Fresh milled flour is simply real flour. Using a home grain mill, wheat berries (the whole grain wheat kernel, essentially unmilled flour) are ground into flour and used as soon as possible. The reason using fresh milled flour quickly is important is because flour is actually a perishable food.

Just like tomatoes, eggs, or milk, flour is actually best and most nutritious the sooner you eat it (after milling). 

You see, whole grain wheat berries contain oils, that are kept safely inside the outer casing of the wheat. When kept as whole wheat berries, they last pretty much forever without spoiling. But as soon as those oils inside the wheat are exposed to air (when they’re milled into flour), they start going bad.

The sooner you can use flour after it’s milled, the more nutrients remain.

How do I start milling flour at home?

In order to start milling flour at home, you need two things: a grain mill and wheat berries.

Now, there’s some recommendations for using other household appliances, like a coffee grinder, blender, or food processer to grind wheat berries into flour, but I don’t personally recommend that. I’ve heard and see too many horror stories where folks destroy an expensive machine trying to make it grind super-hard wheat berries into flour.

You’re much better off investing in a great grain mill. Otherwise, you risk wasting money needing to re-purchase expensive appliances if they burn out.

When you’re new to milling flour, figuring out which wheat berries to use can be suer confusing. See my Ultimate Guide to Wheat Berries here, or my simple grain chart here.

Which wheat berries to make flour with

Here’s a very simple breakdown of which wheat berries to use when milling flour at home:

-> ancient grains

I use ancient grains as my all-purpose flour. They’re great in baked goods, pastries, bread (I usually add vital wheat gluten if I’m using ancient grains for bread, though, because they’re lower in gluten). Some of my favorite ancient grains are einkorn, spelt, khorasan, emmer (farro), and barley.

-> heritage grains

Heritage grains are the older (not hybridized) versions of hard red and hard white wheat. I use heritage grains for all my bread making. My current favorites are rouge de beaux, turkey red, and dakota snow.

(Use code “soulyrested” to save on all heritage grains!)

-> hard red/hard white (modern grains)

These are your “classic” bread flour grains. These are bred specifically to be high gluten and make tall, fluffy bread. Shop organic, regenerative hard white wheat berries.

-> soft white (modern)

Soft white wheat is used for all kinds of baking and pastry making.

-> alternative grains (gluten-free)

If you’re looking to avoid gluten, alternative grains are a great option for you. Some of the grains in this category would be buckwheat, millet, sorghum, chickpeas, oat groats, and so on. Learn all about alternative grains here.

Why is fresh flour better than store bought flour?

In short, store bought flour is the processed, refined version of what real flour should be.

Milling your own flour allows you to enjoy nutritious, real, whole grain flour, straight from your mill. No middle man, no processing, no added ingredients.

Just you, your grain mill, and wheat berries.

Fresh milled flour = 1 ingredient (whole grain wheat berries, ground into flour).

Store bought flour = only the starchy part of wheat + synthetic vitamins + bleaching agents + dough enhancers, maturing agents, and added enzymes.

Fresh milled flour terms:

If you spend any length of time on a trendy Instagram page where the protagonist owns a grain mill, you’ll come across some fresh flour terms that I figured we should talk about.

what is a grain mill

Back in the day, milling flour used to involve huge milling stones that could only be turned by livestock like oxen. These days, we’re able to harness that same power, but with a tabletop, electric home grain mill.

Grain mills come in two different forms: stone mills and impact mills. Stone mills use two rotating stones, just like the heavy ones from the olden days, to grind wheat berries into flour. Impact mills, on the other hand, use metal teeth to “shatter” wheat berries into flour. Although lots of folks prefer stone mills, there’s not truly a difference in the flour from a stone mill or an impact mill, at least in my experience. They’re both great kinds of grain mills.

If you want a full rundown on stone mills versus impact mills, read about that here.

what are wheat berries

Wheat berries are the whole kernel form of wheat. If you were to walk into a wheat field and grab a handful of wheat stalks, shake them really hard, and remove the hulls, you’d be left with wheat berries.

Wheat berries are made up of three parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.

The bran is the outer casing of the wheat berry that keeps the oils and nutrients inside the berry fresh indefinitely.

The germ is the part of the wheat berry that would sprout if you planted the wheat. It’s essentially the embryo of wheat. It also contains nutrients to keep the plant alive long enough to continue growing before it’s mature enough to make it’s own food. 

The endosperm is the starchy, carbohydrate part of the wheat berry. Again, if you were to plant the wheat, it’s the part that would sustain growth after the nutrients in the germ were used up.

what is fresh flour

Fresh flour is simply flour that’s been milled from wheat berries and used fresh. Ideally, true fresh milled flour shouldn’t sit too long before it’s used. The natural, healthy oils in the flour will start to go rancid and loose nutrients.

Does fresh milled flour bake differently?

Technically fresh milled flour does bake differently than commercial flour does. That’s for a few reasons.

One, because commercial flour has added ingredients to help dough develop gluten, bake better bread, make more tender baked goods, and so on. Obviously fresh milled flour doesn’t contain those.

Two, fresh flour does contain bran and germ, which can pose somewhat of an issue in baking from time to time. For instance, when you’re making bread with fresh flour the bran tends to “cut” the gluten strands since it’s somewhat “sharp.” I’ve found the best way around this is to knead my dough for a little longer, and add vital wheat gluten if I’m feeling fancy.

Fresh milled flour recipes

If you’re just starting out with fresh milled flour, I often recommend that people actually don’t use specifically fresh milled recipes. Which i know is especially strange coming from someone who shares fresh milled flour recipes… But if you start out with recipes you know well, you’ll be more likely to be successful. That being said, once you’ve made a couple of your family’s classic recipes with fresh flour, you’ll probably be ready to graduate to new recipes. Here are a few of my favorites.

• fresh flour sourdough sandwich bread (soft & sturdy)
• the best sandwich bread with fresh milled flour (yeast)
• homemade tortillas with fresh flour
• fresh milled einkorn chocolate chip cookies
• the best fresh milled blueberry muffins
• lemon bars with fresh flour
• lasagna noodles from scratch

Want more? See my full library of free fresh milled flour recipes.

What’s bad about store bought flour?

The easiest way to explain why I choose not to buy flour at the store anymore is for two reasons:

What’s missing from modern flour,

And what’s added to modern flour.

1. What’s missing: All flour starts as whole grain wheat kernels called wheat “berries.” Historically, flour is made simply by grinding those wheat berries into flour. But once we realized that flour could turn from a use-quickly food into a long-term shelf-stable food, everything changed. You see, the bran and germ parts of the wheat contain oils. These oils hold lots of nutrients, but they’re also what cause flour to go bad quickly. Once flour millers realized that removing these two parts of the wheat through sifting and heating, the powdery, starchy, white flour we know of was born. Flour should be whole grain, ground wheat: the bran, germ, and endosperm. Instead we just get the starchy endosperm in our modern flour.
2. What’s added: Flour should be one ingredient: whole wheat berries, ground into flour. Instead, modern flour comes as a cocktail of ingredients, including synthetic vitamins, dough enhancers & maturing agents, enzymes and bleaching agents. I don’t know about you, but I prefer when my food is as close to it’s original form as possible, and I certainly don’t like eating added preservatives when they don’t even need to be there. Leave it to commercial industries to turn a one-ingredient superfood into a a 12-ingredient science experiment.

More like What is Fresh Milled Flour:

• 5 ways to afford a grain mill on a budget
• Where to purchase wheat berries for fresh milled flour
• How to make a fresh milled sourdough starter, step-by-step
• Full library of FREE fresh milled flour recipes
• Join Fresh Flour University

The post What is fresh milled flour? first appeared on Souly Rested.

When I started posting on Instagram, I never would have imagined that my biggest haters would be over the fact that they can’t afford a grain mill.

And I get it. Things are tight right now. But when I invested in my grain mill, I knew it was just that–an investment. In my family’s health, in a hobby I enjoy, in getting more nutrition into my life.

But, to answer the non-haters genuinely looking for advice on ways to afford a grain mill on a budget, here are my top 5 tips.

Owning a grain mill saves money.

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, I want to make something clear: I save money everyday by owning a grain mill.

Truthfully, there are exceptions, and this isn’t the case for every person. But for my family, I save hundreds of dollars per year (which means a grain mill pays for itself quickly!). I achieve this by purchasing wheat berries in bulk.

The breakdown:

I used to purchase King Arthur organic flour, which cost me $10.95/5 lbs. That’s $2.19/lb.

Now I purchase organic wheat berries which I mill into organic flour for $0.92/pound when I purchase a 50-lb bag.

That’s = $1.27 per pound cheaper to mill my own flour.

Over the course of a year, if I’m making 2 loaves of bread per week, that’s $132.08 I’m saving every year, just in flour.

Which means that in two years (with a savings of $264.16), I’ve paid for my grain mill.

And that’s just the bread!

That doesn’t even take into account the money I’m saving on baked goods, homemade desserts/pastries, and so on.]

5 ways to afford a grain mill on a budget

We’ll dive into more details below, but my top 5 recommendations for affording a grain mill are:

1. Buy the most affordable mill
2. Search thrift stores/buy used or refurbished
3. Split the cost with a friend or a neighbor
4. Save up for it
5. Use a payment plan

Also, don’t discount planning to use your mill to actually make money.

Buy the most affordable grain mill

If you’re on a budget, be realistic with what you can actually afford. And keep in mind that you can upgrade your mill latter when budget allows.

1) My top pick for a budget-friendly grain mill is the Nutrimill Impact mill.

It’s regular price $249, plus the code “soulyrested” takes the price down to $229.

It’s not as pretty as some other mills, but

-it makes really fine flour great for bread & baked goods,

-it’s compact and portable,

-and it’s easy to use and beginner friendly

Plus, it’s just over $200.

2) My second pick for a grain mill on a budget is the Mockmill 100. It’s regular price $380, which puts it at the lowest priced on-demand style mill.

The Mockmill 100 out-preforms the much higher-priced Nutrimill Harvest ($499) with all the same function, just without the pretty wooden exterior.

Budget-friendly grain mills:

Search thrift stores (buy used)

With the rise in grain mill sales, I’ve noticed several grain mills in my local thrift stores for a fraction of the price they cost new. Also be sure to check reseller websites (they’re not just for clothes!) as well as FB marketplace locally to you.

You might be shocked what you find! There are several models of antique mills that I’ve seen folks selling for super cheap that also work well, they’re just clunky and take up more storage space. Totally worth the savings, though, if you’re on a budget!

Buy refurbished

Make sure to check Nutrimill’s website periodically under the “refurbished” tab. 

They sell their grain mills and mixers at a serious discount there. Check the descriptions on the listings for why exactly the mill was refurbished, but the discounts are insane. If you can snag one (they sell out quickly because of the great prices), you’ll save a bundle.

Split the cost (and the mill) with a friend or neighbor

This is one of my favorite options on the list. Not only does this option help you afford a grain mill, but it also fosters community, which I’m always all for.

There are several neat ways you could arrange this.

1. Split the cost of the mill, and also split the time you each spend with the mill. Maybe one week on, one week off?
2. Split the cost, but one of you houses the mill, but the other has access to all the fresh milled flour they need.
3. Keep your cost buddy stocked with fresh bread instead of flour.
4. Also, check to see if anyone in your area already owns a grain mill and would allow you to use their mill once a week to mill all your flour.

Save up for it

I know, it’s not very romantic. But look for small things you can cut out, and set that money aside for your grain mill fund. You might be there before you know it!

