Anyone milling their own flour?

[Gerryjo]

I have just bought a 3 roller grinder and as my wife is an avid Baker and I have a selection of grain, I was wondering if anyone is milling their own and what type is it.
I've never tried it but willing to give it a go...

 

[RichardM]

I used my three roll mill on some spent grain that I had dried in the oven. Even with the rollers at the smallest setting I could get them the grain still came out much coarser than most flour is. It was good to use to make bread when mixed with a good proportion of normal white bread flour.

 

[Gerryjo]

I used my three roll mill on some spent grain that I had dried in the oven. Even with the rollers at the smallest setting I could get them the grain still came out much coarser than most flour is. It was good to use to make bread when mixed with a good proportion of normal white bread flour.

I'm actually thinking on using fresh grain as opposed to spent and wonder if that will make any difference as there is always a considerable amount of flour at the bottom of the bag when I finish using my pre-crushed from my local HB supplier.

 

[Richie_asg1]

I haven't built mine yet as it's on the list, but have the parts of a pasta machine, kenwood chef motor, and lawnmower drive belts. I have seen they can get quite dusty.

I have tried grinding flour in a nutribullet, and seems ok for spent grain anyway. Just no way of adjusting the particle size. Would a burr coffee grinder work?

I have also seen a hand mincer type of mill (that maybe could be powered?), and an attachment for the ubiquitous kenwood chef.

I've found a recipe for making your own branflakes which I thought would work as spent grains are mostly just the fibre left, and from there it is a small step to tortilla chips.

 

[Mrhandsome]

Whatever you do don't try grinding your spent grains in a pestle and mortar.

It takes forever!

 

[terrym]

I have just bought a 3 roller grinder and as my wife is an avid Baker and I have a selection of grain, I was wondering if anyone is milling their own and what type is it.
I've never tried it but willing to give it a go...

If its bread you are baking doesn't the grain have to be of a particular standard to provide enough gluten, as in strong or very strong flour. You can't bake bread using ordinary plain flour, but mrs terrym is experimenting with slowly increasing the amount of plain flour in with our bread flour to see at which point the bread has failed the QC test, the idea being to extend the bread flour stock we have since we dont seem to be able to get any more at the present time.

 

[Gerryjo]

I know that our particular grains are malted and there are specific types of grain for different flour.I'm browsing for a distributor for white hard wheat grains.

 

[chuffer]

I have just bought a 3 roller grinder and as my wife is an avid Baker and I have a selection of grain, I was wondering if anyone is milling their own and what type is it.
I've never tried it but willing to give it a go...

I was wondering about giving this a go. Hope you don't mind me asking how much did the 3 roller grinder cost you?

 

[Gerryjo]

It

I was wondering about giving this a go. Hope you don't mind me asking how much did the 3 roller grinder cost you?

It cost £90 for the 11lb version which is up to £169 on amazon at the moment.

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @terrym

You can't bake bread using ordinary plain flour, but mrs terrym is experimenting with slowly increasing the amount of plain flour in with our bread flour to ...

... I think @Drunkula will beg to differ there Terry ... I'm sure he'll be along to point you at the appropriate post in the "bread ****" thread where he shows the success he's had in baking bread with common or garden plain flour

Cheers, PhilB

 

[terrym]

Hi @terrym
... I think @Drunkula will beg to differ there Terry ... I'm sure he'll be along to point you at the appropriate post in the "bread ****" thread where he shows the success he's had in baking bread with common or garden plain flour

Cheers, PhilB

Just spotted this.
Where are you @Drunkula?
Anyway in the experiment we are up to 150g plain, 200g wholemeal strong bread flour and 100g white strong bread flour in our dough mix and that is probably the limit of the plain flour addition, because the bread has now just started to lose its texture. The bread is baked in a machine, we've done all our bread this way for years, although mrs terrym does knock out sourdough bread and pizza bases by hand from time to time when required.

 

[Drunkula]

When you bake with plain flour you've got to get a feel for the hydration and usually reign it back a few percent. If I mix in 25% plain flour with bread in the bread machine then the bread rises higher. I really like it like that but somebody I know complains they've got to turn the bread over in the toaster and that's the last thing they want to be doing in the morning when smaller things are squealing and knives are freeling available.

The bread maker recipe is
400g flour
280g water (70% hydration)
glug of oil or a bit of lard, salt, sometimes sugar for a bit of colour, 5g of yeast.

