Homemade flour

Wheat berries in the hopper

We have recently been making our own flour.  My first reaction was, why haven't we always been doing this?  Although it can be complicated, to start out it is really quiet basic.   Buy wheat berries, put them in the mill, grind them into flour, use the flour.  A year ago we made a good investment and bought the commercial grade Champion Juicer.   We also bought the grain mill attachment, kept it in the box and somewhat forgot about it.  We've enjoyed many Saturday mornings with apple-celery or carrot-ginger juice and now that we have our own place and the juicer has a more permanent location on our counter we decided it was time to start milling.  There are many reasons why milling your own flour is a great idea.  One is price.  A 5lb. bag of organic wheat flour, which is approximately 20 cups, will cost roughly $7.95.  To buy 5lbs. of organic wheat berries, which will make approximately 22.5 cups of flour, it costs roughly $6.45.  So, it's about $0.39 for a cup of organic wheat flour store bought or $0.28 if you make it yourself.  Besides price, freshly ground flour has a lot more natural rise in it.  I've been working on something I call, The Great Bread Experiment, which entails making many bread recipes because my goal is to eventually make all the bread in our house - pitas, naan, bread, rolls, pizza dough, etc.  From this experiment I can tell you that freshly ground flour makes bread that rises really well.   Also, from what I've been reading the second wheat gets milled into flour it has the most nutrients, the longer it sits around the more it loses, so perhaps milling your own flour is also healthier for you?   Either way, I think we'll be milling our own from now on.

From wheat berries to flour in a mater of minutes!

Ummm.. fresh baked wheat rolls with homemade flour