Fresh milled flour is worth waiting (and saving) for.

Use a payment plan

Although it’s not always ideal, if you can’t swing the full price of a mill in one paycheck, look into payment plants. I know that Nutrimill offers shop pay plans to pay a portion of your order every month, as well as Paypal payment plans on all their grain mills.

Honorable mentions:

Buy (good) flour until you save up

My favorite grain company also sells fresh-milled flour that I recommend to anyone waiting to purchase a grain mill. It’s the same quality as if you milled it yourself! Knowing you’re using super high-quality and nutritious flour will also help you be more patient as you wait for a grain mill.

Save on the best flour with code “soulyrested”

Plan to use your mill to make money

Taking the plunge and spending the money on a mill often makes a lot more sense if you have a plan to turn that investment -> into cash.

Sell fresh milled flour to your local community, sell baked goods/bread made with fresh flour, or offer your mill for “rent” to other locals who either want to try their hand at milling, or can’t afford the price of a mill yet.

More like 5 ways to afford a grain mill on a budget:

• Wheat berries: everything you need to know
• Nutrimill or Mockmill: which grain mill is best?
• How to choose a flour mill, simplified (includes a quiz!)
• Sourdough with fresh milled flour (recipe)

The post 5 ways to afford a grain mill on a budget first appeared on Souly Rested.

Once I started using my grain mill on a daily basis, sourdough fell of my radar for a while. I was so captivated by wheat berries, mills, fresh flour, and fresh milled bread, that my sourdough starter became neglected.

A coincidence? Maybe. 

Once I got a handle on fresh milled flour with commercial yeast, I slowly added sourdough back into my life, with the nutritious addition of fresh milled flour.

But honestly? I gave up a few times. There’s just a steep learning curve with fresh milled flour + sourdough.

But we’ll master it together.

And it turns out that a huge help is to actually start a new sourdough starter, from scratch, with fresh milled flour. Sometimes starters used to commercial flour don’t like being switched over to fresh flour.

Why combine fresh flour and sourdough?

So, if it’s difficult, why bother? I’m glad you asked.

Sourdough is using natural yeast and natural fermentation to make bread. While this process is commonly seen as a more nutritious way to make bread, that’s only half true. You see, sourdough bread is long-fermented, which means that it’s easier for our bodies to digest in the end. It’s already started to “digest” through it’s long, natural fermentation process. That’s a good thing.

What’s not good is that long-fermenting bread made with traditional commercial flour (store bought flour is essentially just highly-processed starch, missing 2/3 of the natural wheat), is simply a missed opportunity. (Learn more about the effect of sourdough fermentation on fresh milled flour.)

Fresh milled flour + sourdough? A long-fermented powerhouse of nutrition, digestibility, and flavor. It’s truly the best bread you can eat. 

Sourdough with fresh milled flour: getting started

If you’re new to milling flour, let’s get started.

You’ll need a good grain mill. You have three options–a stone mill, an impact mill (steel blades), or a hand-crank mill. I personally choose an on-demand style stone mill, but to each his own. Not sure which mill you might want or need? I wrote an entire guide to choosing a grain mill that breaks down everything you need to know.

Next, you need some wheat berries. It can get confusing with tons of variety, but if you’re starting out with fresh flour, you’ll most likely want to stick to either hard white or hard red for making bread like sourdough.

Then you’ll need a sourdough starter (if you’re making sourdough bread, that is). Good news; you’re in the right place! We’ll cover the whole process of making a fresh milled sourdough starter from scratch, right here.

It’s that simple!

Wheat berries for sourdough starter

Wheat berries can be confusing.

But, when it comes down to it, most wheat berries (ground into flour) can be used to feed your sourdough starter. Just be sure to keep in consistent so your starter knows what to expect. However, my personal preference is to use fresh milled rye flour to feed my starter on the daily. This is for two reasons: 1) my starter is happier, bubblier, and more active when it’s fed rye, and 2) rye is the most affordable grain I purchase.

Great options for fresh flour to feed your sourdough starter include:

• Rye (my personal choice)
• Hard white
• Hard red
• Einkorn
• Khorasan (A.K.A. Kamut)
• Spelt (my second favorite)
• Durum
• Alternative (GF) grains

What fresh milled flour is best for sourdough

The flour you’ll use to feed your sourdough starter and the flour you’ll use to make sourdough bread may or may not be the same. For instance, I personally use rye flour to feed my starter every day, but I stick with grains like Turkey Red (a hard red wheat) or Dakota Snow (a hard white wheat) to make sourdough bread.

Make sure you don’t try to use any soft wheat berries or low-gluten grains to make sourdough bread.

AVOID using:

soft white wheat

soft red wheat

rye

ancient grains (if using, no more than 50%)

In general, stick with hard grains (hard white, hard red) for the best results with sourdough bread. Later one once you’ve mastered fresh milled sourdough bread, experiment with other grains. But I recommend keeping it as simple as possible when you’re starting out.

How to make a fresh milled sourdough starter

Without further ado, let’s make a fresh milled sourdough starter, from scratch. Making a fresh flour sourdough starter is a simple process of mixing flour and water together, but it does take some patience as you wait for it to become active.

I recommend using fresh milled rye flour, but other options are hard white/red wheat, spelt, einkorn or khorasan.

Day 1: In a clean jar, mix equal parts water and flour by weight together, stir well, and cover with something breathable (NOT airtight). Let sit. You can measure with volume or weight, just keep the flour and water in a roughly 1:1 ratio.

Day 2: Discard about half of your starter, then feed it. The easiest way to make sure you’re feeding the proper amounts at first is to weigh how much starter you have, then feed it the same weight in both flour and water, making sure it’s a thick, pancake batter-like consistency. If it’s thinner than that, add a little more flour. 

As an example, if you have 25 g of starter, feed it 25 g of flour and 25 g of water.

Day 3: Discard half of your starter (again), and feed it the same amount of flour and water that the starter weighs.

Days 4-6: Continue this feeding pattern, feeding every 12-24 hours. I like to feed my starter first thing each morning to stay in a routine. You should start to see bubbles and some activity in your starter by now.

Week 1-2: Your starter should be bubbling, doubling in size after it’s fed, and looking happy by the beginning of week two. But don’t try to make bread with your starter before it’s actually active and established. In the first few weeks, even if a starter looks active and happy, it most likely isn’t strong enough to make bread with yet. Be patient and try making discard recipes with your starter at first (like discard crackers or overnight griddle cakes) before diving into fresh flour sourdough bread.

Feeding sourdough starter with fresh milled flour

If you’re used to feeding your sourdough starter store bought flour and are transitioning it to fresh milled flour (or starting a brand-new fresh milled starter), you’ll notice differences. Because fresh milled flour is so different from commercial flour, your starter will react to it differently.

You’ll notice that your starter rises and becomes active more quickly. That’s because fresh flour is alive with nutrients that your starter loves. The downside? It also stays active for much shorter times. A fresh milled sourdough starter needs routine in order to thrive, and is much less flexible than a commercial flour starter. When I was feeding my starter commercial flour, skipping a feeding or two here and there? No big deal. With a fresh flour starter? Skipping a feeding or two leads to crusty tops, very sad starter, and a longer bounce-back time than with commercial flour.

A fresh milled starter needs to be fed very regularly and routinely to survive.

How and when to feed a fresh milled starter

Your best bet is to feed your fresh milled sourdough starter every morning, when possible. I’ve personally found that my fresh milled starter isn’t happy in the fridge, so I keep mine at room temperature. If you’re able to keep your starter in the fridge, feed it once a week.

My method for feeding my starter is very eyeball-ed and simple.

1. Discard starter if it’s starting to have too much “bulk” to it. I don’t like to feed massive amounts of starter, I see it as a waste of flour. Save the discard for recipes later.
2. Add filtered water to your starter until it’s watery and “murky” looking. How much water you add depends on how much starter you want the next day.
3. Mix the starter + water together.
4. Add flour until your starter becomes thick and well-mixed. I aim for pancake batter-like thickness.
5. Fresh milled starters soak up a little more water than conventional flour ones, so keep it just a tad less thick as you’re feeding it than you’d like it to be in the end.

Print

fresh milled sourdough starter, step-by-step

Ingredients

• rye flour see notes
• water

Instructions

• Day 1: In a clean jar, mix equal parts water and flour by weight together, stir well, and cover with something breathable (NOT airtight). Let sit. You can measure with volume or weight, just keep the flour and water in a roughly 1:1 ratio.
• Day 2: Discard about half of your starter, then feed it. The easiest way to make sure you’re feeding the proper amounts at first is to weigh how much starter you have, then feed it the same weight in both flour and water, making sure it’s a thick, pancake batter-like consistency. If it’s thinner than that, add a little more flour.
• Day 3: Again, discard half of your starter, and feed it the same amount of flour and water that the starter weighs.
• Days 4-6: Continue this feeding pattern, feeding every 12-24 hours. I like to feed my starter first thing each morning to stay in a routine. You should start to see bubbles and some activity in your starter by now.
• Week 1-2: Your starter should be bubbling, doubling in size after it’s fed, and looking happy by the beginning of week two. But don’t try to make bread with your starter before it’s actually active and established. In the first few weeks, even if a starter looks active and happy, it most likely isn’t strong enough to make bread with yet. Be patient and try making discard recipes with your starter at first (like discard crackers or overnight griddle cakes) before diving into fresh flour sourdough bread.

Notes

I recommend using fresh milled rye flour, but other options are hard white/red wheat, spelt, einkorn or khorasan.

What you’ll need to make a fresh milled sourdough starter from scratch:

More like make a fresh milled sourdough starter (step-by-step):

• Which wheat berries to use (a simple guide)
• Sourdough with fresh milled flour: what you need to know
• Sourdough bread recipe made with fresh milled flour
• The best fresh milled flour blueberry muffins
• Join Fresh Flour University today & learn all the tips it took me 7 years to master. Use code SOULYRESTED to save $$.

The post Make a fresh milled sourdough starter (step-by-step) first appeared on Souly Rested.

But I was virtually alone in the fresh flour world and couldn’t find the numbers, so I pulled them together myself.

Fresh flour: is it worth it?

Tradwife influencers weren’t a thing. No ladies in long skirts were showing up on social media, with fancy tabletop mills, kneading their bread daily. Google was essentially void of answers. There were hardly any books published about fresh flour, aside from a few dusty ones I uncovered at thrift stores, or general “whole wheat” cookbooks.

In fact, when I penned an article many years ago about why I mill my own flour, I thought my math was thorough. Oh, how times have changed.

Comment after comment has rolled in, asking me to update my math, be more consistent, use all one type of measurement, and so on. Okay, okay. Years-ago-Michelle was just doing her best to figure out this “grain mills and wheat berries and fresh flour thing,” ‘mkay?

So today I’m updating the math and answering the all important question–fresh milled flour: is it worth it?

That’s for you to decide, I’m just here to help you run the numbers.

Why mill your own flour?

First, let’s briefly cover why we’re even talking about fresh milled flour in the first place.

Store bought white flour is heavily refined, removing the bran and germ from wheat—where most of the fiber, vitamins, minerals, and natural oils are found. Flour is also heat-treated bleached, and other ingredients added to enhance baking performance.

When we mill our own flour (especially if we’re milling ancient grains!), we’re able to provide our bodies with all the nutrients naturally contained in wheat–including the healthy oils that go rancid quickly if we try to store it after milling into flour. Essentially, wheat naturally contains vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and all sorts of other micronutrients our bodies thrive on. Modern, commercial, white flour? Not even in the same ballpark.

