Anyone Out There Grind Their Own Wheat?

[EmilyStraw]

I am looking in to grinding my own wheat instead of buying flour at the store. MUCH healthier for you. Anyone out there do this already? Have you tried it with any PC recipes, and what did you think?

 

[esavvymom]

I used to, not as much lately. I have Hard white and Soft white. Hard varieties are more for yeast products. Soft varieties work best in baking or as an all purpose flour. I do know that it is something you have to "ease" into or get used to from a taste perspective. Whole wheat is different.I need to do it more often again. I get my grains through a buying coop with Breadbeckers. There are several places now to get them. Since i havent done it as much the last few years, I havent tried it in PC recipes, but then again, we dont have alot of recipes using flour....not that I can think of. So much uses a mix or something.I have a NutriMill grinder. Love it. And it has a great warranty. The motor on my first one died for some reasone and they replaced it not questions asked! I know you didnt ask about mills, must thought I would throw that in for free!

 

[pampered1224]

Bobbi, is there really that much of a difference in home ground wheat? The reason I am asking is I have a VitaMix and I got the wheat grinding canister. Someone told me too that it is actually cheaper too to grind your own. I have been skeptical of that and honestly have been reluctant to even try it as I have to go to Outpost to get any wheat. And we all know how expensive specialty shops can be!

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Bobbi, is there really that much of a difference in home ground wheat? The reason I am asking is I have a VitaMix and I got the wheat grinding canister. Someone told me too that it is actually cheaper too to grind your own. I have been skeptical of that and honestly have been reluctant to even try it as I have to go to Outpost to get any wheat. And we all know how expensive specialty shops can be!

The best and cheapest way to get grain is to order it online!

I want a Nutrimill! Or a Vitamix. Or a Blendtec. I'm not picky!

Especially now that Jovial Foods now has Einkorn grain for sale. We don't eat wheat - except for occasionally this. Read about it and how it's different from regular wheat! I use it about once a week for a baked good, or pizza crust, and so far, neither my son nor I have had a reaction to it like we have to regular wheat. It's pretty amazing stuff.

jovialfoods.com

 

[pampered1224]

Thanks for that info Becky! I am going to have to try that. I know it is just simply better to do a less digestible version of wheat just for the diabetic angle. And I do so love the nuttier flavor of a more "granular" wheat bread. I just do not like bricks! So I gotta perfect my bread recipe.

 

[esavvymom]

It has been awhile since I bought a bucket of grain, but I think overall it is cheaper, yes. Especially if you consider the QUALITY of the flour you get when you grind your own. It is not super-processed and virtually killed of nutrients. To buy a good flour in the store costs $3-5 for 5lb bags. I can grind 4cups of wheat berries and get 8 cups of fresh flour. You can imagine how many cups of berries I have in A 6 gallon bucket,


As far as the brick loaves, It does take practice. For a bread recipe my family likes that is whole wheat, i learned that if i let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then I divide it into loaves. Then for each loaf, i roll out the dough gently, like I would for a pie crust. I dont make it thin, just a big rectangle or so. Then I tightly roll it back up into a loaf shape. Doing that seems to work in air or something, not sure the reason, but my bread texture is much softer when I do that.

I also know if you mix your berry types....so some hard and some soft, you can soften the texture too. I just havent yet found a perfect blend for an all-purpose subsitute that makes baked goods taste right to me.

 

[pampered1224]

Thank you for that insight. I used to make bread a lot. I even won grand champion ribbons at our county fair - 9 years in 4-H and 9 grand champions. But that was only for white bread. I never could get a wheat bread to turn out. Now I know why. You have to treat wheat flour bread, or multi-grain breads with a so much gentler touch. (What can I say? I love to knead the crap out of dough and that is not a good thing with wheat flour!)

 

[EmilyStraw]

From what I can find, home ground wheat is WAY better for you than any wheat you can buy at the store. Everything at the store has to have a decent shelf life, but to do this they HAVE to take out some of the nutrients from the flour. Even organic, whole wheat flour still only has the kernel and the bran, and they take out the wheat germ and wheat germ oil from the flour before they package it. This is where most of the nutrients from wheat berries come from, but those components go rancid pretty quickly so they always take them out. When you do your own flour at home, you need to use it pretty quickly (within 48 hours) or else the oils and germ will go rancid. It's an extra step in making bread products, but really, it's only one extra step if you make your own breads anyways. I am looking at PC recipes with the plan to make my own pizza doughs/french breads/etc. instead of using packaged and processed ones. It will be up to the host for my shows, but for my own home I plan on making our own.

 

[EmilyStraw]

I used to, not as much lately. I have Hard white and Soft white. Hard varieties are more for yeast products. Soft varieties work best in baking or as an all purpose flour. I do know that it is something you have to "ease" into or get used to from a taste perspective. Whole wheat is different.

I need to do it more often again. I get my grains through a buying coop with Breadbeckers. There are several places now to get them.

Since i havent done it as much the last few years, I havent tried it in PC recipes, but then again, we dont have alot of recipes using flour....not that I can think of. So much uses a mix or something.

I have a NutriMill grinder. Love it. And it has a great warranty. The motor on my first one died for some reasone and they replaced it not questions asked! I know you didnt ask about mills, must thought I would throw that in for free!

PS this is GREAT information, thank you! I have been looking at the Nutrimill too, so this is helpful

 

[Jennie4PC]

We grind our own wheat here. It is so much better then store bought.

 

[esavvymom]

From what I can find, home ground wheat is WAY better for you than any wheat you can buy at the store. Everything at the store has to have a decent shelf life, but to do this they HAVE to take out some of the nutrients from the flour. Even organic, whole wheat flour still only has the kernel and the bran, and they take out the wheat germ and wheat germ oil from the flour before they package it. This is where most of the nutrients from wheat berries come from, but those components go rancid pretty quickly so they always take them out. When you do your own flour at home, you need to use it pretty quickly (within 48 hours) or else the oils and germ will go rancid. It's an extra step in making bread products, but really, it's only one extra step if you make your own breads anyways. I am looking at PC recipes with the plan to make my own pizza doughs/french breads/etc. instead of using packaged and processed ones. It will be up to the host for my shows, but for my own home I plan on making our own.

I know that you do want to grind what you will use, not lots of extra. I typically have a little left over. You can store flour in the fridge to extend shelf life, but yes, dont grind too much more than you will use in the next few days, etc. if you use flour often, it would be ok, but if you go weeks between baking, then I wouldnt.

 

[kam]

Bobbi, is there really that much of a difference in home ground wheat? The reason I am asking is I have a VitaMix and I got the wheat grinding canister. Someone told me too that it is actually cheaper too to grind your own. I have been skeptical of that and honestly have been reluctant to even try it as I have to go to Outpost to get any wheat. And we all know how expensive specialty shops can be!

What do you think of the Vitamix? I was pretty close to getting one a few months ago, but couldn't justify it.

I get that it is a mega powerful motor and isn't going to die like other blenders. And I also realize it is more than a blender.

We just couldn't come up with enough things we would use it for.

I could see making healthy drinks with things in it that I don't like or making the soups. But that is all I could come up with. And a juicer would handle one of those just fine.

(We don't need it to make any kind of frozen/alcoholic drinks as we have the Margaritaville.)

So, what are some things that you do with the Vitamix?