Baking WIth Fresh Milled Flour

Welcome to enjoying the benefits of baking with fresh milled flour! 

Hi! Stacie from Rustic Hen Acres here! I'll start by sharing some of my journey so far in baking with fresh milled flours. I'm a very experienced baker, I learned to bake bread with my grandma standing on a wooden chair in her kitchen! Over the years I have baked so many things and I have even dipped my toes into sourdough! 

So why were my breads not coming out the same when I tried using fresh milled flour? Well, through much trial and error (any many, many online bread making rabbit holes!) I learned that there is a bit of learning curve when baking with fresh milled flour if you have not used it before. When I was new to using fresh milled flour, I wanted to jump right in and try all kinds of recipes! Only to wind up feeling frustrated with breads that did not rise and hard, flat cookies. I almost gave up!

Through all of that frustration, I learned that it was key to take my time to learn to master just one bread before I moved on to any other recipes. Taking the time to slow down and do this allowed me to develop a feel for how it should look, feel, and move. Once I did so, then I moved on to cookies! I will be posting some really great cookie recipes soon, so stay tuned!

I highly suggest taking the time to learn to get the feel of a basic bread recipe or you may feel frustrated and think that you don’t like fresh milled flour, and stop using it, like I almost did. I promise it truly is easy to adjust to once you have a feel for this. 

Once you do you will love baking with fresh milled flour and all the health benefits that fresh milled flour offers that commercially processed white flour does not. I know we do! 

If you are looking for a great beginner friendly sandwich bread, head on over and check out my favorite recipe! Everyday Sandwich Bread Using Fresh Milled Flour We make 2 loaves a week, I slice and then freeze any bread we have not used by the 3rd day. You do not want to freeze a whole loaf of bread. This recipe also works great for rolls, hamburger and hot dog buns! 

Sliced before freezing makes it easy to grab only what you need! It's so convenient to grab a few slices and toast them from frozen, it makes really tasty toast! I like to toast mine on shade 2 and I will flip the sides 1 minute into toasting to be sure both sides are equally crisp. This is not necessary with fresh bread slices but I have found this to be the best method when toasting from frozen. 

Why fresh milled flour?

Superior Flavor:

If you are not a fan of whole wheat flour, then don’t worry. Store-bought flours often lack the aroma and flavor that freshly milled flour can offer. By milling your own flour, you can experience the full potential of your home-baked delicacies with a depth of flavor that is simply unmatched. Once you try the flavor of fresh home-milled flour, I’m confident you will see the difference!

How to Bake with Fresh Milled Flour

Fresh milled flour is more thirsty than store-bought flour, so you need to add more liquid than called for in a recipe, but how much? There are general rules that apply to baking with fresh milled flour, so your quick bread batter, yeasted bread dough, and sourdough bread dough will have the proper level of hydration.I recommend when you are new to fresh milled flour that you follow recipes that are tailored to fresh milled flour specifically. I learned from so many fresh flour bakers who had gone through the same trials and errors that I did and they were generous enough to share that knowledge with me!

The General Rules for baking with fresh milled flour:

• Modern Day Wheats: When bake with the fresh milled flour, you will need approximately 1/4 cup extra liquid per cup of fresh milled flour.

• Rye Flour: Rye flour, in general, can be thirstier than modern day wheat flour, so when baking with fresh milled rye flour, you will need approximately 1/3 cup extra liquid per cup of fresh milled rye flour.

• Ancient Wheats: On the other hand, ancient grains tend to be less thirsty than modern day wheat or rye. When you have fresh milled ancient whole grains, including spelt, emmer, or einkorn flour, you will need approximately only 2 tablespoons extra liquid per cup of fresh milled flour.

Storing your flour:


Be sure to use an airtight container. I do not recommend you keep your flour at room temperature unless you have some out to bake. The fresh flour has oils that are stripped out of store bought flour to prolong shelf life. No one wants rancid flour!


In the refrigerator (no more than a week). I only store a week’s worth of flour in the fridge for feeding my sourdough starter. It’s fine to store there in an airtight container but remind yourself to move anything not used within the week to the freezer.

My personal preference is the freezer, it will keep your flour fresh for up to 6 months. You do not need to let it warm up to use it from the freezer, it is fine to use straight away.


Fresh milled flour is going to have more body than store bought flour. Anything good and wholesome is stripped out of whole grain flour until there is nothing left to it that’s nutritious at all. Don’t even get me started on enriched flour.

Store-bought flour, even organic flour, is considered a “dead” flour as what is contained in the bags at the store is the endosperm (protein and starch). The bran (fiber component) and the germ (where the nutrients are contained - think of it this way “as a yolk is to the egg, the germ is to a wheat berry”) have been sifted away, and the live enzymes contained in the freshly milled wheat or no longer present after the commercial processing process. Do I still bake with unbleached organic flour? Yes, occasionally I do. The majority of my baking however is done with fresh milled flour because there are not many recipes I have found that aren't just as good with FMF (fresh milled flour) as it is with "dead flour."

Fresh milled flour includes three parts:



Bran


Endosperm


Germ


Together, they create whole grain flour. If you want to lighten your fresh milled flour, you can sift out some of the bran and germ. You can do this using a standard mesh strainer, which will sift out only a small amount of the bran and germ. 

I generally will only do this when I am baking certain types of cookies that I prefer to have a lighter and more airy texture. 

If you want to sift out considerably more bran and germ, I recommend that you use bakers sifters (40 mesh or 60 mesh). These come in different mesh densities that will allow you to create a fresh milled flour that’s closer to all-purpose or bread flour. Don't throw it away though, you can use it! 


If I sift out a bit of bran/germ, I store it in a freezer bag in the freezer. It's great to add to shakes, smoothies, muffins, and breads. I also add it to cookies, pancakes and in my breading! That extra fiber and a little protein is so good for you!


I hope you love baking with fresh milled flour as much as I do and I hope you have enjoyed this blog post! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions you may have. Happy baking!