My top reasons for milling my own flour include:

1. To save money (we’ll break this down later)
2. To eat a variety of nutritious grains (different types of grains contain different nutritional profiles!)
3. To eat locally & support organic farm families (who knew flour could be a local health food, and philanthropic?)
4. To be prepared (I’m not a prepper, but I love the idea of having buckets of unmilled flour on hand, always)
5. To enjoy the flavor (It took a while for my white-bread-tastebuds to adjust to fresh flour, but now I can’t go back!)

Cost of getting started with fresh milled flour

In order to mill fresh flour, you’re going to need to invest in a grain mill. Technically you can attempt to use a coffee grinder, blender, or food processer to mill wheat berries into flour, but you’re not going to like the result. Plus you risk burning out an expensive appliance.

Most home grain mills range from $250-$900. I’ve used the most affordable grain mill on the market, as well as my daily-use grain mill, which is on the pricy end. They all function well and get the job done.

To get started with fresh milled flour, you’ll also need wheat berries. To secure the best prices, you’ll want to order them in bulk. Depending on your source, the quality of wheat you’re purchasing, and the shipping costs, you’ll usually spend around $50-$100/50 lbs of wheat berries.

Another optional start up cost is investing in a high-quality mixer. While this isn’t a need, it’s very helpful in making good bread with fresh milled flour. Fresh flour bread dough needs to be kneaded longer than doughs made with store bought flour, and you need a mixer that will handle the extra kneading time. I’ve used this one every single day for almost a decade without issues.

Cost breakdown to start milling flour

So to break it down, start up costs for milling fresh flour include:

a grain mill ($250-$900) + wheat berries ($50-$100) + optional mixer ($250-$550, depending on model) = $550-$1,550

These prices are on the high end, as well as include optional costs.

Truthfully, you can start out milling flour for as little as $250 (cost of an affordable grain mill), and a few wheat berries from Amazon or your local bulk/natural foods store.

Quick answer… fresh milled flour: is it worth it?

Yes, milling your own flour not only saves money, but also offers your family invaluable nutrients that store bought flour is missing. With an upfront investment, a small learning curve, and some wheat berries, you’re on your way to keeping more cash in your wallet while enjoying the benefits of eating the highest-quality flour in the world.

Is fresh milled flour worth it?

Alright, here’s the nitty gritty.

When I was purchasing flour from the store, I purchased organic King Arthur flour, all-purpose. These days, a bag of that same flour (per their website) costs $10.95 for 5 lbs (let’s round up to $11, shall we?).

So $11/5 lbs = $2.20 per pound of organic flour.

In comparison, I currently spend $64/50 lbs organic, hard white wheat berries.

So $64/50 lbs = $1.28 per pound of organic, fresh milled flour.

(Keep in mind that 1 pound of wheat berries translates directly to 1 pound of flour, unless you’re sifting it, then there will be some loss in weight.)

That’s a $0.92 savings per pound of flour I use.

Now, obviously there are some other factors involved (purchasing buckets to store bulk grains, taking up space in your home/basement, and so on).

Does fresh milled flour save money?

Let’s use the math above to take it one step further. An average loaf of sandwich bread uses about 1 pound of flour to make.

According to Google, the average American family consumes 2-4 loaves of bread per week. At a savings of $0.92 per pound of flour (and therefore per loaf of bread), that’s a weekly savings of $3.68.

Although that doesn’t seem like much, that adds up to almost $200/year.

And, on top of that, your family is receiving far more nutrients from the fresh milled flour than store bought flour could ever provide.

Quick reference of store bought flour versus fresh milled flour

How long until a grain mill pays for itself?

Think of it this way: in 1 1/2  years or less, you’ll have paid for your grain mill simply in flour savings. Please do keep in mind that these numbers aren’t exact. For instance, maybe your family exclusively uses ancient grains, or maybe you’re used to budgeting for non-organic flour at the store. I don’t know your personal numbers, but these savings reflect the dollar amounts I saw/saved when I made the switch to fresh milled flour from conventional flour.

These savings only consider bread, imagine how much more you save when you add in other baked goods and any other flour-based products you might be purchasing (tortillas, bagels, desserts, muffins, and so on).

Also, keep in mind that some grains are actually much cheaper than the $1.28/pound I used as an example above. For instance, organic rye is one of the most affordable grains I can purchase (only $0.80/pound!), so I use rye often in brownies, my sourdough starter, and in these chocolate chip cookies made with fresh flour to keep costs down.

So to use rye flour instead of the commercial flour I was purchasing from the store is a $1.40/lb savings.

Homemade cookies just got much cheaper (and more nutritious!).

When fresh milled flour might NOT be worth it

Although I’ve personally seen the financial, health, and lifestyle benefits of fresh milled flour, I fully admit it isn’t for everyone.

• Fresh milled flour might not be for you if you don’t naturally enjoy baking. If you rarely use flour, don’t eat many carbs, or simply don’t find yourself with any desire to bake bread or make fresh baked goods, you might find your grain mill collecting dust.
• If you can’t afford to invest in a grain mill and wheat berries right now, it might be best to save up until you can.
• In a very limited space, it’s hard to store wheat berries. And they’re much pricier to purchase in smaller quantities instead of in bulk. That doesn’t mean milling your own flour still isn’t worth it, it will just take you longer to see the savings.
• If you’re extremely pressed for time (to the point where pausing to mill flour for 5 minutes before making bread dough just doesn’t fit in your schedule), then fresh milled flour might be tough for you right now. You might want to invest in this grain mill and make your fresh flour in large batches to keep on hand in the fridge when you need it, or maybe you’ll want to wait and revisit the idea when your life is slower and you have time to enjoy the process.

More about fresh milled flour

• How to use a grain mill
• Should I freeze wheat berries?
• Sourdough bread with fresh milled flour
• Kamut chocolate chip cookies
• Grab all my fresh flour tips and more recipes too

The post Fresh milled flour: is it worth it? first appeared on Souly Rested.

But often the biggest hurdle for a newbie is figuring out how to use a grain mill correctly.

How to Use a Grain Mill

We’re going to cover it ALL here, even the questions you haven’t asked yet, so take a deep breath and dive in with me.

I own 4 grain mills. And I’ve been milling my own flour for almost a decade. I hit a lot of road blocks and almost didn’t overcome a few obstacles, so I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

Let’s just say, I went down the rabbit hole of grain mills so you don’t have to.

Also, if you want instant access to everything I know after 10 years of fresh flour trial and error, instant insights into all the tips and tricks I wish I knew back then, the doors have finally opened to the world’s most in-depth resource on baking with fresh flour…

Fresh Flour University

— CLICK HERE & use code SOULYRESTED to save $$ on the best investment you’ll ever make in your family’s nutrition. —

Tips for using a grain mill

By now it’s no secret that I’m a huge advocate for milling your own flour. I know how to use a grain mill to make flour, and ever since I learned this skill I’ve been shouting about it from the rooftops.

But once people hear about fresh flour, or even once they own their own grain mill, one of the most common questions I get asked is “how do I use this thing, anyways?” And I get it. Staring at a brand-new, confusing, beast-of-an-appliance can be intimidating.

But I’m here today to completely remove that overwhelm. Hopefully this information will equip and empower you to not only learn how to use your grain mill with confidence, but to ditch dead store flour, once and for all. Together, you and I, we’re part of the Fresh Flour Movement.

We’re flouring like rebels. We’re not only ditching dead, refined flour, but replacing it with the best substitution out there: fresh milled flour.

Why do I need a grain mill?

Just in case you’re seeing this and not fully on the fresh flour trend yet, let’s back up for a second.

Flour used to be a superfood. Back in the day, flour was grown, milled, and baked locally. In fact, REAL flour, when it’s kept unrefined and unsifted, can only last for short periods of time before going rancid. This is actually good news, because the sooner flour is used after being milled, the more nutrients are maintained.

But commercial flour mills came along and realized that if they took flour (real, wholegrain flour that’s literally just stone-ground, 100% whole wheat flour, containing all the parts of the wheat berry), and heated, sifted, and processed that flour, they’d end up with a shelf-stable version of the flour they started out with.

Turns out that processing something to oblivion can do wonders to profit margins.

But, unfortunately, nothing for our bodies.

Wholegrain flour, in it’s pure, unrefined form contains all three parts of the wheat berry (the kernel of wheat plants that’s ground into flour): the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. Modern flour only contains the endosperm, which is the starchy part that doesn’t contain oils, minerals, and antioxidants the way the bran and germ do.

The solution? Mill your own flour. In order to mill flour, you’re gonna need a grain mill.

How to use an impact grain mill

There’s a difference in how you can use impact grain mills vs. stone grain mills. If you’d like a full break down of the differences (and how you can choose which one is best for you), read this post all about impact vs. stone mills.

Using an impact-style grain mill is very simple. Let’s walk through the steps of using an impact mill to turn wheat berries into flour:

1. Put your mill together, making sure the canister is attached fully, any/all filters and cups are securely in place, and the canister lid is fully closed.
2. Adjust the texture of your flour by changing the dial on your mill. Do this before milling your flour, if possible.
3. Pour your wheat berries (or grains of choice) into the hopper of your mill. Don’t turn the mill on without having grains in the hopper, as this can damage your mill if done routinely.
4. Allow the mill to run until all the grains are fully milled and there are no grains left in the hopper. Do not turn off the mill mid-milling, and don’t turn the mill off until you can hear all of the grains are done milling, even if all the grains are gone from the hopper. In other words, you don’t want any grains left in the milling mechanism of the mill, or partially-milled grains can easily go rancid, especially if you don’t use your mill routinely.
5. Remove the flour canister only once your mill is done milling, and the motor has stopped running.
6. Remove the flour from the canister, clean the filter and filter cup if advised by your mill manufacturer, and use your flour as needed.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few important notes about using an impact mill, though.

While most impact mills can mill almost anything, from wheat berries to dried chickpeas, some things like larger beans or chickpeas can be tough to actually–physically–feed through the hopper into the grinding mechanism. If I’m milling chickpeas through my impact grain mill, I blitz them in my blender for just a few seconds to get them a bit smaller and easier to mill, before milling them into flour.

Impact mills, due to their nature of using steel impact heads to, essentially, beat wheat berries into flour, tend to make a finer flour in the end, but have a harder time making course flours or meals. So while impact mills are amazing for making fine flour, don’t be surprised if it’s tough to make coarsely ground cornmeal or cracked wheat in an impact-style mill.

Best impact grain mill

How to use a stone grain mill

Unlike impact mills, stone mills are an on-demand grain mill, meaning they don’t use a closed-canister style, but rather an open-hopper style. You’ll see the flour come out of the spout as soon as you dump wheat berries into the hopper. You’ll need to use your own bowl to mill your flour in to.

Using a stone grain mill is really easy;

1. Turn your mill on. Never dump wheat berries into a stone mill without turning it on first.
2. Adjust the stones, if needed. The cool thing about stone mills is that you can actually hear how course or fine your flour will come out. As you get used to the different sounds, you’ll be able to easily adjust your stones to get just the right courseness or fineness you’re looking for. Some mills (like my mockmill) also have numbers/labels to make this process easier, especially if you’re new to using a stone mill and unfamiliar with the sounds of the stones.
3. Pour your wheat berries (or other grains) into your mill.
4. Adjust the stones again, as needed. The great thing about stone mills is that you can see the flour coming out, and adjust the stones to change the courseness of the flour, all while the mill is running. The tighter the stones are, the finer the flour will be, and vice versa.
5. When you’ve milled as much flour as you need, turn the mill off and use your flour. Allow the mill to run for just a few second after the last of your flour comes out, just to make sure the stones are free of any last bits of flour.

