Grains/Home Milling 101 | The Fresh Loaf

Hi there,

I just received my Mockmill 200 and am curious to try it out. I've done a few test runs with soft white wheat and hard red winter wheat -- just some basic 5 lb bags I found on Amazon -- and have liked the results I've found so far for breadmaking, especially the HRWW for sourdough. Now that I've made a few loaves with my little trial pack of wheat berries (10 lbs total) I am looking to buy some larger quantities of grains to mill for the following purposes: Sourdough, white breads, pasta, pastries, and steel-cut oatmeal. A few questions for the milling pros on this site:

- Where is the best place to buy bulk, unmilled grains? In terms of price and quality. I use about 500g of milled semolina per week and probably about 900g of milled wheat flours per week. Mostly for pasta and bread but I also dabble in cookies, cakes, rolls.

- What setting should I put my mockmill on for bread flour? Right now I have tried putting it on 1 (lowest) for the finest grain.

- Sifting. Is it necessary to sift? I assume sifting gives you a finer flour and therefore a lighter loaf with more air, higher rise, etc? But you would lose some of the health benefits? I've never been much of a sifter but I did notice the loaves I made so far were quite dense and not as light/fluffy as other loaves. The taste was amazing though!

- Ancient/Non-GMO grains vs conventional? Seems like there is support for Kamut, heirloom, non-GMO style grains over the basic/conventional grains for superior taste and health benefits. Agree? Disagree? I feel like any home-milled grain is 100x better than using store-bought flour but I could be convinced to go even further with the ancient grains if the taste, structure, texture, and health benefits are worth it.

- 00 flour: We also make a lot of pizza dough and I've found that 00 flour is key to making beautiful pizza dough. Seems like this is not really possible to mill yourself at home. Correct?

- Semolina: I have a Phillips pasta machine which is a bit sensitive to dough that's too sticky, too dry, too wet, etc (can get jammed easily). I'd like to try milling my own semolina for the machine but worried it might not run through the machine well. Anyone have experience with home-milled semolina and the Phillips pasta maker?

Congrats on your mill

The best place is a place near you, it is common to buy 25 pound and 50 pound bags, so the cost of shipping can add up. If there is no place near you , Azure does bulk shipping to a drop location - you sign up with a coordinator, order and pay Azure, then a few days in advance the coordinator lets you know when the truck arrives, everyone helps unload the truck, and they you take what you ordered. https://www.azurestandard.com/drop-point-locator  . Other options include organic grocery stores, or LDS stores https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org/usa/en/storelocator  you don't have to be a church member, and I understand their prices are quite good.

- What setting should I put my mockmill on for bread flour? Right now I have tried putting it on 1 (lowest) for the finest grain.

I don't have the Mockmill, but I had a Komo, IMO, fine to fairly fine is great for most breads. For pasta you would want it to be very fine. I have not noticed any difference in the bread from flour based on the grain size of the flour.

Many sift, I don't, too much time for me. Home milled will never be as light and fluffly as Bread flour, but over time, you should develop a recipe and process that gives you loaves that taste good and are not dense.

For me, I stick with the standards - White hard and White soft, and Red hard. I had trouble justifying the price jump to the more exotic grains

- 00 flour: We also make a lot of pizza dough and I've found that 00 flour is key to making beautiful pizza dough. Seems like this is not really possible to mill yourself at home. Correct?

If you are using true 00 flour, yes you can't reproduce that by milling wheat. I make pizza every week, and with a high heat - around 700 F plus or minus, get some pretty good results.

I have that machine, though I bought the metal dies from Pasta Ideas - if you grind wheat to a fairly fine flour, then sift well, it can work, though too slow for me, so I just use a pasta machine with rollers .

Barry - Thanks so much for this info! You make it all seem pretty easy and simple. I'm feeling less intimidated by my mill now. Will report back with some results after I source some grains. Great resources on where and how to buy the grains too. I'm very curious to attempt pasta -- not sure if or how that will work but perhaps with your advice I can make it happen. Thank you.

Welcome to the world of home milling, it’s such a fun and delicious hobby! I can answer a few of your questions. I have a KoMo Fidibus XL and have been using it for nine years. Mockmill is made by the same company.

I mill about 2-3 clicks away from stones touching on my mill for bread flour. I’m not sure how the Mockmill is set up, but there’s a wide range of settings on the Fidibus and it’s not precise, it’s sort of loosey-goosey actually. I just want it to be as fine as possible without the stones touching at any point during the milling (I often mill 3.5 lbs at a time for four sandwich loaves, and the stones heat up and can expand over the course of use).

I’ve bought grains from Palouse Brand (I like their white ww), Breadtopia, and Country Life Natural Foods (they used to have an amazing flat rate shipping deal, but sadly don't anymore).

I’ve never sifted, because I bought my mill to enjoy the benefits of eating the whole grain. But I’m sure in certain applications it might be useful/desirable to attain a certain texture. As for density of the finished loaf, just make sure you knead the dough to a good elastic windowpane, don't overflour the dough, and make sure the dough is risen properly (not over and not under) before baking. You can still achieve a relatively light loaf of bread even at 100% ww with good kneading and proofing.

