Grinding Your Own Flours: An Introduction
I have been wanting to grind my own grain and wheat for a while now.
I grew up having some home-ground whole grain flour, but it was not a staple at my house. Kind of a treat that we didn’t always appreciate!
We would do a sourdough wheat bran muffin that is pretty good, but definitely an acquired taste. They are more of a quick bread than a yeasted bread.
But I do remember Dad popping out the home grain mill and attaching it to the counter one Saturday. My sisters and I all had fun turning the hand crank and seeing the fine, freshly ground flour coming out of the end of the hand grinder.
After that experience, I don’t remember the hand grinder coming out again, but I do remember that a few years later, we got an electric grain mill.
It was so loud!
I could always tell when Dad was making some whole wheat muffins when the wheat grinder woke me up.
A Simple Beginning.
When I was a teenager, my mom learned how to make bread out of freshly ground whole wheat from good friends. The recipe she learned was a recipe that this friend had worked on for years and years.
And it was pretty good!
I do remember the bread being a little on the denser side, but it was still something to look forward to popping out of the oven.
It was not a bread that we had all the time. Again, a treat more than anything. But these were my first introductions to the world of grinding my own flours.
As I became more involved in making food from scratch and learning about the health benefits of whole foods, I became more and more curious about grinding my own flour and foods at home.
Grinding your own wheat is appealing for many reasons, such as being able to increase long-term food storage, becoming more self-sufficient, increasing your body’s health, and utilizing all the nutrition your food has to offer.
So let’s get down and dirty!
What is a Wheatberry?
The wheatberry is a grain of wheat. It’s inside of those fluffy and feather-like heads on the top of wheat stalks.
Wheatberries have three different parts to them: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.
The bran is the hard, fibrous outside layer.
The germ is the small part of the seed which contains the genetic material or the DNA.
The endosperm is a large pocket of starch that surrounds the germ and is used to be the food source of the seed as it grows roots and the first set of leaves until it can produce energy from the sun.
Wheatberry Parts.
Each of the three parts of the wheat berry has different nutritional benefits and values.
The Wheat bran is full of soluble and insoluble fiber, with a few vitamins and minerals.
The germ is the actual nutrient-dense part of the seed. This is where all the nutrition and genetic material is contained in the plant. So this has all of those good vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, proteins, and other substances which are vital to life. This is the real superstar of the wheat berry.
Then there is the endosperm.
This is basically the portion of the seed dedicated to pure energy in the form of starch. This will kickstart and feed a new sprout as it attempts to emerge out of its own bran and grow roots and leaves. As the endosperm is all used up, the roots and leaves will take over as the main energy-making machines. There are a few vitamins and minerals in this part of the berry, though significantly less than the amount in the germ.
To think of it simply: Bran is fiber, the germ is nutrition, and the endosperm is sugar.
Wheat Berry Nutritional Value.
Bran:
The soluble and insoluble fibers that makeup wheat bran are very beneficial to gut health.
The insoluble fiber is a bulking agent which promotes regularity in bowel functions. As the insoluble fiber goes through our Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, it adds mass to your stools to make it easier to pass through your windy digestive system.
It decreases constipation while also adding form to the more liquidy counterpart.
The soluble fiber of the wheat bran slows the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream. This is an amazing thing because it lowers the glycemic index of your meal.
For example, if you eat white flour bread, all of the sugar would be quickly absorbed into your bloodstream. This increases your blood sugar and sets your system on a roller coaster. As your body attempts to decrease the spike in blood sugar, it releases insulin to help regulate the blood sugar levels. Because sugar is a short-lived energy source, your then have a drop in blood sugar. Then it takes a while for the body to figure out what is going on and get to a state of regularity again.
That is not a good thing.
If you eat whole wheat bread, the soluble fiber increases the time it takes to absorb the food. This creates a more consistent absorption of sugar which your body easily handles. This consistency avoids the rollercoaster of blood sugars, which makes you feel so sluggish!
The bran also contains iron and other trace amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Germ:
The wheat germ is the most nutrient-dense part of the berry. It is rich in high-quality protein, unsaturated fats, minerals, carbohydrates, and vitamins, including vitamins B and E. Because of the high content of vitamin E; it has significant value in improving health. Some studies have shown that it increases the good cholesterol in women, is an antioxidant, and may help recovery from some cancers.
The high-quality protein, as opposed to incomplete protein, allows the body to use the amino acids for growth and development fully. The alternative is that you can repair what you have but not grow and produce more of the stuff the body needs!
Endosperm
The endosperm takes up the majority of the space in the wheatberry. However, it mostly contains sugar and very small amounts of vitamins and minerals. There really isn’t much to be said here because it’s a simple carbohydrate, starch, which is quickly converted into sugar in your body.
How Flour is made: The Grinding Process.