Stretching and tucking for tension is more important with the plain flour and you need something to use as a banneton or let it rise in a tin. I use a saucepan with a lid lined with a silicone sheet and keep the lid on for 20 minutes to keep the steam in.

This was the the test where I backed it down to 65% hydration but I'd start a little lower and see if it'll take it without getting too slack.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/bread-****.84618/post-879412
And DON'T add more flour while kneading if it's at a hydration you know works. You'll think it's fully kneaded when it's not. Lots of my problems while getting better was from under kneading.

 

[foxy]

I have just bought a 3 roller grinder and as my wife is an avid Baker and I have a selection of grain, I was wondering if anyone is milling their own and what type is it.
I've never tried it but willing to give it a go...

I doubt very much if it would work with 2 of the three rollers being idler, you could try putting it through several times and adjusting the gap each pass.

 

[bez]

If its bread you are baking doesn't the grain have to be of a particular standard to provide enough gluten, as in strong or very strong flour. You can't bake bread using ordinary plain flour, but mrs terrym is experimenting with slowly increasing the amount of plain flour in with our bread flour to see at which point the bread has failed the QC test, the idea being to extend the bread flour stock we have since we dont seem to be able to get any more at the present time.

I make bread with ordinary plain flour.

 

[terrym]

I make bread with ordinary plain flour.

Good to hear. Please share how you do it. What do you do which is different from using strong bread flour to develop sufficient elasticity in the dough to give a good even rise ( e.g its not part compacted at the base) and strong crumb. I assume you are hand kneading. Thanks

 

[terrym]

When you bake with plain flour you've got to get a feel for the hydration and usually reign it back a few percent. If I mix in 25% plain flour with bread in the bread machine then the bread rises higher. I really like it like that but somebody I know complains they've got to turn the bread over in the toaster and that's the last thing they want to be doing in the morning when smaller things are squealing and knives are freeling available.

The bread maker recipe is
400g flour
280g water (70% hydration)
glug of oil or a bit of lard, salt, sometimes sugar for a bit of colour, 5g of yeast.

Stretching and tucking for tension is more important with the plain flour and you need something to use as a banneton or let it rise in a tin. I use a saucepan with a lid lined with a silicone sheet and keep the lid on for 20 minutes to keep the steam in.

This was the the test where I backed it down to 65% hydration but I'd start a little lower and see if it'll take it without getting too slack.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/bread-****.84618/post-879412
And DON'T add more flour while kneading if it's at a hydration you know works. You'll think it's fully kneaded when it's not. Lots of my problems while getting better was from under kneading.

The developing bread recipe we have got to at present is 57% flour (ie nominally the same as yours ) but of that 33% is plain. However we also have 44% wholemeal which is possibly better for gluten development.
In your machine bread recipe you have 59% flour, of which only 25% is plain flour. Is this an all white recipe?

 

[Drunkula]

The developing bread recipe we have got to at present is 57% flour (ie nominally the same as yours ) but of that 33% is plain.

I use baker's percentages where the flour content is always 100% and everything else like hydration is based on that. So 25% plain flour would be 100g, and 300g for the strong flour and 65% hudration 260g.

The freestanding all plain loaf I did was freestanding. I shaped it into a boule dropped it in a banneton (actually a steel bowl with a pair of knickers I took off the washing pile and covered in flour!) then after the rise flipped into a dutch oven lined with silicone that had been heated up in the oven. The crumb and rise was just as good as a shop loaf.

And yeah, all white. I hate brown bread. Even 25%. It makes pie sandwiches taste too much of bread.

 

[terrym]

@Drunkula
Thanks for that

 

[Cwrw666]

Of course you can make bread from ordinary plain flour - but it'll come out much solider than bread made from bread flour. Still edible though. And still better than normal supermarket bread.
Check the protein % when you buy it. In a good wheat growing year the % protein of ordinary plain flour can still be above what is needed for making good bread.
BTW - we normally bake about half our bread supply but we ran out of bread flour a couple of weeks ago and none in the shops. We found a millers doing mail order (Nelstrops) - can't remember the price but the delivery charge was the same for 2 16Kg bags as for 1, so I'm sat here looking at 2 sacks of flour wondering where to store it as the usual cupboard is stuffed with pale malt...

 

[Drunkula]

but it'll come out much solider than bread made from bread flour.

It doesn't if you get the hydration right.