If you’re concerned about keeping your flour as nutritious as possible, you can use an instant read thermometer to temp the flour as it comes out. If your flour gets hotter than you’d like, turn off your mill, give it a rest, and come back to mill the rest of your flour later. There’s some debate on how hot is too hot for nutrient loss with stone milled flour, but I personally think that anything under 120 degrees is ideal.

Which stone mill is best?

I’ll show you the differences in impact vs stone mills & get you thinking about how to choose the right one for you in this video:

How to make flour with a grain mill

In order to make flour in a grain mill, you just need a few things.

• Wheat berries (or other grains)
• A grain mill
• A bowl (if using a stone mill)

Turning wheat berries into flour with a grain mill is as simple as allowing your mill to do the work, but there are some considerations and tips I’ve learned along the way that might be helpful to know.

–> Use only clean, dry grains. After investing in a grain mill, the last thing you want is to hurt your mill. Checking the grains you’re milling before using them can go a long way in maintaining your grain mill for years to come. Remove any small stones or other debris that you might find. If you happen to find small, round, dark brown seeds, those actually won’t hurt your mill. They’re Vetch seeds, which are a common cover crop used in rotation with wheat at many organic farms.

–> Learn as much as you can about your mill. User’s manuals can be helpful as well as talking to other people who have the same mill you do. There are little tips and tricks that you might not think of that others have. With time, you and your mill will get to know each other and you’ll learn the ins and outs of your specific machine.

–> If you’re ever in doubt, run rice through your mill. Rice acts as a “cleaner” for grain mills, especially stone mills. If anything ever seems “off,” or if you feel your stones or impact plates might be at all gummed up, milling rice can help clear out any issues before they become problems.

How to use the Nutrimill Harvest grain mill

The Harvest grain mill was my first mill that I got almost a decade ago. While following the general instructions for using a stone mill above will work with the Harvest grain mill, I’ve learned that it has its own particular way it likes to be used. Here are my best tips for using the Nutrimill Harvest grain mill.

I’ve found that the Harvest mill is the most difficult to get very fine flour from out of all the mills I’ve tried. It can be done, though, with a bit of practice. First, disregard the little tab that’s supposed to show you where to turn the knob for fresh flour. Instead, simply listen to the stones and use the flour that comes out as a guide. I’ve also found it’s helpful to turn the mill on, pour your wheat berries in when the stones are somewhat close but not super tight, then adjust the stones to be even tighter once the wheat berries are actively milling. For some reason the Harvest mill seems to not like tightening the stones all the way until the wheat berries are actively grinding, then you can tighten the stones more for finer flour. Once your flour is done milling, open the stones up some while it’s still turned on to allow any flour left in the mill to come out.

Consider double milling your flour through the Harvest mill. When it was my primary mill I was using, I got into the habit of milling my grains through once into somewhat of a cracked grain, then milling my flour from that. It seemed to really help give the mill a jump start on cranking our fine flour. Flour itself can also be milled back through the harvest, just make sure to pour the flour into the hopper at the rate it mills to avoid gumming up the mill, rather than dumping all the flour into the hopper at once, like you would do with wheat berries.

Finally, adjust the types of wheat berries you’re using. If you can’t get fine flour, try milling different grains. Just as an example, Einkorn tends to produce very fine flour, while Kamut and Spelt are harder to mill into fine flour.

How to use the Nutrimill Classic grain mill

The Nutrimill Classic grain mill makes the finest flour of any mill I’ve used. If I’m looking to make large quantities of very fine flour, the Classic is my favorite mill for the job. And although it’s very easy to use, there are a few tricks I’ve learned along the way to make life easier when using the Classic mill.

First, MAKE SURE the flour canister is fully pushed into the mill before using it. There’s a faint line showing where the canister needs to be, and if it’s not fully attached, flour will spew everywhere. I mean everywhere. Not that I know from experience or anything, ahem.

Make sure you use the filter and cup that come with the Classic. Not using the cup or filter can destroy the mill, as they’re both essential in allowing the machine to run properly. Also make sure to flick or knock the flour off of the filter after every use, washing with water only as needed.

If you’re having trouble removing the lid from the flour canister, try using a layer of flour on the rubber part of the lid. This will allow the lid to stay securely on, but will also allow you to remove the lid with ease when the time comes. I’ve fought battles with that lid many times before learning this trick.

How to use the Nutrimill Impact grain mill

Using the Nutrimill Impact grain mill is very similar to the classic grain mill, with a few differences.

First, make sure your hopper and flour canister are clicked securely in. Since the Impact mill is designed to be more compact, the hopper and flour canister can be stacked and stored separately from the actually mill part, which makes it better for small spaces and storing it away when needed.

Make sure the clip on the outside of the flour canister is secured and clicked in before using the Impact mill. The clip will seemingly stay put when it’s just sitting there, but needs to actually be clicked down to be secure while milling. If it’s not, it will “puff” while the flour is coming out.

Since this mill is mainly designed for making fine bread flour, you’ll have to skip past a few settings on the mill before wheat berries will pass through. The 1-2 settings are mainly just used for smaller grains, while the 3rd setting is the main one to use for wheat berries, sometimes even setting 4-5. It seems backwards, but you’ll have to turn the knob more times for courser flour. The Impact mill comes with a sticker to place on the knob to help you remember which setting is which, but I found that it doesn’t say on long, so you’ll want to just get into the habit of turning the knob a certain number of times to get the desired fineness.

How to use the Mockmill 200 grain mill

The Mockmill is my everyday mill. It’s a stone mill that mills flour on-demand. While it’s very simple to operate, there are a few things to keep in mind.

The 100 and 200 mills are rightly named. The Mockmill 100 is able to mill 100g of wheat per minute, while the Mockmill 200 is able to mill at the speed of 200g per minute. The white mills are the same internal mill as the wooden ones, just with a different outer shell.

There are numbers on the outside of the mill’s hopper than can be used as a guide for milling coarseness. While it’s helpful to reference, as with the Harvest mill, ideally you’ll develop an ear for the sounds of the stones that will allow you to decide for yourself which setting is best for what you’re making with your flour.

If you’re using your Mockmill to make cornmeal or chickpea flour (or to mill any other large-sized things), make sure to place the “lid” on the hopper as it’s milling. I’ve found that if I don’t there’s a good chance large particles will “pop” and fly into my already-milled flour as the rest of the corn or chickpeas are continuing to mill.

If your stones seem gummed up, make sure to mill rice through your Mockmill to clean the stones off.

How to clean a grain mill

Technically, grain mills don’t really need to be “cleaned.” At least, not in the traditional sense. With impact mills, you will need to clean the “parts” after use, like the filter, filter cup, and flour canister/lid. But the actual milling heads inside impact mills don’t really need maintenance or regular cleaning. You are free to mill rice through your impact mill anytime, and that will help clean the milling heads if there happens to be any residue inside the mill. Keep in mind that impact mills can’t be taken apart, and you’ll never actually see the inside of your mill, unlike stone mills.

Unlike impact mills, stone mills may need a bit of cleaning sometimes. The good news is that modern stone mills are self-sharpening, so they don’t need any maintenance in that way.

But if you mill anything out of the ordinary, or mill flour for longer periods of time than usual, you may find that the stones “gum” up a little bit. No worries, just simply mill some rice through your mill, playing with what level of coarseness seems the most effective in cleaning the stones. Stones can also become “glazed” at times, which milling rice will also help clean up.

If your stones are really gummed up for some reason, you may need to use a DULL (butter) knife to carefully cut lines into the gummed up stone before milling rice. Always make sure to unplug your machine before taking it apart to inspect the stones!

Never, ever use water to clean the inside of your mill, regardless of what kind of mill you have. If the outside of your mill needs a cleaning, using a damp rag usually does the trick. Sometimes using a small bottle brush can help clean out your mill of any lingering flour.

Using a grain mill for gluten-free flour

While I’m not gluten-free, I have many good friends who are, and they’ve saved a ton of money milling their own alternative grains. Do keep in mind that for a grain mill to produce truly gluten-free flour, you’d have to purchase a brand-new grain mill (not pre-owned or refurbished) and only ever mill gluten-free grains in it. Even cleaning your stones with rice won’t fully remove the residue and oils of other grains milled, which could lead to exposure to gluten just by using the same grain mill for wheat and alternative grains.

There are lots of gluten-free grains, seeds, and legumes that are perfect for milling;

• Oat groats
• Chickpeas
• Rice
• Buckwheat
• Millet
• Quinoa
• Amaranth
• Teff

My favorite gluten-free “all-purpose blend” is  70% oat flour, 30% chickpea flour.

What you need to start using your grain mill:

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More like How to Use a Grain Mill:

• Guide to Choosing a Grain Mill
• Why I mill my own flour
• How to make flour at home from start to finish
• Wheat berries: everything you need to know
• Take a FREE crash course on choosing the right grains

The post How to Use a Grain Mill first appeared on Souly Rested.

Fresh milled flour is a nutrient powerhouse and adds a unique, delicious flavor to everything you bake. But until I figured out some important tips & tricks, well, my family didn’t like my bread.

It was bricks if I used 100% fresh flour, so I want back to 1/2 store-bought and 1/2 fresh and that helped. See more tips for baking with fresh flour here.

Sandwich bread with fresh milled flour

Turns out, I had to master a few more things–like using a tangzhong which you’ll find in this recipe (don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it), and all the other insights I poured into creating the most in-depth resource you’ll find anywhere on milling & baking with fresh flour. See Fresh Flour University for more details on that.

I’m almost ready to send more than 100 of my favorite fresh flour recipes that I’ve created over the years into my publisher… watch for my new book Fall 2026, a sort of in-depth handbook for all things Fresh Flour and a cookbook in one.

And this bread recipe that I’m sharing today will most definitely be included in those pages!

Sandwich Bread made fresh milled flour changed everything

This recipe was a turning point for me. A true game changer. Our family enjoyed other “sandwich breads” I’d made before, once I got out of my bricks-for-bread stage that is, but not truly as sandwich bread.

All my breads before this were wonderful butter-slathered accompaniments to our dinners.

But this recipe I’m sharing today, and a Pullman pan, were the final catalysts that meant I no longer have to turn my cart down the bread aisle at the grocery store. This bread slices so easily, into perfect, thin sandwich bread pieces and offers a perfect crumb for sandwiches.

Because it’s made with a tangzhong (see below for more on that), it stays fresh for so many days! When it’s a little past it’s prime, it toasts beautifully and makes the BEST fresh toast.

Then I will slice whatever is left and store the slices in the freezer to use for toasted sandwiches later, or I’ll use the older bread for croutons or bread crumbs.

Why use fresh milled flour to make bread?

Any homemade bread is better than 36-ingredient “bread” from the store.

But if you want to level up your bread making game, fresh milled flour is the way to go. Flour purchased from the store actually only contains 1/3 parts of the wheat berry. And the starchy endosperm that is “flour” as we know it is sifted, heated, and treated until it has essentially no nutrients left.

But if you use a grain mill to mill your own flour? Boom. You get to enjoy all 3 parts of the wheat berry (including the most nutritious parts, the bran and germ!). This means that your body is receiving 40/44 essential nutrients it needs, all “just” from your flour.