When wheat berries are harvested from the field, they are washed and dried. Then, they are either ground into whole wheat flour (the good stuff) or rolled by steel rollers. Whole wheat flour has all of the three parts of the wheatberry, the bran, germ, and endosperm. All of the nutrition of the wheatberry stays intact!
If continuing processing, after the wheat berries are rolled, they are then sifted. The bran and germ are then removed. This leaves the endosperm to continue being ground until fine flour is made.
In this process, over 30 essential nutrients are removed from the flour, and over 80% of the naturally occurring nutrients are removed. Because white flour has so many nutrients removed, it is required to “enrich” flour by adding back only 4-5 of the nutrients into the flour.
The flour may continue to be processed into bleached flour or have some of the bran added back (this is wheat flour).
Notice how whole wheat flour and wheat flour are different. Whole wheat flour is the least processed version and contains all the nutrients. Wheat flour is basically white flour with some bran added back into the flour. The bran is added back, however, not in the same amounts that occur naturally. The germ is also not necessarily added back in, so you are missing that nutrient powerhouse in the flour.
Types of Wheat.
There are four main types of wheatberry you can use to grind your own nutritious flour at home. Once you understand the meaning behind the names, it’s actually quite simple to figure out which wheat would best fit your cooking and baking needs.
Hard vs Soft Wheat
The first word in the name is the distinction between how much protein is in the wheatberry. The descriptors are hard and soft. Hard wheat is higher in protein. This lends itself to more yeasted bread applications.
This is because the higher amount of protein will be able to form more gluten strands and have a better gluten matrix to structure the bread. Soft wheat has a little less protein, which lends itself to more pastry and quick bread applications. Due to the decreased gluten formation, the items are often lighter and fluffier than those made with hard wheatberries.
Red vs White Wheat
The next word in the name is a color. This describes either red wheat or white wheat.
This doesn’t change a whole lot about the baking and production of gluten, though red wheat berries do have slightly more protein.
But, it mostly refers to the color. Though, it is worth mentioning that the red color is due to the increased amount of tannins in the wheat berry. The tannins in red wheat are also what cause a little bit of a “bitter” flavor. I prefer to call it more rustic.
Basic Baking Implications
With these two different distinctions, you can already tell what you are getting from your wheat.
Hard red wheat berries are going to give you more rise due to the gluten formation and will have a bit more of a rustic flavor. Soft red wheat berries will have less gluten formation due to the decreased amount of protein but will still have a lovely rustic flavor.
Hard white wheat berries are going to have more rise than soft white wheat berries, though less than hard red wheat. But it has a mild flavor, and it is a great starting place when starting out with grinding your own whole grain. It is also a great idea for a lovely whole wheat sandwich bread.
Spring vs Winter
There is another descriptor that determines when the wheat was planted. Winter wheat is planted in the fall and harvested in summer. This wheat has a slightly lower protein content than spring wheat. Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested at the end of summer. Spring wheat has a slightly higher protein content than its winter varieties.
For example, red winter wheat has slightly less protein than red spring wheat.
This is all fun with the different options of wheat berries. The most important thing is to make sure you are buying fresh wheat berries.
Specialty Grains:
One really cool thing about grinding your own flour is that you can choose the type of grain you want to turn into flour. There are a lot more things you can turn into flour than just wheat! This is a great option for those looking for more cost-effective gluten-free flour. There are also ancient grains, which are grain varieties that the modern farming industry has not hybridized for increased production and better yields. These ancient grains, including durum wheat, pack an even higher nutritional punch than our modern wheat.
Cool side note: you can grind your own coffee beans!
How to grind your grains.
One of the key ingredients to grinding your own whole wheat flour is to have a way to grind it! While I do not know the best grain mill out there, there are many different options. You most likely have one of them sitting on your counter right now.
Types of Mills
Wheat grinders work by funneling wheat berries into a space between two disks which then work to grind the wheatberries into flour. There are two different kinds of disks, stone, and metal. The stone mill is able to get finer flour. However, you can only grind dry grains. With a metal grinder, you won’t get as fine as flour, but you can grind dry and oily products. With metal disks, you can actually make your own nut butter and even Masa!
Mill Options
For the beginner who doesn’t want to invest in a grain mill just yet, you have a couple of different options. A food processor or a blender is actually a pretty decent option to start experimenting with grinding your own whole wheat flour.
If you have a stand mixer, a few of those companies actually make a grain mill attachment that hooks right on the front of your mixer. This helps keeps costs low and uses what you already have. Though not producing super fine flour, it will help you make enough flour for your needs. And honestly, you may not even notice a difference!
The next step up in the flour mill pyramid is to get an electric mill. There are many different options out there for those looking for a countertop device. These bad boys are able to crank out fresh ground flour like you wouldn’t believe. They have also been able to produce pretty fine flour as engineering has improved over the last few years!
