How To Make Your Own Flour From Scratch

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How To Make Your Own Flour From Scratch


When you need flour for a baking project, you often go to the store and pick out the kind you need. Sometimes there is a good selection, but if you want something unique or have some dietary restrictions you need to adhere to, finding a good type of flour can be a challenge.

The good news is that making flour is a simple process that has been practiced for many years. And it's still possible to make your own flour at home, without much time or effort. You can even make it yourself in seconds without losing the vitamins and minerals that many processed flours struggle with.

Let us look at some of the steps you need to take to learn how to make your own flour.

How to make your own flour​

Stocking up the kitchen​

The first thing we need to address is how to stock up the kitchen. Sometimes the ingredients vary depending on the type of flour you want to make.

1. Procure the ingredients​

You can use any seed, nut, or grain you want. Sometimes it's fun to be exotic and try something like acorns, popcorn, or quinoa, but traditional options like barley, oats, and wheat work well too. You can find many of these options at health food stores and online.

Before you go shopping, however, you should have a good idea of the flour you want to make. From this, you will know the exact ingredients you should buy. If you want rye flour, rye berries are a good place to start. If you want to make whole wheat flour to add something healthy to your diet, whole wheat berries are a good place to start.

2. Consider the uses for your wheat flour.​

If you are interested in wheat flour, you need to know what you are going to use it for. Each variety is better suited for different needs. For example, einkorn, emmer and spelt are best for healthy breads.

For any type of yeast bread, red durum wheat is best. If you want to bake muffins or pancakes that do not require yeast, soft wheat is a good choice.

3. Choose how you want to grind.​

If you want to spend hours grinding with your arms, that's an option (though not a very good one). In most cases, however, it is much faster and more convenient to use a coffee grinder, food processor, or blender to do all the work. The higher the power of the electric device, the finer the flour can end up.

A manual grinder has the advantage of not generating heat that damages the nutrients in the seed. If you want to get all the good nutrients and you do not mind the extra time, then go ahead with this method.

Electric mills are more expensive as well, costing a few hundred dollars to start with.

In most cases, using a blender, coffee grinder or food processor is the best choice because of the speed. This may not make flour as fine or small as other options, but it does the job and is suitable for most people, especially those grinding flour for the first time.

Grinding the ingredients​

Now that your kitchen is set up, it's time to grind the ingredients. To do this, proceed as follows:

Put everything in the blender or grinder.​

In this step, you'll put all the ingredients you want to use into the blender or grinder. Fill in as much as you are about to use. Remember that fresh flour can go bad quickly. Do not fill your grinder more than halfway so you have enough room.

With most options, the flour will expand as you grind it. So if you use one cup of wheat kernels, nuts, and beans, you should end up with about a cup and a half of flour. Make sure there is enough room in the blender to handle the extra amounts that will be produced when you grind.

Grind​

If you want to use a mill to grind the flour, you will need to turn the crank until the grain is completely ground through. If you want to use a blender, you need to select the highest level of the machine and blend for 30 seconds. After this time, turn off the blender, remove the lid and stir everything. Put the lid back on the blender and blend some more.

Continue blending until the flour reaches the desired consistency. You can check the consistency every few seconds by sifting the mixture into a bowl and looking at it closely. Touch it to make sure of the consistency. If the consistency is not to your liking, you can run the mixture through again.

Use and storage of the flour​

Now it's time to store the flour and then use it. A container with a lid or a resealable bag is the best choice. If you have a lot of flour, you may need to use a large container, but you need something to keep it fresh so you can still use it when you are done.

Store the flour in a cool, dark place. This will protect it from sunlight and bugs, both of which can harm the flour. If you like, you can add a bay leaf to the flour, which will not harm the flour but will keep some bugs away.

Consider using the refrigerator.​

If you want to do all the work at once or have a big baking project coming up, you may need to make the flour in large batches. In that case, it's better to store the flour in the refrigerator or even the freezer. Whole wheat flour will only last a few months if you keep it in the cupboard. If you think it will take longer to use up, you should store it in a cool place.

Freezing the flour is quite easy. All you have to do is put it in the same resealable container we talked about earlier and throw everything in. You can store it in the freezer for years without any problems. Just remember to use it occasionally and do not forget it there!