Learn about why I mill my own flour here.

Which wheat berries should I make bread with?

The best wheat berries to make bread with are generally hard white and hard red. These grains have the highest gluten potential, which results in great bread. Keep in mind that within the category of hard white wheat and hard red wheat, there are different kinds.

There are modern breeds of hard white and red (most common), and there are heritage breeds of these types of grains, as well. Heritage grains are great for making sure you’re getting unhybridized, nutrient-dense grains. My favorite breeds of heritage hard red wheat are Rouge De Bordeaux and Turkey Red.

Other grains that can be used to make bread are Einkorn, Khorasan (Kamut), Spelt, Rye, and Durum. All of these grains benefit from adding some vital wheat gluten (or other enhancements) to your bread dough to improve elasticity and gluten. Never use soft wheat berries for bread. It won’t develop gluten, which will result in very dense bread.

I use a mixture of hard red, durum, and spelt grains to make this loaf.

What’s the best bread pan for fresh flour loaves?

A Pullman bread pan is pretty odd looking if you ask me.

I’d seen folks using them occasionally, on social media now and then, but thought they looked too “intense” and wondered by on earth someone would want such a large bread pan (and lid!) to have to store in their cabinets.

Then one day I decided to buy one. I decided if there was a chance it might help me bake my own like-the-store sandwich bread I needed to try.

Best fresh-flour related purchase I’ve made since investing in my grain mill. 

You can purchase a Pullman pan in smaller sizes, but I love my XL one ( it’s 13 x 5 x 5 ) because it makes a loaf the size of a standard loaf of sandwich bread you buy at the store. Typically making one loaf a week if enough for our house. I’ll store the bread on the counter, wrapped in this, for a few days, slicing what I need as I need it. After 2-3 days I will slice the remaining bread and freeze the slices, ready to pull out of the freezer one or two at a time, toast them, and use them right away.

I love this slicer, giving me thin uniform slices that are prefect for lunchtime sandwiches.

What IS a pullman bread pan?

A pullman bread pan is a large, rectangular loaf pan with straight sides and a lid that slides on top.

This style of bread pan was used to make bread on the first pullman train cars–the first trains that gave passengers cars to sleep in while they traveled across the country. The passengers, of course, needed food on their journey, and the kitchens on the pullman train cars were tiny. By baking the bread for the passengers in square-topped loaves.

The lid keeps the bread from doming and, instead creates perfectly square slices, which allowed the early Pullman train cars to store 3 loaves of bread in the space that used to only store 2. 

But the part I really love about this bread is the texture. It’s soft and pillowy, kinda like Wonder Bread honestly, minus the gumminess and zero taste.  (Oh, and minus all those ingredients you can’t pronounce, including L’cysteine, a common dough conditioner in bread that’s made from (are you sitting down for this one?) human hair and duck feathers. Seriously. (Find out more here.)

What’s a tangzhong?

Tangzhong is bread making technique of cooking together a portion of the flour & liquid before adding it to the dough. It works by allowing the dough to absorb more liquid than usual, making your bread pillowy-soft.

To add a Tangzhong to any dough, simply whisk together flour and water in a 1:5 ratio, cook it until it thickens into a paste, then add the paste to your dough.

You’ll find bread made with Tangzhong added will be:

• Softer & fluffier
• Shelf-stable for longer
• Better at retaining moisture

The Tangzhong method is especially great for fresh milled flour if you’re struggling with dense, dry, crumbly, or under-proofed loaves.

I’ve been touting the joy of tangzhong in fresh flour bread on instagram for a while and so many of you reach out telling me it’s a game changer for you, like it was for me.

How to make a tangzhong

To prepare your tangzhong, you’ll need:

• 6 TB milk
• 2 TB (16 g) hard red flour

Go ahead and mill about 300 g of hard red wheat berries first. This will be enough hard red flour for the whole recipe. These are my personal, all-time favorite, heirloom grain for this bread: Rouge De Bordeaux Hard Red Berries (use code SOULYRESTED to always save 15%)

Make your tangzong, whisking flour and milk, and heating while constantly whisking. After just a minute or two of constant whisking, your flour and milk combination will turn into a paste. Immediately remove from heat and let cool.

While your tangzhong cools, start mixing your bread.

The Best Sandwich Bread with Fresh Milled Flour

While your tangzhong cools (see above), start your dough by mixing these ingredients:

• 2 cups hard red flour (260 grams)
• 1 cup durum flour (120 grams)
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 ½ TB vital wheat gluten

Then add the cooled tangzhong and these ingredients:

• 1/2 cup spelt flour (55 grams) 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons butter (read below)

Instructions:

1. Add hard red and durum flour, water, yeast, honey, and vital wheat gluten to your mixing bowl. Mix until combined and let sit, covered, for 20 minutes.
2. Add cooled tangzong, spelt flour, and salt to your bowl. Mix on medium. Add butter slowly, in small pieces, one at a time, as mixer is mixing.
3. Turn mixer to high and let it knead your dough for at least 10 minutes, or until you get a nice window pane. 
4. While mixer is kneading your dough, prepare a bowl that will be at least twice the size of your dough by lightly coating the inside in butter or oil. 
5. Turn dough out onto the counter and knead it briefly, mainly just to form it into a nice ball. (This is assuming your mixer has done all the hard work. If you don’t have a nice window pane your dough hasn’t built up enough gluten yet, and in that case you’ll want to keep working with it and kneading it more at this stage.)  
6. Roll your ball of dough in the oil in your prepared bowl, so it’s coated on all sides. Cover and sit in a warm, draft-free location to rise for about 30 minutes.
7. Prepare your Pullman pan by coating the inside of the pan, as well as the lid, with a healthy fat, paying close attention to the corners.
8. After your dough has almost doubled in size, or after about half an hour, it’s time to prepare it for its second rise.
9. Place the dough in your prepared pan, seam side down, and let dough rise until it’s about 1 inch from the top of the pan, anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours. 
10. Preheat oven to 350F.
11. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of  200F.
12. Immediately remove from pan and let cool. Store for up to 3 days fresh or store, sliced and ready to use, for months in the freezer.

Note: I add vital wheat gluten to this bread because spelt has a weaker, more water-soluble gluten than modern hard wheats, but I like this combination. If you’d like to use a great heirloom wheat, like Turkey Red, you can try skipping the vital wheat gluten, since Turkey Red has high levels of protein and strong gluten potential.

Also, if you want the nutrients of fresh milled but don’t have a grain mill yet, this fresh milled flour, sold by the farmer who grow it, is top-notch.

Print

Best sandwich bread with fresh milled flour (pullman pan)

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

For the Tangzhong

• 6 TB milk
• 2 TB hard red flour

For the dough

• 2 cups hard red flour 260 grams
• 1 cup durum flour 120 grams
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 ½ TB vital wheat gluten

To add with the Tangzhong

• 1/2 cup spelt flour 55 grams
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons butter read below

Instructions

• Make your tangzong, whisking flour and milk, and heating while constantly whisking. After just a minute or two of constant whisking, your flour and milk combination will turn into a paste. Immediately remove from heat and let cool. While your tangzhong cools, start mixing your bread.
• Add hard red and durum flour, water, yeast, honey, and vital wheat gluten to your mixing bowl. Mix until combined and let sit, covered, for 20 minutes.
• Add cooled tangzong, spelt flour, and salt to your bowl. Mix on medium. Add butter slowly, in small pieces, one at a time, as mixer is mixing.
• Turn mixer to high and let it knead your dough for at least 10 minutes, or until you get a nice window pane.
• While mixer is kneading your dough, prepare a bowl that will be at least twice the size of your dough by lightly coating the inside in butter or oil.
• Turn dough out onto the counter and knead it briefly, mainly just to form it into a nice ball. (This is assuming your mixer has done all the hard work. If you don’t have a nice window pane your dough hasn’t built up enough gluten yet, and in that case you’ll want to keep working with it and kneading it more at this stage.)
• Roll your ball of dough in the oil in your prepared bowl, so it’s coated on all sides. Cover and sit in a warm, draft-free location to rise for about 30 minutes.
• Prepare your Pullman pan by coating the inside of the pan, as well as the lid, with a healthy fat, paying close attention to the corners.
• After your dough has almost doubled in size, or after about half an hour, it’s time to prepare it for its second rise.
• Place the dough in your prepared pan, seam side down, and let dough rise until it’s about 1 inch from the top of the pan, anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of  200F.
• Immediately remove from pan and let cool. Store for up to 3 days fresh or store, sliced and ready to use, for months in the freezer.

Notes

I add vital wheat gluten to this bread because spelt has a weaker, more water-soluble gluten than modern hard wheats, but I like this combination. If you’d like to use a great heirloom wheat, like Turkey Red, you can try skipping the vital wheat gluten, since Turkey Red has high levels of protein and strong gluten potential.

The Grains I Use in This Recipe

What Tools I Use to Make this Fresh Flour Sandwich Bread

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The post The Best Sandwich Bread with fresh milled flour first appeared on Souly Rested.

I know you’re eager to get baking, so let’s dive in…

Which wheat berries to use

With so many types of wheat berries out there, how do you know which ones to use? Keep scrolling, and by the end of this post you’ll be a wheat berry professional.

Fluffy cakes? Check.

Chewy cookies? In the bag.

Fluffy bread? Done.

Speaking of bread…

What wheat berries to use for bread?

The best wheat berries to make bread with are generally hard white and hard red. These grains have the highest gluten potential, which results in great bread. Keep in mind that within the category of hard white wheat and hard red wheat, there are different kinds.

There are modern breeds of hard white and red (most common), and there are heritage breeds of these types of grains, as well. Heritage grains are great for making sure you’re getting unhybridized, nutrient-dense grains. My favorite breeds of heritage hard red wheat are Rouge De Bordeaux and Turkey Red.

Other grains that can be used to make bread are Einkorn, Khorasan (Kamut), Spelt, Rye, and Durum. All of these grains benefit from adding some vital wheat gluten to your bread dough to improve elasticity and gluten.

Note: never use soft wheat berries for bread. It won’t develop gluten, which will result in very dense bread.

Which wheat berries should I use for sourdough?

Just like with bread, the most common and practical wheat berries to make sourdough with are hard red wheat berries and hard white wheat berries.

Other grains can be used to make sourdough (like Einkorn, Khorasan and Spelt), but your bread won’t rise quite as well. Modern wheat varieties like hard white wheat are bred to develop strong gluten, and therefore make the best bread.

Any of these wheat berries can be used to make sourdough:

• Hard red wheat (either modern or heritage)
• Hard white wheat
• Khorasan/Kamut*
• Einkorn*
• Spelt
• Rye

*For best results, consider adding Vital Wheat Gluten for a “boost.”

What flour should I feed my sourdough starter?

If you’re using fresh milled flour to feed your sourdough starter, you can use a number of different wheat berries.

My personal favorite “sourdough starter feeding” grain is Rye. But other great options are hard white/red, Einkorn, Spelt, and Khorasan.

If you’re struggling with feeding your sourdough starter fresh flour, learn everything you need to know about sourdough and fresh flour.

Want to make your own fresh milled sourdough starter from scratch? Get my step-by-step instructions for making a sourdough starter with fresh flour.

Which wheat berries are best to make cake?

Soft wheat berries and ancient grains are the best option for cake. Don’t try to use hard wheat berries, because that will lead to a dense and gummy end result.

My favorite wheat berries to make cake with are Einkorn and Barley. Both of these grains mill into a very soft, fine flour, which improves the texture of your cakes.

