Grain mill??

[MFortie]

I think it's a great mill. Really like the ability to either run manual or electric. It makes good flour, something I'm picky about since I do a lot of bread baking. You can also set it to mill things like steel cut oats from oat groats.

Not cheap though, and lately it takes quite a long time to get one.

Dave

[Cnynrat]

I'm really just starting on the process of moving from store bought flour to home milled flour, but here's what I've learned so far.

Because it's been available locally (I live in north Idaho where there are some Menonite stores that carry such things) I've been using hard red berries (Bronze Chief) and a lighter variety called Prairie Gold. Both are from Wheat Montana.

The Bronze Chief behaves like a traditional whole wheat flour, and makes a hearty loaf of whole wheat bread. The Prairie Gold makes bread with a softer crumb, but still has the color and flavor of a whole wheat bread. I like both products, but I don't think they will substitute well for things you normally make with AP flour.

I have some hard white berries on order, as well as some Durham wheat berries. Durham is often used for pizza dough.

I think you're going to want both hard red and hard white for bread baking. You may want some soft white for other baked goods (cakes, muffins, etc).

BTW, as a semi-serious bread baker I'll say that I've found I need to increase the hydration percentage by about 2% when using fresh milled flour, so expect that you may need to make some adjustments to your standard recipes when using fresh milled flour.

Dave