June 26, 2023 - 7:58am
Milling Combinations
I'm new to this whole milling thing which has given cause for confusion and what seems like hundreds of questions.
First, is there such a thing as a good book on the subject to help clear up the confusion?
Considering that there are so many different berries available, such as,
- Hard, Red, Winter Wheat
- Hard, White, Winter Wheat
- Hard, Red, Spring Wheat
- Hard, White, Spring Wheat
- Soft, Red, Winter Wheat
- Soft, White, Winter Wheat
- Soft, Red, Spring Wheat
- Soft, White, Spring Wheat
- how does one even begin to decide which berries to mill. Shoot, a person could become berry poor if one started ordering 25# bags of all these varieties!! I'm sure it comes down to type of bread and taste one prefers. In order to make this discussion simple, let's take into consideration a white table/ sandwich bread with a robust taste. Something the complete opposite of that mushy, tasteless Wonder Bread found at my local grocery. Many thx for the enlightenment!!
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is what I would use for its color, potentially higher protein content, and consequently its strength to make the white sandwich bread you desire.
You can create a flavorful, robust white whole wheat bread using 100% freshly milled flour by incorporating CLAS, and it can be ready in just a few hours.
P.S.
If you use CLAS, you can handle any freshly milled whole-grain flour as easily as you can with white flour. It is simple to use, and the benefits you will gain from using it will likely outweigh those gained from reading a book on whole-grain.
Yippee
Ricko,
The grain you purchase should be based on what you're baking, with that in mind I've pasted a link for a quick overview.
Six Classes of Wheat | Wheat Classes & Varieties | EatWheat
https://eatwheat.org/learn/kinds-of-wheat/
Here is the a book about milling and baking
Flour Lab: An At-Home Guide to Baking with Freshly Milled Grains
by Adam Leonti, Katie Parla, Marc Vetri (Foreword by)
Here is some info on rye
https://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/grain-month-calendar/rye-triticale-august-grains-month/types-rye
Here is an image I got from 'The Rye Baker' website and added the labels which I use as a guide when I'm milling and sifting rye:
RyeFlourBLOG2.jpg
If you move beyond whole grain flour you'll go down the rabbit hole of sifting (hand vs. electric) of which this site has a lot of information and recommendations.
This info should get you started. The local library and google are also great resources.
Tony
Thank you Tony and to everyone else for your comments.
I normally buy just Red Hard , White Hard, and White Soft, and I use White Hard the most by far. I find that Red has a strong grassy flavor, so I very rarely use it for 100% of any loaf. The white varieties have much less of that flavor and taste much more like Bread Flour or AP, but with a bit more substance so I often just use that, on occassion I will use to to 40% red if I am trying to get that wheaty flavor. Soft is great for pancakes, waffles, or muffins. Again, I use white soft because I am not trying to get that wheaty flavor that you get with red.
Thank you Barry!
When you make your bread, do you use 100% fresh milled flour, or do you mix a percentage of fresh milled in with a commercial flour, like KA bread flour?
It seems I've read somewhere that you have to do the mix in order to get a good rise. Perhaps it has to do with " tempering" of the fresh milled flour?
Tempering, now there's another confusing subject for me! How long does it take to temper a batch of freshly milled flour in order to get a good rise?
Here's the link to a previous discussion on the topic; I hope it's helpful:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71016/aging-oxidizing-freshly-ground-whole-wheat-flour
Yippee
i usually go 100% home milled wheat, no sifting, no addinng BF or AP, though I do add a tiny amount of Vit C to help since I am using sourdough starter, and usually a long cold ferment.
I have never experimented with tempering. I mill a bunch, and use what I need, the rest goes in the freezer. The next time I bake , I pull from the freezer - so sometimes the flour is all fresh, sometimes all from the freezer, and sometimes a bit of both.
Ricko,
One doesn't temper flour. One may temper un-milled kernels by adding a little moisture for a few hours in order to toughen the bran. The toughened bran will maintain larger flakes during milling, thus enabling more to be removed by sieving.
Hi,
i use freshly milled red and white hard wheat, but my preference is for the red for taste. Yes, its flavor and texture could be a bit strong but NOT if you use the concentrated lactic acid sourdough called clas.There are simple recipes that are completed without long bulk fermentation. You can complete a sourdough loaf from milling to end of bake in 4.75 hours. I use soft wheat for quick baking powder breads.
My bread made from fresh red hard wheat flour does not have a grassy flavor when CLAS is used.
Yippee
see above;repeat
I suggest you try different grains and see what you like. You can buy 5 lb bags or sometimes 2.5 lbs. I love the grains from Barton Spring Mills and highly recommend them. Soft wheat is best for baked goods that don’t require much gluten like flat breads or desserts. There are many different ways you can Mill and get good results. I have the Mockmill 200 and mill first at a setting just before the stones are touching. I then sift with a #30 drum sifter and then re-mill with the stones clicking and then sift with a #40 which creates a high extraction flour.
I have made 100% fresh milled breads and I also like to use a combo with KAF bread flour or AP.
You can also sprout your grains and dry them out and mill. Just be aware that sprouted flour used in a high % has its own set of issues to deal with. Just experiment and have fun.
Ian