When I first started milling my own flour at home, I pretty much only used it for making whole wheat sandwich bread. We loved it and it’s made such an impact on our health, but I started wanting to put my mill to greater use. I was getting a little tired of buying flour when I had the ability to make fresh milled flour it at home.
However, switching to fresh milled flour for your daily baking is a bit of a commitment. As a culture, we’ve become so dependent on white store-bought flour, that switching requires a mental shift. Flour is something we can typically just pull out of the cabinet and measure out. When we start grinding our own flour, there are some added steps that can make it seem like an inconvenience. However, with a couple of easy tips and tricks, freshly milling your flour at home can become a wonderful and rewarding part of your daily life.
Keep It Simple
When you first get your flour mill, it’s so exciting and you want to start baking right away. But like with so many other things, we feel like we have to do our research first. So we google, how to use fresh milled flour, and we find out that there’s a lot of information out there. And most of it is kind of intimidating.
And one website recommends one thing, should you use soft white or hard red; and another says you must soak your flour for 3 days before attempting anything, and pretty soon you’re not sure you’re even working with flour anymore. It starts to feel like a completely foreign ingredient. So yes, there are some tips and tricks to working with fresh milled flour, but here is my best tip:
JUST GO FOR IT. It’s NOT a foreign ingredient, it’s just flour. Sometimes we can get intimidated and overwhelmed by something and give up before we even start. I have had a lot of luck taking a recipe that I already know works, and simply switching the flour for my fresh milled.
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Make Fresh Milled Flour Accessible
If it’s not easy to mill a little bit of flour here and there, then you’re probably going to reach for the bag from the store when you just need a cup or two. I’m all for keeping my counters decluttered, but I can tell you from experience that having your grain mill out and in plain view will significantly increase the amount of fresh milled flour your family consumes.
When I need a half cup of flour to thicken a pot of soup, the only way I’m ever going to use fresh milled flour is if my mill is right there, plugged in, ready to go, with the grain berries right beside it. So that’s what I do. And it really does make a difference. Click here for a full post that list are favorite tools for making milling easy (container, berries, and more)
Always Mill a Little Extra
I am most tempted to use store bought flour when I need a little bit of bench flour, or flour to dust my counter with when I’m rolling something out or kneading bread, etc. To combat this, I’ve started keeping a container of fresh milled flour in the freezer for times like these. Whenever I mill flour for a recipe, I try to make a little extra to throw into the freezer.
It’s so handy to be able to pull out my “bench flour” whenever I need just a little bit of flour. Feel free to keep larger quantities in the freezer if you prefer to mill a large amount of flour at one time and then pull from it throughout the week. Keeping fresh milled flour in the freezer halts the loss of nutrients, making it a great way to store your flour.
Master a Couple of Recipes
I think this might be the most important tip for making fresh milled flour a permanent part of your household. Find a couple of recipes that you LOVE and make them over and over until you know them like the back of your hand. These should be recipes that you’re whole family loves and begins to rely on having around. They’re the staples that make your kitchen work.
As an example, my mom started milling her own flour when I was in middle school, long before it was trendy and before you could look up what everyone else was doing with their grain mill. Her goal was not to replace 100% of the flour we consumed with fresh milled flour. Instead, she chose a couple of items where she knew switching flour would have the greatest impact.
Every other week, she made 6 loaves of sandwich bread, pizza crusts, and hamburger buns. And they were always devoured. She mastered the recipes and incorporated them over and over again so that baking with whole grains became second nature, and not a constant source of stress. I highly recommend finding two or three recipes that you feel will make the biggest footprint in your meal plan. Here is a post with some of our favorites…
Remember: White Flour IS NOT Inherently Evil
Sometimes we forget that fresh milled whole wheat flour contains all parts of the flour, even the white flour (the endosperm). White flour is not inherently bad, it’s just lacking. What’s my point? If you’re having a hard time switching your family to fresh milled flour, whether it’s due to taste preferences or because some of your recipes aren’t surviving the switch, remember that every bit counts.
We want to give our family the most nutrient dense food we can, but at the same time we want them to love what we make them. If you try making pie with a whole wheat crust and end up feeling like you’ve ruined pie for your family, maybe try half and half. There’s nothing wrong with starting small and working gradually towards your goals.
Final Thoughts
I will always be thankful for our little grain mill. Over the years, it has become a more important part of our home and it’s something I’d be lost without. Our family has fallen in love with freshly milled flour. I feel good every time I serve it, knowing that it’s making whatever we’re eating heartier and more filling, as well as more nutritious.
If you’re struggling to incorporate more freshly milled flour into your daily life, I hope this gives you a little inspiration! Below are some of the recipes I use over and over again. Check them out, and let us know what freshly milled flour recipes your family depends on!