Experiment with how you use your flour.​

Some people find that homemade flour tastes different than expected and behaves differently when cooking. The main reason for this is that homemade flour is often super fresh compared to what you can buy at the store, especially if you just made it. For this reason, you need to experiment with it first.

Fresh flour provides more food for the yeast and therefore more fermentation activity than normal. This will change the taste of your recipes, even if you are using recipes you are familiar with. It should not taste bad, but keep in mind that the flavor will be a little different. Do a few trial runs with the flour to see how it tastes to you.

Once you get used to the taste and texture of your baked goods, you can bake with your flour. This flour can be used for any type of baked goods you have planned, so you'll have plenty of delicious things at home to keep your cupboards full and happy.

Tips for baking with your fresh homemade flour.​

How To Make Your Own Flour From Scratch


Your homemade flour is ready to bake. You have worked hard and now have a pile of flour stored in your cupboards or fridge, ready to bake. Before you start baking with this flour, there are some important tips you should follow. Some of the tips you can follow to make sure your baking with your homemade flour is successful are:

Choose the right type of ingredients​

There are many types of ingredients that you can add to your flour. Some include ingredients like grains, nuts, berries, and more. Each of these ingredients is best suited for a different flavor and type of baking you want to use.

If you want to achieve a certain flavor with your breads and baked goods, you need to choose the right ingredients from the start. Research what will taste best in your baked goods and go from there.

Weigh everything​

Before you use the flour, you need to weigh everything. The weight of your homemade flour may be heavier or lighter than regular flour. So do not assume that a cup of store-bought flour is the same weight as your homemade flour.

You can use a baking scale to figure out how much flour you need and work from there. You should also weigh all the ingredients you plan to use.

Try different types of flour in your recipes​

Since you are making your own flour, you may need to be brave and try a few different varieties to see what works and what does not in the kitchen. If you can, buy a few different types of basic ingredients and then add them as you bake. Then do a taste test to see what tastes best to you and what works for you. You may find that an unusual combination is right for you.

Conclusion​

It often seems easier and cheaper to buy the flour you want at the store. But if you want a specific type of flour, your options may be limited. Or if you want a fresh flour for all your baked goods, having control over the flour you use and how it is made can make a huge difference.

Plus, it's always fun to be self-sufficient!

The good news is that making your own flour is easy. All you have to do is choose what you want to make into flour, have the right blender or grinder, and get to work. When you are done, either use the flour immediately or store it in an airtight container so the flour stays nice until you are ready to use it. That's it!

Do you make your own flour? Tell us about it in the comments section.

How To Make Your Own Flour From Scratch
 

flowerbug

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To add one more item to the agenda , Instead of buying the wheat berries, Grow your own wheat , Drill it in , Cut it , thresh it , Grind it and the most important one of all ENJOY it !!!!

birds and chipmunks will enjoy your grains so at some point you will have to protect it until it is ready for harvest or bring it in early when the grains have filled out enough. when i was growing a winter wheat crop just to see how it went i had a lot of amusement watching the chipmunks jump up to pull the grain heads down or to even stay up in the air and harvesting the seeds. i did harvest some rye and wheat from those gardens but after a while i realized i had no time for threshing and didn't do much more with it all. i did eat about half a cup of wheat berries once. that was it for that crop. still worth it because i learned things and also enjoyed the plants as they grew. excellent ground cover and clay soil conditioner.
 

baymule

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I have a Family Grain Mill and I got the motor attachment. The hand crank attachment came with it, but I’ve never used it. I’ll keep using my electric motor, thank you very much! I use it to make cornmeal from the Painted Mountain corn that I grow. I mill the corn as needed, and put the extra cornmeal in the freezer. Makes the best cornbread! I have wheat berries that I mill too. Haven’t done much of that lately, moved to a temporary location and will move again to a place I have a contract on. And it has a big pantry!

 

Britesea

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We grind what we need about 1 week at a time. We've found that the fresher the flour is, the better it tastes, similar to fresh-ground coffee as opposed to the stuff you buy at the store. It only takes a few minutes to grind enough for a couple of loaves of bread.
 
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