistakes (or perhaps helping them create new ones ?) is one of the joys of TFL "membership".
The next Community Bake is scheduled for kicking off in a few days.