Get into the Grind!

This post is all about grinding your own wheat into flour. One of the best things I ever invested in! I love it and there is nothing like slicing off a piece of homemade bread that came from wheat your ground yourself. Very rewarding and the flour is out of this world! Not to mention all the nutrients you get!


So, let's just jump right in shall we? I'll be linking the models to Amazon just so you can see what they look like and their prices.

Manuals:

Pros: 

1. Easy to store

2. No noise

3. Cheaper

4. Can use if the powder is out

5. You can do nuts to make nut butters!

Cons:

1. Slow! It will only go as fast as you do.

2. They do not get as fine of a mill as electric ones can

3. Can only do a small amount of wheat at one time

Models:

The only one I can vouch for is the wondermill junior deluxe hand mill, as I own it. It's an excellent hand mill. I used it for about 8 months before I bought an electric one. I had to run the wheat through it twice to get the wheat as fine as I like it for bread, but I must say my arms got into great shape! hahaha I still have it and keep it with our food storage supplies in case the power does go out or our electric mill breaks and I need some flour.

Electric:

Pros:

1. Super fast!

2. Can do a large amount of wheat at one time

3. They have a settings dial that you can set the mill for how fine or coarse you want the wheat to be.

4. Clean up (I'm putting it in pros because it's minimal, which you might not think when you are first looking at mills)

Cons:

1. Price! They can be extrememly coastly, but most good quality ones have a lifetime guarenty on them

2. Loud! Don't run it when little ones are sleeping.

3. You can not do nuts in them, so no fresh nut butters.

4. They are larger and take up more storage space.

Models:

1. Kitchen Aid attachment - I have heard good and bad about this attachment. Good things are that it's cheaper and your flour will go right into your KA bowl. Cons, is that you will have to run it twice through to get a fine flour and some people have said it burned out the motor in their machine. I have never used it so I can't say if that would happen or not, so if you are looking at getting this attachment, be sure to do a lot of research first!

2. Ktec - I had this wheat grinder and it does the job great! This one you do have more cleanup then other models, but it's not to bad. Also, you can flip the motor/hopper upside down and put it into the clear flour container and it takes up little space stored this way!

3. Wondermill - This mill is awesome. Wonderful reviews! *My newest wheat grinder! I'm in love with it! Hardly any cleanup at all and a lot quieter then the Ktec.

4. Nutrimill - Another awesome mill with great reviews! There isn't much difference between the wondermill and nutrimill. Except the nutrimill container can hold more flour at one time then the wondermill, so you can grind more wheat at one time without emptying it.

5. Vitamix - Now, don't quote me on this, but I have read/heard that a vitamix will grind wheat. I have no idea how fine it can get or anything but if you are looking for a top of the line blender that can also grind wheat, then this is for you.

There are other models out there in both manual and electric, but these are just some of the more popular models that I know about and they have great reviews. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. Also, if you get any of these mills, be sure to read your instruction booklet first! You don't want to mess up your mill because you didn't read it!

Wheat

Alright, so you got your wheat grinder and now you need some wheat. What kind should you get? Hard or soft? Red or white? Here is some information to help you decide. 

Hard or soft?

Hard: Has a higher protein level then soft and is better for breads, pastas, pancakes, etc.

Soft: Has a lower protein level then hard and is better suited for pastries.

Red or white?

Red: Has a stronger flavor then white and will make a denser bread. I always use dough enhancers to help it out when I use red wheat. It also had a darker color.

White: Lighter in color and has a milder flavor then the red.

* Red is typically a hard variety and white is typically a soft variety. You can find them as soft red and hard white though. In fact, I mainly use hard white wheat in my home and use it for everything (breads, cakes, pancakes, etc.). :-)

* If you are not sure what you and your family would like, buy a little of each and try them out. There isn't much difference nutritionally, especially since it's ground fresh, so just use what you and your family like the best.

Ok, so to help those of you need a visual, I'm going to take some hard red and hard white and make two loaves of bread. I'll post pictures when they are done so you can see the difference in the two. :-)