How to Grind Flour in a Grain Mill
By
Wanna see how easy it is to
grind wheat into flour in a Nutrimill?
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I’ve talked about how I love freshly ground flour and about how I love my nutrimill. You’ve all helped me share about great sources for organic or chemical free grains. I’ve even written a letter to your husbands trying to convince them that getting you a grain mill is a fabulous idea.
But I’ve never taken the time to show you how a grain mill works. Is it hard to run? Does it take a lot of time? Do you work up a sweat using it?
The answer to all three questions is a definite no!
So many people have mentioned to me things like “I don’t know how you have time to grind your own flour. I barely have time to cook, much less make the flour for my baked goods.”
You’re welcome to continue to think that because I grind my own flour, I am a modern day wonder woman. Or, you can watch this video clip and learn the truth…
Did you see that? I put in the wheat, turned on the machine…and then I walked away and made lunch and did some dishes. Then I came back and had freshly ground flour. It doesn’t get any easier than that. And wow, this flour tastes more delicious than any you’ve ever had (in my opinion)!
I just noticed that Paula’s Bread has Nutrimills on sale right now! Paula’s fabulous to work with!
Any other questions about grain mills and how they work?
Even I can do this. I think it’s kind of manly to tell my buddies that we grind our own grains. (I suppose most of you would want to be feel womanly while grinding your grains.)
My first use, I ground corn a little coarse to bread okra and I had some deelish fried okra.
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Love it! I want one of those! Wanna convince hubby its a good thing? And I really like the video, too.
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I have a nutramill too but I don’t use it inside=)! How do you clean our your filters? I haven’t found any good way to get them clean besides just shaking out the flour.
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melanie Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I thunk my filters between batches to get most of the flour out, then when I’m finished for the day — or accumulate too much flour — I rinse it with plain water and let it air dry. I have more than one filter — mill comes with two.
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Yeah, I’m kinda bad about cleaning mine. I use it so often I guess I hardly feel like it’s needed. I flick them off each time I use them…that’s about it. I think I’m lazy. ;)
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Love our nutramill. You’re right, it’s easy to use and the flour is delicious!!! It was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. :)
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I have a vitalmill grain mill and love it! It’s still new and so I’m just getting used to grinding my own flour, but it is fabulous! I bought it from this site which I love http://millersgrainhouse.com/store/ .
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I love my Nutrimill, too! It’s so easy and the flour is so fragrant!
And, thanks to you, I am now using Prairie Gold wheat. That stuff is amazingly good! I ran out and used some other wheat that I had on hand and it wasn’t nearly as tasty!
Thanks for all you do and share with us!
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I love my Nutrimill! I have never used it on the high setting, though. I have done wheat, oat groats and rice. I have never been brave enough to try anything with bean flour, so I haven’t used those, yet!
Do you leave yours out on the counter? Did you make a cute cover for it? We built a rolling island out of an old long bathroom cabinet. We put a top on it, tiled it and put industrial, locking casters on the bottom. We added some beadboard to the back and wood trim around the tile and one decorative piece of wood to the front. Then we painted it. I store my 2 45-gallon buckets of wheat, my Nutrimill and my extra Bosch accessories in it.
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Oh, a cute cover would be fun! I DID leave mine on the counter, but then I got a toaster oven and need that out on the counter instead. I have a spot in a cabinet that works for storing my mill…but it IS a little inconvenient to get it out and put it back everytime.
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I thought the nutritional value of the wheat was compromised if you didn’t use it right away (even with freezing). Is this not correct? I agree that it’s much easier to grind a large batch and freeze.
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Yes, it is does lose some of it’s nutritional value. I use it up within a couple of days anyway…and I REALLY just like the convenience of having some ground and in the freezer.
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Where have you found the best deal on wheat! Shipping?
Thank you
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
This post: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/grain-mills-pt-3-what-grains-to-use-and-where-to-find-them and this post: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/my-great-big-wheat-order along with all of the comments will hopefully help answer that question!
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Hi Laura, it sounds fantastic and they may have a sale on their hands but do you know if the Nutrimill will grind nuts into flour, ie. almonds. I recently found out that I should stay away from gluten and have been doing some baking with almond flour, but it’s a little pricey. If I could make my own…
Thanks for any help or ideas on this.
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melanie Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Without looking at my book, I think nuts are a no-no with the Nutrimill. They are too oily. I bought the “dry” blender jar for our VitaMix with thoughts of milling nuts… but haven’t done it yet.
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I don’t think it does. I’d suggest emailing Paula from Paula’s Bread to see what she recommends: paulasbread @ gmail.com
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Lenetta Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Nuts are a no! I like to refer to this online manual when I’m at my computer :>)
http://www.milkandhoneyfarm.com/sales/pdfs/NutriMillManual.pdf
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What is the cost difference between grinding your own and buying flour in the store?(minus the price of the mill) Is it more or less expensive?