But a number of wheat berries can be used to make cake:

• Einkorn
• Barley
• Spelt
• Khorasan*
• Rye
• Soft white
• Emmer/farro

*Khorasan isn’t my top choice in delicate baked goods, because it tends to be a courser flour due to the large size of the berries.

What wheat berries to use for cookies and brownies

In my experience, almost any wheat berry can be used to make great cookies and brownies. My top choice for cookies is Barley, and I reach for Rye or Black Barley when I’m making brownies. Contrary to popular opinion, hard white and hard red wheat berries can also make fantastic cookies. In fact, I’d use a hard white wheat over a soft wheat in my cookie dough any day.

The list of wheat berries you can use to make cookies and brownies is rather exhaustive:

1. Ancient grains like Einkorn, Khorasan, and Emmer/Farro
2. Rye
3. Hard white and hard red
4. Soft white
5. Barley (choose un-hulled for maximum nutrition, never pearled)
6. Spelt
7. Sorghum (gluten-free on it’s own, for best texture use 50/50 with another grain)

Best wheat berries to use for pie crust and other pastries

For flaky and delicate pie crusts and pastries, choose a soft wheat with low gluten potential that mills finely. For example, Einkorn mills into a finer flour than Khorasan does, so I’d choose Einkorn over Khorasan for pastries.

Best options for making pie crust and pastries include; soft white, Einkorn, Barley, and Spelt.

Other options are Khorasan, Rye, and Emmer/farro.

Which wheat berries make the best pasta?

Traditionally pasta is made with Durum. Once ground into course flour, Durum wheat is then simply called “semolina.” However, Khorasan/Kamut are in the same family as Durum, and therefore have many similarities. Both Durum and Khorasan are great for making hearty pasta with an excellent “chew” factor.

That being said, almost any grain can be used to make pasta, including hard and soft wheat, Einkorn, Spelt, and so on.

What type of fresh flour to use for banana bread and quick bread?

My go-to banana bread wheat berries are Spelt and Barley. But almost any wheat berry can be turned into delicious quick bread.

You can also use soft white wheat berries, Einkorn, Khorasan/Kamut, or Emmer/Farro.

Where to buy whole wheat berries

There are lots of options when you’re looking to buy wheat berries.

First, you can check your local bulk and natural food stores. When I visited Arizona, I found that WinCo foods has bulk wheat berries. Natural Grocer has some, and some Whole Foods stock wheat berries in their bulk bins.

You can order some types of wheat berries from Amazon. If you go this route, do be careful to make sure you’re sourcing from reputable brands, not just random shops selling low-quality grains.

If Azure Standard is your thing, they’re a great place to source standard, bulk grains.

And, finally, my favorite is to order them online. I love this source for ancient grains with free shipping on bulk orders, and I love this source for cool varieties of heritage grains at a great price. Plus, the code “soulyrested” will save you more, even on already-discounted bulk prices.

Types of wheat berries and their uses

There are so many different types of wheat berries and grains that it can be confusing. See my favorite grains I use every day, and a full breakdown of what I use them for here.

Hard white/hard red wheat berries

Use to make bread (best gluten development, therefore good for bread). You can also use hard wheat berries to make cookies.

Soft white/soft red wheat berries

Use soft wheat berries in baked goods you don’t want gluten to develop in, like muffins, cakes, pastries, brownies, puff pastry. Never use soft wheat to make bread, it won’t develop gluten or rise.

Ancient grains

Ancient grains include einkorn, spelt, khorasan (aka kamut), barley, durum, emmer. These are great multi-purpose grains. Most of them make decent bread, especially if you add vital wheat gluten. They’re also good for almost any baked goods.

Other grains

Rye, buckwheat, amaranth, oat groats, and other not-technically-wheat grains are also worth mentioning. Most can be used in baked goods, especially pancakes, french toast, and so on.

Should I buy organic wheat berries?

In short, yes. It’s best to source organic wheat berries whenever possible. Non-organic wheat berries tend to be full of glyphosate and other chemicals that we don’t want in our bread and baked goods. Organic wheat berries also tend to be better for the soil, which often means they’re nutritionally superior to conventional wheat berries, as well.

To take it one step further, consider purchasing wheat berries grown not just organically, but regeneratively as well. Both of my favorite wheat berry sources use beyond-organic practices and make it a point to take care of the soil. Better soil –> more nutrient-dense end product.

Pin this so you have it when you need it!

More about wheat berries and fresh milled flour:

• Wheat berries: everything you need to know
• Choosing the right wheat berries: A guide
• Kamut chocolate chip cookies
• Fresh milled flour: tips for success 
• Grab all my free resources on fresh milled flour (& RECIPES!)

The post Which wheat berries to use (a simple guide) first appeared on Souly Rested.

So this post is all about how to use fresh flour in any recipe. No fluff info, but all the fluffy bread.

Why use fresh flour?

Flour as we know it is dead.

As someone who used to grab all-purpose flour at the store, use it in every recipe and not think any more about it, that’s crazy for me to say. But ever since I learned about what REAL flour should look, taste, and behave like (it’s literally alive with nutrients), I haven’t looked back. And I’m determined to bring others down the flour rabbit hole with me.

• Fresh flour contains all three parts of the wheat berry; the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. Commercial flour only contains 1/3 of those things, meaning it’s missing so many nutrients that should be there.
• Commercial flour is processed at very high temperatures, leading to even more nutrient loss. So even the starchy, white flour that’s left after sifting out 2/3 of the wheat is heated beyond recognition. Milling your own flour allows you to control the milling temperature, retaining 100% of the nutrients.
• Eating fresh flour allows you to eat variety (different grains have all different types of nutrients), support local farmers, and allows you to create a measure of food security (wheat berries keep almost indefinitely, whereas milled flour lasts months at best).
• Fresh flour simply tastes better than it’s “dead” counterpart. It’s alive with flavor, nutrients, and minerals.
• There’s a good chance that milling your own flour will save you money, too. See more about that breakdown here.

Using fresh flour in bread

If you’ve ever made bread using whole wheat flour from the store, you’re used to a dry, cracked texture, playdough-like smell, and just a generally disappointing end result. Let me encourage you: fresh milled flour is an entirely different product from any “whole wheat” flour you’ve used from the store. Let’s talk about how to make amazing bread with fresh flour. (First of all, make sure you’re using the right wheat berries for bread!)

Add-ins for bread with fresh flour

Making bread with fresh flour definitely has a learning curve. There are quite a few add-ins and natural enhancements that will make it a lot easier to work with you dough, but will also lead to better bread.

1. One of my top tips for anyone struggling to make good bread is to add Vital Wheat Gluten to their dough. Don’t add any more than 1 tablespoon per cup of flour, though, or it can actually have a negative effect.
2. Try adding an egg (or an egg yolk) to your dough. Eggs help naturally “boost” your dough and give you better rise and a softer texture.
3. Add more fat to your dough. Oils, butter (especially brioche dough), and any fat (including egg yolk!) will help your dough preform better.
4. Try a tangzhong. This is a method where you cook some of your flour with milk to partially gelatinize some of your flour, resulting in a softer, sturdier bread that also happens to last longer. This recipe includes a Tangzhong, but adding one to any of your doughs can help improve texture.
5. Sunflower lecithin is another great add-in. Lecithin naturally is in egg yolks, but you can also purchase it on it’s own and add it to your bread dough as a natural enhancer.

Kneading fresh flour bread dough

Once you start working with fresh flour, you’ll most likely find that it takes longer to develop gluten (stretchy dough) than you’re used to with commercial flour. This is for a few reasons.

First of all, commercial flour contains Bromate. This is a chemical designed to not only white and oxidize flour, but also helping dough develop gluten faster and easier. Fresh flour won’t contain any bromate, which means gluten development will take a bit more time.

Secondly, fresh flour (unsifted) contains the bran and the germ. The bran is rather “sharp” in the matrix of your dough, so as gluten tries to form and develop, that bran will inhibit some of the gluten strands from maturing. It will simply take some more time to build the gluten in your dough when bran is present.

Finally, fresh flour just contains weaker gluten in general, especially if you’re using ancient grains. Be patient, and just keep kneading until the dough is stretchy (it usually takes me about 10-12 minutes to get the texture I’m looking for using my mixer).

One of the reasons I use my Bosh mixer so often is because fresh flour bread dough simply needs to be kneaded for longer than other dough does. Although it definitely can be done by hand, I prefer to let me mixer do the work and help me achieve strong, stretchy bread doughs.

Rising

Because fresh flour is so “alive,” that it tends to rise faster than bread dough made with commercial flour. Simply be aware of this fact, and keep a close eye on your doughs to make sure they don’t overproof (deflate), which will lead to sad bread.

Baking fresh flour bread

Make sure you don’t overbake your fresh flour bread. Unfortunately, this is a really easy way to dry out your bread that I see all the time.

I love to use an instant read thermometer to check all my breads when I think they’re almost done–the internal temp of cooked bread should be between 190-200 degrees.

It’s easy to underbake whole wheat bread because it’s naturally darker in color, which leads to gummy and doughy loaves. It’s also easy to overbake loaves, being worried they’re not done in the middle. A thermometer takes the guessing out of the equation.

How to use fresh flour in baked goods

I love a good cookie. So it breaks my heart when I see folks struggling to make good cookies (or any baked goods) with fresh flour. I’ve seen it all; flat cookies, crumbly cookies, fat, cakey cookies, and more. Let’s get you on your way to making amazing baked goods with fresh flour. Just like with bread, start out by making sure you’re using the right wheat berries. Find out how to choose the right wheat berries here.

Chickpea flour

Why are we talking about chickpeas, you might ask? Well, turns out, chickpea flour is one of my secret weapons for making good baked goods with fresh flour. Adding just a teaspoon-a tablespoon of chickpea flour (you’ll want to sift the skins out!) to any baked goods made with fresh flour will improve the texture dramatically. Cookies? Yep. Muffins? Totally. Cakes? A necessity.

If I’m ever struggling with the texture of anything made with fresh flour, I try adding chickpea flour. 9 times out of 10 it works like a charm.

Check the dough

I see way too many people afraid to add flour to their cookie dough simply because it’s fresh flour. The texture of your cookie dough with fresh flour should be the same texture as any other cookie dough you’ve ever made: soft enough to be cookie dough, but stiff enough to not be sticky. If your dough doesn’t have enough flour, your cookies are going to spread too much. Period.

Sift, if you must

Although I’m an advocate of NOT sifting your fresh flour (to maintain all the nutrients), if you’re struggling to get something right, try sifting your flour. This is especially true if you’re trying to make something delicate like puff pastry or other pastries. Sometimes just sifting a little bran out will make all the difference in the outcome.

Use more baking powder

Depending on what you’re making, you might just need more leavening agent. Fresh flour has a harder time rising (whether that’s bread dough or cookie dough). Often things just need the extra “oomph” that adding extra baking powder will do. I’ve been known to up to double the amount of baking powder in a recipe.

Add fresh flour slowly

I hardly ever add all the flour that a recipe calls for unless I decide I need it all. Always add less flour than you think you’ll need. There’s nothing worse than adding too much flour only to realize the dough is too dry. You can always add more flour, but it’s hard to add more moisture.