I love using kamut or spelt in conjunction with ww. Neither produces a good yeast bread on its own, at least in my experience. But I like to add them in small amounts to a ww dough (like 30% or less of the total flour). They’re also great in quick breads, cookies, pancakes, etc.

I’ve never tried milling semolina, but kamut makes excellent pasta! I have a hand crank machine, so I just knead the dough in my stand mixer and roll it out in the pasta machine. However, I’ve longed for one of the Phillips machines so I could make easy spaghetti!

You’ll find tons of great inspiration and encouragement here on TFL!

Thanks so much for this info! Really helpful. I will report back. I've been reading about Kamut and am interested in giving it a try, especially for pasta!

It is not the same company as the Komo. The owner of Mockmill used to work at Komo and I believe helped debit but he started his own company which is not affiliated with it. I’ve never had a Komo so I don’t know for certain how it compares but I believe the technology is similar just not the aesthetics. They did recently add a wood version which looks similar to the one you own.

Thanks for the correction. You’re right, the Fidibus I have was designed by Wolfgang Mock, who formed both companies, KoMo and Mockmill. (Article here about him and his history.)

Thanks for sharing that article. Earlier this week, I saw a video where he was discussing the Mockmill. I enjoyed the video; it's apparent that he's passionate about his mills, which means he'll continue to enhance/improve them if needed. After reading that article, I'm curious to see what he creates next.

The Komo was the other company I was looking at, and I had looked at the Komo also and was looking at the Komo XL Plus; however, the places I looked at were sold out until October. I did not want to wait. I love my MockMill Professional 200.

I plan to make your bread recipe later today. I'm excited, and my daughter is going to help. I noticed your name a few days ago. I knit also.

My MIL has been waffling back and forth over buying a mill, and I’ve recommended she get a Mockmill….but she’s still waffling. Lol. Yes, I knit, although not quite as much as I used to! I made my username a long time ago, and at the time I was just crazy about it! Now I mostly just knit in the winter and if I find something small and cute I want to make. I think my days of sweaters and all that might be behind me…for now, anyway. So many things I love to do, so little time, I’m sure you can relate! 😉

If you make the bread, let me know how it works for you!

The bread dough is in my Ankarsrum 6230 right now. :)

I hope she gets it! It's such an easy process grinding the flour. My only regret is not purchasing one sooner.

Yes, I can relate to not having the time. I'm slowly getting back into knitting during my downtime. Ha ha, what is that? I typically knit at least one blanket yearly. I've skipped the past few years; however, I'm slowly working on one I started last year. Also, my go-to project was hand-knit socks. I'm trying to work that back into the equation. We shall see!

TFL is a global community, so knowing which country or state or province you live in makes a big difference when trying to help you with this kind of inquiry. You can update your profile to include this information.

Since I don't know where you are, I'll offer one suggestion that may or may not help: Country Life Foods. They have a store in Michigan. They will make deliveries with their own trucks in several states or can ship via UPS, USPS, or FedEx to most of the US. Orders over $99 have free shipping. They offer a wide variety of grains and seeds, many of which are organic. Prices aren't necessarily the lowest you will find but seem to be fairly competitive.

Paul

Good point -- I'm in the US, outside of Washington DC. I will update that info! :) And I'll check out Country Life Foods!

All great comments above. I have the same mill you do. I prefer to sift and remill and sift again. I get better results with my procedure but that’s my preference. It is more work but I don’t mind. I mill the first time just before the stones are touching and then sift with a #30 drum sieve. I mill again with the stones touching and then sift with a #40. I save the sifted bran to use as part of my levain build. I love the grains from Barton Springs Mill. They may not be the cheapest but the grains are excellent. Durum I buy on Amazon and it tends to be pricy no matter where I look. I’m on Long Island and don’t have too many other options.

Thanks! I'll give the sifting approach a try and check out Baron Springs Mill. I'm not far from you, in the DC area.

…from Maryland - I guess there are more bakers in this area than I knew!

I agree completely about the taste of fresh whole grains! Even 25% fresh Spelt or Kamut added to biscuits or pancakes…the taste is better! I like to grind an extra quart jar to keep in the freezer.

I use a KoMo Classic. I crank my hopper all the way down, then back it off ‘til the marker dot is in front. This yields a beautiful, fine flour, imo. When the stones get hot, I open the grinder up and wait for the stones to cool.

I buy grains from Common Market Coop in Frederick, MD. They sell basic wheats, plus Spelt and Kamut by the pound. Most of my breads are around 50% Spelt, Kamut, or Einkorn. I once scored a 50 lb bag of stone ground Red Fife when attending the Maine Kneading conference. I just checked their web site…they are shipping some interesting things now. Expensive - but are doing wonderful work in a very depressed area! Their mill is a small 6’ stone from Germany, housed in Skowhegan, Maine’s old jail! MaineGrains.com

I bought my mill and some grains from Pleasant Hill Grain (Nebraska). They have a lot of wonderful information about each grain on their web site. Their grains are not cheap, but they come sealed in good buckets & are guaranteed to last over 10 years.

Azure Standard (Oregon) has very good prices and lots of volume options. Lots of organic food products. I have not purchased from them, but plan to soon!

Happy Baking!