FYI I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I have a really hard time hearing your videos even with the volume all the way up.
LOVE your site!!
Linda
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Danielle Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I thought it was just my pc!! I have the same problem.
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Grinding flour saves a LOT of money! Whole wheat flour is expensive! This won’t answer your questions exactly, but here’s a post I wrote with some of the price break down: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/grain-mills-pt-1-should-you-buy-one-does-it-save-money
Regarding the hard to hear vidoes…I can hear it okay on mine, but the quality of my vidoes are just not great. Sorry about that. Hopefully I’ll learn more about how to make movies! Or, maybe I should try to talk louder!! :)
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When you keep it in the freeze, then can you just grab it out when your baking and use it right away? Also, how do you clean it? is is a pain? Thanks so much! :)
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melanie Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
It’s helpful for yeast items to let the flour come to room temp before using. For cleaning, I just dust my mill out with a pastry brush.
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Laura Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Yep, just grab it out and use it out of the freezer.
I hardly clean mine because I use it so much. You’re supposed to run some rice through it to clean out the inside. Otherwise, you can wipe everything off really throroughly on the outside as needed. I probably should clean mine more often. I sort of just tap off the flour and tuck it away for next time.
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Cassie Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Awesome, thanks! I think I’m going to actually jump in and use my mill that I get for Christmas *Ahem* :)
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Not Laura–but I order from Country Life Natural Foods. http://www.clnf.org/onlinecatalog/productsnew.html
I did lots of research comparing prices and products and that was the cheapest shipped to my door.
I have a Blendtec and just grind what I need for whatever I’m making as I need it. Clean up is a breeze too–just rinse it out.
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My husband got me a Nutrimill for my birthday in January (your letter helped- thank you!). I use it all the time and love it!
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Loved this post! I posted a link to it on my blog!
http://shoppingforwoolandflax.blogspot.com/2010/06/awesome-post-on-grinding-flour.html
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I’m so glad I watched the video because apparently I have not been using the separating cup on my mill at all. It might explain why I have flour dust all over my kitchen when I use my mill. Thanks. :)
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Thanks to your letter to hubbies and a visit to Paula’s website, my sweet husband bought me a Nutrimill for Mother’s Day! He also bought me lots of different grains. I have been having a blast! I’ve been mixing grains for bread, and I use the soft wheat for muffins, pancakes, etc. My boys say it tastes better than when I use white flour! Yeah!
Thanks so much for all of the helpful (and God-honoring) info on your site! You are really a blessing!
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I’ve also been having a blast using my mill – though I end up with flour *everywhere*. Some is my fault, some is the mill’s fault… I know that was covered in some of the old posts, I just need to go back and read them. I keep a little rag stuffed in the hole in the side so it doesn’t shoot out there (and yes, the bowl is pushed all the way in – I REALLY have a problem if it isn’t – BTDT!)
Anyway. I linked to this on my weekly roundup.
And I just had a thought – I don’t know the first think about editing movies but it would have been hilarious if you could have showed yourself in fast forward making lunch and washing dishes while grinding the wheat. :>)
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Wondering how you store your wheat, to keep the critters out……
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Laura Reply:
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:20 am
Here’s how I do it: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-to-store-bulk-grain
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Laura- I’m so excited because I just ordered the Nutrimill yesterday from Paula’s Bread (after wanting one for about a year now, it’s been hard to wait!) and I’m really look forward to using it!! Thanks for the cool video tutorial :) (I know this is an old post…) I wanted to ask, is that a juicer in the background on your counter? Do you juice at all?
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Laura Reply:
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:33 pm
YAY for your Nutrimill!!!! I’m so excited for you! I had borrowed that juicer for a few weeks while my friend was out of town and wouldn’t be needing it. I wanted to see if it was something we’d want ourselves. After I returned it, I never went ahead and purchased one myself. I guess I settled on just EATING the fruits and veggies instead of juicing them. :)
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HAs anyone used a vitamix to grind flour??? I am having a terrible time with making my dough. The vita mix grinds real nice but cant figure out why my dough is so hard you cant even kneed it
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Laura Reply:
April 11th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Ah, I see you already have been looking through my grain and grain mill posts! Yes, I’ve heard others complain that a Vitamix is great for many things, but doesn’t get the wheat milled as fine as they would like for baking breads. :( Maybe others who have a VitaMix will chime in with advice! (I have a Nutrimill.)
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Has anyone charged to mill other people’s flour for them? I have thought of doing this but not sure what etiquette to follow. I’m not really wanting to make a profit as much as I am wanting to cover the usage expense of the mill…I might eventually wear out the equipment! Any suggestions?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
November 18th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
It may not be a bad idea to charge for time and general wear and tear of the mill!
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love this mill.
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