How to substitute fresh flour for all-purpose flour

My simple recipe for “fresh milled all-purpose flour” is:

• 1 part hard white wheat
• 1 part soft white wheat
• 1 part ancient grain (like Einkorn or Kamut)

This basic “recipe” can help eliminate overwhelm of choosing which wheat berries to use. It offers structure from the hard wheat, softness from the soft wheat, and flavor and texture from the ancient grain. This all-purpose blend works well in any baking project, just don’t use it in bread, as the soft wheat doesn’t have enough protein (gluten potential) to make good bread.

Using fresh flour in place of gluten-free flour blends

Although there are so many options for milling gluten-free grains it’s mind-boggling, my general recommendation for an all-purpose gluten-free blend is:

• 1 part chickpea flour 
• 1 part oat flour

This offers enough structure for most baked goods while remaining rather neutral in flavor.

Replacing the oat flour with rice flour is also a great, mild-flavored option but will change how the flour hydrates. Any other grains or legumes I add in small amounts for flavor and nutrients. This blend works really well because the oats have a similar protein structure to wheat, but without the gluten. Sadly, oat flour alone can sometimes lead to baked goods having a gummier texture, so the starchiness of the chickpeas helps round out the blend and helps create better textures.

For more options on gluten-free grains and flour blends, read all about alternative grains here.

More thoughts about fresh flour

Learning to incorporate fresh flour into your life is a journey.

When I first started milling, I gave up several times–I get how frustrating it can be. But I have no doubt that with the tips in this article and practice, you’ll get the hang of it. Truthfully, before you know it the learning curves will be in the rearview mirror.

Make sure to follow along on Instagram for more fresh flour tips and tricks. Also tag me (@souly.rested) in your fresh flour wins!

More like How to Use Fresh Flour in any Recipe:

• Why I started milling my own flour
• A guide to wheat berries for sourdough bread
• Choosing the right wheat berries: A guide
• Fluffy, 100% whole wheat dinner rolls (reicpe)
• Easy fresh flour Sandwich Bread recipe
• 9 varieties of wheat berries that I use on repeat & how I use each one

The post How to use fresh flour in any recipe first appeared on Souly Rested.

These days, as I make nutritious oatmeal from freshly-rolled oats, fresh cow’s milk, fermented blueberries, and sometimes protein powder for extra protein, I laugh at my old self.

Not that she wasn’t necessary, she was. I wouldn’t be where I am now without sugar-free (aka fake sugar), low-calorie (aka zero nutrients), instant oatmeal packet Michelle.

But let’s just say I’m very thankful I’ve upgraded my breakfasts, m’kay?

So let’s talk about how and why to make rolled oats with an oat flaker.

What are rolled oats, anyway?

So what are rolled oats?

Similar to wheat berries, oats all start out as a wholegrain kernel. In order to cook oats effectively, they get rolled.

Commercially, the rolled oats you purchase at the store have been steamed (sometimes also heated), then rolled through huge rollers to flatten the oat groats into rolled oats. The problem with this conventional method is that oats don’t need to be steamed and heated in order to be rolled. The steaming and heating process unfortunately causes the oats to loose some of their original nutrients.

Even further, rolled oats start out as oat groats. Turns out, oat groats naturally maintain their nutrients for quite a while when they’re left as they are. Once you roll oats, you sort of “unlock” those nutrients, which is great if you’re eating them right away. But unfortunately, once they’re rolled, they loose nutrients quickly. The sooner you can eat rolled oats after they’re rolled, the more nutrients your body will get.

Rolled oats, quick oats, old fashioned oats and oat groats: what’s the difference?

Stopping in front of the oats at the grocery store can be super confusing. What’s the difference between all these oats?

Diffusing the confusion surrounding what all the different types of oats are is a huge step in the direction of unlocking the nutrition of real oats.

Rolled oats

Rolled oats are simply oat groats (the wholegrain form of oats) that have been steamed and rolled into rolled oats as we know them. They’re suitable for really anything you’d use oats for.

Quick oats

Quick oats are rolled oats that are rolled even thinner and sometimes have been chopped into smaller pieces to help them cook faster. These are mainly used for oatmeal, but can also be used in baking or other baked products.

Old fashioned oats

These are simply a different name for rolled oats. They’re one and the same: oat groats that have been steamed, rolled, and processed into the flattened oats that we picture when someone says “oats.”

Oat groats

Finally, oat groats; the basis of all oats. None of the type of oats listed above would exist without oat groats. They’re the wheat berries of oats. They’re the wholegrain form of rolled oats. If you were to walk into a field of oats growing, shake the stalk and gather what comes out, those would be oat groats. They can be rolled and flaked into oats suitable for using in oatmeal, granola, or anything you’d use oats for.

How to use an oat flaker

My life changed dramatically when I started milling my own flour. I had a similar life-changing experience when I got my oat flaker and started rolling all my own oats.

Turns out, just like fresh milled flour, freshly flaked oats are so much more nutritious than their commercial rolled-months-ago-counterparts. And although learning to use my oat flaker was a much smaller learning curve than learning to use my grain mill, it still had a learning curve. But it turns out, it’s really simple.

1. Decide which oat flaker is best for you. The two main options for oat flakers are manual (hand crank-style) or electric (pour the oat groats in and wait for it to do its thing). I chose to go with an electric oat flaker, which I adore. Learn more about my oat flaker here.
2. Source oat groats. I personally order mine from Azure Standard because they’re the best price I can find, while also the best quality. Azure Standard is my all-time favorite independent food supplier. If it’s your first time placing an order of $100 or more, use code SOULYRESTED to save 15% OFF your entire order! (My favorite items to pick up from Azure are listed here.)
3. Decide if you want to moisten your oat groats or not. If the look and size of your oats is important to you, you might want to consider adding some moisture to help the groats flake better. Add roughly 1 teaspoon of water per cup of oat groats and let sit overnight. Oat groats can definitely be flaked without any additional moisture (aka the way I usually do it), but they’ll be a less uniform, picture-perfect end product.
4. Turn your oat flaker on, add in the oat groats, and watch your homemade rolled oats shoot out into your bowl. It’s truly that simple.

Oat flakers shouldn’t need to be cleaned, and certainly shouldn’t ever be moistened or submerged in water. My Mockmill oat flaker can be taken apart to brush off the rollers when needed. (I had to do that when I ran a too-moistened grain through my flaker and slightly gummed up the rollers. Learned my lesson.)

How to make rolled oats without an oat flaker

Technically, there’s more than one way to roll an oat. (That sounded weird…)

And although I absolutely adore my oat flaker and personally think it’s well worth the investment for a good machine, I know that not everyone has the budget or kitchen space for another appliance. So let’s go over a few ways you can try to roll oats at home without an oat flaker.

• I’ve heard of folks who have rolled oats by simply rolling them with a rolling pin. I would assume that’s rather laborious and time consuming, but I suppose it could be done. You’ll definitely want to moisten your oats (1 teaspoon of water per cup of oats, soaked in a container overnight) before attempting this to make them easier to roll.
• You can also try rolling your oats through a hand-crank pasta maker if you have one. Again, you’ll want to moisten your oats before trying this.
• Use your grain mill to make not rolled oats, but cracked oats or oat flour. In some cases, this might give a recipe calling for oats the same flavor, just with a different texture. Make sure you only ever run WHOLE oat groats through your grain mill, though. Milling already rolled oats can gum up your mill.

What grains can be rolled into “oats?”

When I was writing Fresh Flour University, I knew I wanted to write a section about flaking grains. So I started researching what grains could be flaked, and I was surprised to learn how many of the grains that I already had in my pantry could be turned into not just flour but also flakes or rolled grains. 

I was surprised even more by how (with the just right amount of added moisture), it was true. Almost every single grain I tried flaked beautifully. Obviously there was some trial and error with exactly how each grain liked to be flaked (some of them I wound up soaking then drying, others were great with just a spritz of water, and so on). But the end result was incredible. 

Here are the grains that I successfully learned to flake:

• Oats (obviously)
• Kamut (learn exactly how to flake Kamut here)
• Barley
• Einkorn (instructions for flaking einkorn here)
• Hard red wheat
• Hard white wheat
• Soft white wheat
• Spelt
• Rye
• Buckwheat

From my experiments, each one of these grains likes a slightly different amount of moisture in order to create a nice rolled/flaked texture. Maybe I’ll share the results of all my experimenting on the blog someday.

For now, exact instructions for flaking Kamut are in this post all about Kamut. And Einkorn flaking instructions here.

Or dive into Fresh Flour University and get it all, instantly–full instructions for flaking any grain as well as a 220-page workbook and 24 in-depth units that will have you choosing the right wheat berry for every cup of flour for every recipe and milling all your own flour like a pro. Use code SOULYRESTED to save.

My favorite flaked grains to work with and use in recipes turned out to be Kamut and Einkorn. The Einkorn flakes are so little and golden/buttery, and the Kamut are large, yellow flakes that make amazing granola (bigger flakes=larger, more textured “clumps” of granola!).

Where to buy oat groats

When I first learned about flaking oats and why making your own rolled oats is better, I was at a loss of where to purchase oat groats to make rolled oats from. Once you start looking, though, they can actually be pretty simple to find.

My favorite place to get my oat groats from is Azure Standard.  If you don’t know about this family-run independent food supplier, find out what I really think about them here. Azure Standard is a food co-op that delivers organic, bulk foods at great prices to “drop” locations once month around the country. If you want to check it out, find a drop near you and use the code “soulyrested” to save 15% off your entire first order of $100 or more.

Certain large brands do sell oat groats in their whole form and you might be able to buy them at a “traditional” grocery store near you. Bob’s Red Mill, for example, does sell “wholegrain oat groats,” but they also sell steel cut oats, and those are more commonly found in stores. Don’t be confused, though, and grab steel cut oats. They won’t flake well.

There are a surprising amount of options for oat groats on Amazon. Like this one (smaller size) or this one (bulk size).

Also check your local natural food stores, especially if they have bulk bins. They’ll often have oat groats at a decent price.

Why are freshly flaked oats different?

If you’re familiar with fresh milled flour, you know that wheat berries last virtually forever, with all of their nutrition locked up inside. Once you mill or crack or crush the wheat berry, those nutrients are oxidized, and loose their nutrients quickly. That’s because the oils inside the wheat berry are fatty and to rancid quickly. This is just one of many reasons why I mill my own flour.

Crazy enough, oats are very similar to wheat berries/fresh milled flour. Once the whole oat groat is processed into rolled oats, steel cut oats, or quick oats, the nutrients that were contained inside the oat groat are now exposed to air and go rancid. That means that oats are most nutritious the sooner you eat them after they’re rolled or processed.

The rolled oats sitting on the store shelves for, who knows, months–maybe longer? Unfortunately they’re just not going to contain the nutrition that they originally had.

How long do rolled oats made at home last?

Well, ideally your freshly rolled oats will be eaten as soon as possible after processing.

But that’s not to say you can’t keep oats at all. If you made too many rolled oats, simply store them in a jar or container at room temperature. If you’re going to be keeping them longer than a week or so, consider storing them in the fridge or freezer to maintain more nutrients.

If you have an oat flaker, one of the benefits is having on-demand, freshly rolled oats when you need them. Take advantage of that and try to only roll as many oats as you need each time.

Print

How to make rolled oats

Equipment

• oat flaker

Ingredients

• oat groats
• water, if desired

Instructions

• OPTINAL: soak your oat groats with 1 teaspoon of water per cup of groats in a ziploc or airtight container overnight. Make sure the groats aren't noticeably wet before putting them into your flaker--they should be just very slightly damp.
• Pour your oat groats into your oat flaker, making sure you don't overfill the hopper or it can jam if it's too full.
• Place a bowl under where the oats will come out, turn the flaker on, and wait for the magic of freshly rolled oats.
• Use your freshly rolled oats in any way you'd normally use oats--granola, oatmeal, in cookies or breads.

