Rye Spelt Sourdough - with rye flakes

Ian, DA and Txfarmer,

This is the mill I own:

It is a KoMo mill purchased from Pleasant Hill Grain. This LINK will provide more in-depth info for you.  

I can not say enough good things about PHG.  They are a great company and I can usually find someone knowledgeable to answer my questions should they arise.  They are one of the few companies out there that I feel genuinely care about their customers as much AFTER a sale has been made as they do before the sale.

I use to have a NutraMill but after using it awhile it became very cumbersome and was clearly not built to suite my needs. They are great for milling a large quantity of grain in one shot if you only need to mill one time a day.  They also do not use stones to grind but I really don't remember how much difference that makes in the long run.  (I read all about it when researching but forgot most of what I read after I had made my decision to replace it with the KoMo.)

My baking routine calls for several millings a day. Some larger than others.  The beauty of the KoMo mill is there really isn't any clean up.  I simply use a pastry brush to dust off the 'shoot' after milling and I am good to go.  It is solidly built and a mechanically simple machine to operate.  I can take it apart myself and give the stones a cleaning if I so choose.  Only a couple of things to go wrong - the on and off switch being the primary one and the starter can easily be accessed and replaced as can the motor if necessary.  I am thinking this will never need a replacement motor.  It is made in Germany.

The variety of 'grind' is broad.  The NutraMill really only grinds grains finely or a bit less finely.  This one gives me fine as well as all the way up to really coarse - i.e. almost the whole grain intact.  All simply done by merely positioning the grain hopper on top.  You can see just how fine the flour is coming out as you grind so can adjust as you go even with the mill running.  Very nice when you want to vary consistency in one milling.

As to make and model....Their mills are all basically the same mechanically.  It is the housing that is different.  They do have smaller mills but I went with the larger capacity one.  I chose the PKI because I like the shape.  Which is another trivial and personal point of view about this mill.  I personally think it looks a lot nicer on my counter than the large plastic NutraMill did....

Ian and DA:  This LINK is to the flaker I have. ( I purchased the KoMo  FlicFloc).  It doesn't get used as much as I though it would.  I tend to grind by grains coarse now rather than adding flakes but I do still flake oats once in awhile so it isn't totally un-used.  What I found is that grains other than oats tend to crack because they are really hard so the flakes are very brittle and can disappear into nothing when left to ferment overnight in a dough :-O.  This would be handy if people here ate a lot of muesli.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to ask more questions if I left something out.  I know Phil/PiPs and MangoChutney each have one of the mills also though Phil's is a Fidibus which just means it is shaped differently.

For the amount that all of you bake milling makes sense IF you have access to organic or other grains for a reasonable price.  (I can get a 50# bag of organic wheat for about $35.00 so that is a huge savings compared to buying milled flour....and the taste - Well, there is just no comparison...fresh is fresh :-)

Have fun and I look forward to hearing what you all do.

Take Care,

Janet

Yes, overnight ferment with that much leaven would produce SOUR and a weak dough.  You were the one from whom I learned the 15% pre fermented flour. Made such a huge difference for me and launched me onto a whole new way of baking with my whole grains :-)

 I do the same as you have done when using more leaven or when working with a larger amount of rye sour but find your overnight routine works much better with my daily schedule so that is my go-to routine.

See above comments about the mill.

Janet

My kitchen is cold in the winter (70°), so I worry that the 1 hour rise will  not be enough time. I don't have much experience with whole grains, but I don't think this one is suppose to double? How do I tell how much rise is enough?

Thanks,

Christina