Fresh milled flour baking has a bit of a learning curve, and if you’ve already tried a recipe or two that didn’t quite work out, you’re not alone. I’ve shared why I choose fresh milled flour if you’re still weighing the decision, but this post is about the practical side: how to actually mill flour at home and what to keep in mind as you start baking with it.
Getting Started with Fresh Milled Flour
There are a few things to consider when getting started with milling your own flour at home.
- Milling equipment
- Wheat berries or other grains
- Milling your flour
- Sifting (or not!)
- Using fresh milled flour in recipes
Let’s start with equipment
If you want to turn whole grain berries into flour, you’ll need something to do the job. The gold standard is a dedicated home mill. You’ll find quite a few options, but they’re generally either impact mills or stone mills. The details of choosing a mill are outside the scope of this post but I will discuss at a later point. For now, just know that some research is needed in order to choose the home mill most appropriate for your situation.
Besides a home mill, you can try other appliances that people use to get started: high-powered blenders or stand mixer grain mill attachments. If you already have a high-powered blender you could certainly try milling small amounts (about 1 cup of grain at a time) and see how it goes. A good home mill will give you the most consistent results, but if you’re only milling occasionally, these alternatives can get you started. Just know that if you plan to mill regularly, a home mill is a must-have.
Next, you’ll choose what to mill
Wheat is the most common. Hard red wheat, hard white wheat, and soft white wheat are all popular. The “hard” wheats have more protein, which is needed for yeast breads and rolls because they need that gluten structure to rise nicely.
Soft wheat, on the other hand, is lower in protein and works well for cookies, muffins, quick breads, and cakes. However, you can also use the “hard” grains, typically hard white, for non-yeasted recipes as well.
There are also many other grains you can try once you’re comfortable, such as spelt, einkorn, Kamut, and rye. Ancient grains have unique flavors and can be easier to digest for some people. Plus, there are gluten-free options like rice, buckwheat, sorghum, and millet. Just double-check your mill’s specifications to make sure it’s suited for what you want to grind.
When you buy your grains, you’ll have to choose between conventional or organic. Conventional grains are more budget-friendly, but personally, I think the price difference is worth it to go organic and avoid extra pesticides and chemicals.
How fine should you mill your flour?
Most mills let you adjust how fine or coarse your flour turns out. You’d think you’d always want the finest possible flour, but that’s not always true. For bread, I actually like the flour just a touch coarser. For most everything else, you do want fine flour – within reason.
Keep in mind the flour will be warm during milling due to the friction generated in the milling process. You want to minimize the heat as much as possible, ideally keeping the flour below 135°F. If you try to mill a hard wheat very fine, it is likely to heat up more than you’d like. I’ve heard some people freeze their grains before milling to counteract that but I have not found it necessary for my needs.
To sift or not to sift?
One big reason to mill at home is to keep all the goodness of the whole grain: the bran, germ, and endosperm. But when you mill, you’ll end up with some larger bran bits that can affect texture – especially in things like cakes and pastries. For those, you may want to consider sifting out some of those larger pieces.
Some people say sifting out any part of the flour defeats the purpose of milling your own. I do agree that we want all that fiber and nutrition, and for most of my bakes, I do use 100% unsifted flour. But I’m not totally against sifting in certain cases.
Technically, sifting just means passing flour through a sieve to break up lumps and aerate the flour, but when people talk about “sifting” with fresh milled flour, they usually mean removing those larger bran pieces. Though I don’t do this often, I might sift for something like a cake or pastry, and I’ll save the bran to use in bread or muffins later. Nothing is wasted!
In the end, milling at home isn’t just about what’s in your flour. It’s also about what isn’t in it. No bleaching, no preservatives, no additives to extend shelf life. And it doesn’t get much fresher than grinding your berries right before you bake. Whether you sift or not is a personal decision, but either way you’re getting the very freshest and cleanest flour you can find anywhere. The chocolate sheet cake below is a good example of what unsifted fresh milled flour can do. The texture is tender and the crumb is soft, and I didn’t sift a thing.
Using your fresh milled flour
Once your flour is ready, the fun part begins. Using fresh milled flour can be as simple or as deep as you want it to be. A few basic tips to think about:
- Fresh milled flour absorbs more liquid than store-bought all-purpose flour. Be prepared to adjust the liquid in your recipes if needed.
- Allow enough time for the flour to hydrate.
- For yeast breads, many bakers mix everything except the yeast, let the dough rest 20–30 minutes (and up to a few hours), then add the yeast and proceed with the recipe. This helps the flour fully hydrate and makes kneading much easier and quicker.
- For non-yeasted recipes, letting your batter rest 10–15 minutes before baking can help. You don’t want to wait too much longer since the baking powder starts acting in the batter as soon as it’s combined with the liquid.
- When swapping fresh milled for store-bought flour, weighing is best. If your recipe lists flour in grams, weigh your grain berries first, mill them, and you’ll end up with the right amount.
- If your recipe uses cups to measure the flour, a general guide is to use a one-to-one swap (1 cup for 1 cup) for hard wheat flour and a bit more (about 1 ¼ cups for each cup called for) for soft wheat flour.
Adjusting the recipe
No matter what, watch your dough or batter and adjust liquid or flour as needed. There’s no one-size-fits-all here because grains can vary so much. Keep in mind that store-bought flour is designed for consistency. With home-milled flour, each batch of grain is unique. Yes, you lose some predictability, but you gain flavor, freshness, and nutrition.
That’s just the nature of fresh milled baking! If you can be flexible and adjust your recipes when needed, you will certainly be successful. Take notes as you make new recipes and adjust accordingly on the next bake.
Choosing recipes
If you’re new to baking with fresh milled flour, I recommend starting simple. Try Fresh Milled Flour Pancakes, Banana Bread, or Chocolate Chip Cookies. You can also browse all of my fresh milled flour recipes for more ideas. These recipes have been tested with fresh milled flour, making them a great place to start when you’re new to milling.
When you’re ready to try bread, this Fresh Milled English Muffin Toasting Bread is a great place to start. It’s a yeast loaf but with no kneading or shaping required and it seriously makes the best toast. If you’re ready for a regular sandwich bread, try my Fresh Milled Flour Sandwich Bread.
You can also start by swapping in just a little fresh milled flour in your favorite recipes. Replace about a quarter of the flour to start, then work your way up.
I hope this gives you some insight into the process of using fresh milled flour. There’s a whole world of possibilities once you start milling your own grains. Have fun with it and don’t worry if it takes a bit of experimenting to get it just right. That’s part of the adventure, and you get to eat all your experiments!
But if you’re not able to mill your own flour right now, that’s okay too. You can still choose the best quality flours you can find. I love white whole wheat flour as I find that to be very flexible in baking. If making a recipe that calls for all-purpose flour, you can replace half the flour with white whole wheat, such as King Arthur’s Golden Wheat White Whole Wheat Flour, with little impact to the taste and texture.
Either way, you’re still choosing a better ingredient and baking from scratch. That’s something to feel good about. When you’re ready to start milling your own flour, I hope you’ll find plenty of recipes and inspiration here.