What I use to make rolled oats

​​Some items linked on this page are sourced from my all-time favorite independent food supplier. If it’s your first time placing an order of $100 or more be sure to use code SOULYRESTED to save 15% OFF your entire order! (My favorite items to pick up from Azure are listed here.)

More like how to make rolled oats (with an oat flaker) & why you should:

• Why I mill my own flour
• Learn more about my oat flaker here.
• How to store wheat berries 101
• Whole wheat pumpkin muffins (recipe)

The post How to make rolled oats (with an oat flaker) & why you should first appeared on Souly Rested.

Given that fresh milled flour is becoming very popular, that means that lots of people are also stocking up on wheat berries. But whenever I see someone freeze wheat berries or use tiny, expensive mylar bags to store their wheat berries I cringe. There’s a better way. So let’s get you on your way to storing wheat berries–the right way.

What are wheat berries and why should I store them?

Wheat berries are, quite literally, the fruit of wheat. They’re the part of wheat that you have leftover when you remove the outer hull. If you were to walk into a wheat field, grab a stalk of wheat, and shake it, wheat berries would fall out. In very simple terms, wheat berries are un-milled flour.

When you mill wheat berries, they become flour. But the beauty of wheat berries is that in their whole, un-milled state they last, basically, indefinitely. Unlike flour, that easily and quickly goes rancid. Well, real flour, that is. You see, store bought flours have been heated, sifted, and processed until it’s no longer real flour. It’s dead. So therefore it lasts longer than real flour should, because anything nutritious (including the healthy oils and vitamins) has been sifted or heated out of the final product.

When we mill our own flour from whole wheat berries, we can keep all the nutrients that store bought flour leaves out. But that means that real flour, fresh milled flour, goes bad more quickly. Which is why we store wheat berries in their whole form, rather than milling and storing flour.

So we buy grain mills, store wheat berries, and mill our own flour.

How NOT to store wheat berries (wheat berry storage mistakes)

For starters, let’s cover ways you shouldn’t store wheat berries. I’ve seen enough really bad advice out there to know that this section is desperately needed.

1. Don’t waste your money using mylar bags if you’re using your wheat berries frequently. Wheat berries, in their natural, un-milled, whole state last literally indefinitely, and unless you’re planning to store your wheat berries for a very long time untouched (for instance, if you’re building an emergency supply kit), mylar bags are just going to be a waste of time and money.
2. Along the same lines, please don’t bother wasting money on oxygen absorbers unless you’re storing wheat berries in small containers for long, long periods of time. Throwing an oxygen absorber into a jar that you’re going to open in the near future defeats the purpose entirely. As soon as that absorber is exposed to oxygen, it’s void. Useless. These are only needed or helpful if you’re not opening your container of wheat berries AT ALL.
3. Don’t store large quantities of wheat berries in glass or other clear containers for extended periods of time. I know, opaque containers aren’t as pretty as glass or clear ones, but for long-term storage, you want to minimize the amount of light the wheat berries are exposed to.
4. Please, please don’t freeze your wheat berries before storing them. Read why below.

Should I freeze wheat berries before storage?

I know that freezing wheat berries before storing them is popular advice, and seems to make sense on the surface. The idea is to kill any bugs that might be present in your wheat.

But #1, if you’re worried about bugs in your wheat–frankly–find a better, cleaner, more reliable source for wheat berries. And #2, freezing introduces moisture into your wheat berries. This is really bad for a few reasons. It’s easy to destroy your grain mill with moisturized wheat berries (a very costly mistake!). It’s easy for moist wheat berries to grow mold or harbor bacteria in storage. And, finally, it just plain messes with your flour. Once wheat berries are introduced to moisture (like a freezer!), it’s hard for the average person like you an I (without fancy equipment) to monitor moisture levels. Wheat berries with messed up moisture levels=flour with messed up moisture levels. Which then = inconstant results with bread and baked goods made with that flour. Farmers carefully monitor the moisture of wheat berries before they sell them, and introducing your wheat berries to your freezer ruins the carefully balanced moisture levels of the wheat.

The effect of freezing wheat berries

To further prove that freezing wheat berries isn’t a good idea, it’s also worth noting that average freezer temperatures will only possibly kill already live pests, not eggs, larva or any other form of pest. This source recommends freezing, thawing, and refreezing your wheat berries for several cycles if you wanted to make sure any eggs that might be present in your wheat are dead. Even then, even if there were eggs in your wheat, there’s still a very good chance they’d live through your freezing-and-thawing games anyway. In fact, it’s more commonly advised to use heat of around 140 consistent degrees to kill pest eggs, not cold temperatures.

Not to mention that introducing wheat berries to very cold temperatures tends to damage the protein structures in the wheat. The protein is what allows gluten to develop in breads, so another way of wording that is that there’s a good chance freezing your wheat berries will weaken the gluten in your breads. Making bread with fresh flour has enough obstacles on its own, we don’t need to add lower gluten structure, flour with inconsistent and wrong moisture levels, and possibly mold and fungus to boot. Read more about freezing wheat berries for storage and how it impacts gluten structure in this study.

Not to mention freezing your wheat berries just. isn’t. needed.

Please. Don’t freeze your wheat berries.

How to store wheat berries long term

Storing wheat berries long-term is really simple. You’ll need a few supplies to get started, then you’re off to the races;

• 5-gallon buckets (or other opaque, air-tight containers)
• High-quality lids with seals (I personally can’t imagine how I ever stored wheat berries without these fancy lids!)
• Shelves or something else to keep your buckets off the floor + organized
• Wheat berries to actually store

Storing wheat berries for a long time all starts with sourcing high-quality wheat berries. You’re far less likely to get bugs or run into any other issues if you’re ordering wheat berries from a source you trust. I order most of my grains in bulk from Azure standard and I have yet to have an issue. I’ve also heard good things about this brand that you can order right from Amazon. If you happen to have a local wheat farmer, even better. Ask to visit their operation and ask questions about their process.

When I get home with my bulk wheat berries, I simply pour them into a clean, dry 5-gallon bucket, make sure my lids are on and fitting properly, label them if needed, close ’em up, and forget about them until I need to refill my small jars that I keep upstairs. I do make sure I dump out and use any older wheat berries I have left in a bucket before covering up older ones with newer ones. I truly think that being careful to rotate my wheat berries and use older ones first has been tremendously helpful in preventing any issues.

If you don’t want to invest in sealed, air-tight lids just yet, generic bucket lids can be used, especially for shorter periods of time. I do have more peace of mind knowing that all my bucket lids have seals, though.

Essentially if your wheat berries are in a cool, dark place, in an airtight container, you’re golden.

Tips on how to store wheat berries

I’ve been storing wheat berries pest-free for just about a decade now. Here are my tried-and-true tips for safely storing wheat berries.

• Rotate your wheat berries to make sure you’re always using up older ones first. This is not only generally good practice, but can help your breads and baked goods turn out better, as well. Although wheat berries last basically forever under good conditions, some folks believe their bread turns out better when made with fresher wheat berries, as opposed to years-old ones.
• Check your supply regularly to make sure everything looks good. A simple glance around when you’re already in your wheat berry storage area can go a long way in preventing issues before they even start. Not to mention this will help you stay on top of your supply and not run out of anything or over order anything you don’t need yet.
• Use lids that don’t kill your fingers every time you open them. Seriously, using good lids that screw off instead of having to be literally pried off (ouch, we’ve all been there!), has changed the game for me.
• Store your containers off the floor whenever possible to avoid moisture from the floor seeping into your buckets.
• 40-60 degrees F is the ideal temperature for storing wheat berries long-term, but don’t stress if you can’t store them in exactly that range. Just do your best and keep them in a place that makes the most sense for you. Our dirt-floor basement is always dark and cool, so that’s the perfect place for us.
• Finally, store wheat berries you actually want to use. Stocking up and storing wheat is great, but only if it’s practical. If you’re stuck with 50 pounds of something you’re not going to use, well, you’ll just end up frustrated. I encourage everyone to purchase small amounts of new-to-them-grains first, just to make sure they like the texture, flavor, and overall performance of the grain  before they stock up on it.

How to store wheat berries short term

If you’re not looking to buy wheat berries in bulk, storing them can be as simple as using Tupperware or mason jars. While we don’t want light to corrode our wheat berries when we’re looking to keep them fresh for long periods of time, it’s ok to keep wheat in glass or clear plastic for shorter lengths of time.

In fact, I store a smaller amount of basically every type of wheat berry I own in glass mason jars in my kitchen. I refill them from my basement-bucket stash when they run out. I’m not worried about the small amount of wheat berries I store in my kitchen being exposed to light and heat because I’ll use them up first and quickly.

How long do wheat berries last?

This question is pretty funny if you really think about it. The reason we have ancient grains still today is because wheat berries essentially last forever. For instance, Einkorn is thought to be one of the first domestically cultivated crops. We have it today because archaeologists found Einkorn grains at ancient dig sites and cultivated it in modern climates. We have Einkorn today, essentially, because wheat berries last forever.

Wheat berries can, over time, lose some of their, shall we say, vibrance? And some folks claim that older grains can be harder to make bread with. Grains that have been stored for a significant amount of time may have less protein or gluten potential versus grains harvested more recently.

But if stored properly in a cool, dry, dark environment, wheat berries should last, no problem, over 30 years and be perfectly fine to bake with.

Will 50 pounds of wheat berries fit in a 5 gallon bucket?

In my experience I can fit 30-35 pounds of wheat berries in each 5-gallon bucket. Which is rather unfortunate if you (like me) order them in 50-pound quantities. I usually just try to have a few extra (empty) buckets and lids on hand. I then use the extra buckets as “overflow” where I can store the extra 15-20 pounds of wheat berries that don’t fit into their “base” bucket. I’ll use up the extra bucket’s worth first so I can free the bucket up for my next order of wheat berries.

Should I wash wheat berries before milling them?

This one has a very short answer. No. Washing wheat berries before milling could have disastrous consequences. Trying to mill wet or moist wheat berries will gum up your mill and just isn’t necessary. Farmers clean wheat as well as they can before distribution so you don’t have to worry about it.

Do look through your wheat berries (especially right before milling) for any debris. Pebbles, stones, etc. that may have gotten through the farmer’s cleaning process. However, if you happen to notice very small, dark brown, round seeds in with your wheat berries, congrats! You most likely have some high-quality wheat berries on your hands. Those small seeds are Vetch seeds. They are one of the most common cover crops used in organic wheat farming to replenish the soil. They won’t harm your grain mill if they get through your inspection.

The only time I would rinse wheat berries before using them is if I was cooking them, not milling them.

How to know if wheat berries have gone bad

Like we’ve discussed, if stored properly most wheat berries won’t go bad. However, if your wheat berries weren’t dried properly before they got to you, or if moisture got into them in your care, they can go bad. You’ll notice an off color or smell if your wheat berries have gone bad. If they smell musty or oily, chances are moisture allowed mold or mildew to grow in your wheat.

More like how to store wheat berries:

• Wheat berries: everything you need to know
• Choosing the right wheat berries: a guide
• 5 benefits of milling your own flour
• Sourdough with fresh flour: what you need to know

Talk to me about how to store wheat berries…

If you have questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your wheat berries, grain mills, how you store your wheat berries, etc., @souly.rested.

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