The highest level of a grain mill is the manual mill. These wonderful hand-crank mills can get super fine flours that the other mills aren’t able to touch. This is because you are able to control how close the grinding plates are to each other.
If you are unable to grind your own wheat at home, do a quick Google search for local mills near you. You may be surprised that there is a farm and mill only an hour or two from your home!
How Long Do Wheatberries Store?
Wheatberries store for a very long time. The official word is 25-30 years. However, there have been wheatberries that germinated hundreds of years later! The reason they store for so long (if stored appropriately) is that the fat contained in the different parts of the berry is sectioned off from the oxygen-rich environment by the wheat bran. Separating the fats and oxygen helps to increase shelf-life by stalling the degradation of the fat.
However, once you grind the wheatberry and combine those separate parts, the shelf life significantly decreases. Whole Wheat flour will last about two weeks before going rancid at room temperature.
It also loses up to 80% of its nutritional value 72 hours after being ground. This is due to being exposed to the oxygen in the air.
Storage time of fresh flour is increased to up to six months if quickly frozen after grinding. A good rule of thumb is to grind your own wheat right when you need it.
Storage.
When storing wheatberries, there are many good ideas for long-term storage. I am planning another post on that later. However, the small of it is that you need to store the berries in a cool, dry place, in an airtight container. This prevents the growth of mold and bugs.
I don’t want weevils in my wheat. I don’t think you do, either.
One option for storage is to put your wheatberries into a 5-gallon bucket, add oxygen absorbers, and use gamma seal lids to get in and out of your wheatberry supply easily.
History of Processed Flours.
White flour became more available to the masses in the late 1800s and soon became quite popular. As homes began to use white flour as a home staple, more and more diseases and illnesses started popping up.
The most notable and frequent are Beriberi and Pellagra (both Vitamin B deficiencies). Both of these diseases and others occurring this time, are due to nutrient deficiencies.
As these illnesses were attributed to the heavy loss of essential vitamins and minerals, it became essential to “enrich” the flour in order to prevent these deficiency sicknesses.
Why is Whole Wheat Bread Dense?
Because the bran and the germ are retained, it is more difficult to get a light and fluffy bread without certain techniques because the germ actually cuts into the gluten strands that are formed in the bread-making process.
By inhibiting the gluten matrix, less gas is trapped in the bread. This inhibits the rise of the bread and also influences the crumb or the structure of the bread.
Ever had crumbly bread?
It’s because there isn’t enough of a gluten matrix to hold it together!
White Flour vs Whole Wheat Flour in Baking
In bread made with white flour, the absence of the bran and germ means that there is no inhibition to forming and keeping the gluten matrix. Gluten is formed through the interaction of protein and water. When gluten is allowed to form freely, it creates a structure that traps gas and gives bread rise. This means that lighter and fluffier bread is produced.
Beautiful and airy breads are made with white flour for a reason! It creates an irresistible texture and an addicting flavor.
However, it’s not filling like wheat flour. This is why I could eat a whole pan of store-bought flour rolls and still want more food!
Wheat flour, as stated in the above section, does create a loaf that is more dense. Or a brick!
If you don’t make some alterations in the recipe! I will be writing another post on this later. The basics are adding water, kneading longer, and long fermentations to improve gluten matrix formation.
Health Benefits of Whole Wheat. What does the Research say?
People who eat whole grains have been shown to have decreased incidences of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and type two diabetes. Whole grains have also been attributed to decreasing the severity of type 2 diabetes.
This is significant!
There are also some research studies that have shown decreased health, decreased fertility, and increased death rates in generational studies of rats. While this needs to be taken with a grain of salt because humans are not rats, there are some threads of truth found in these studies.
Important Note: We aren’t going into the ethics of animal studies or how much we are actually able to correlate studies on rats to humans. The studies were already done. I am just researching and compiling information.
Fertility
According to one study, when processed bread was introduced into Britain 65 years later, there was a 61% decrease in the birth rate. When whole wheat flour was reintroduced a little into the population, the birth rate increased a little. However, it was still a 55% decrease from before.
Researchers attributed this to the decrease in Vitamin E. Vitamin E has a significant role in not only human but animal reproduction as well.
In studies done on rats and eating whole grains, the rats which were fed unbleached flour, wheat germ, and soybean flour lived healthily and produced well. The other group, which had enriched white bread flour, became sick, had stunted offspring, and died by the fourth generation.
I can only wonder about the impact of processed flour on fertility today.
Health
In two different studies comparing diets of two different groups of rats, one fed whole grains, and the other fed enriched flour, both had very similar results. The groups fed whole grain were normal and lived healthy lives. The groups fed enriched flour bread were either dead, stunted or had high incidences of nutrient deficiencies which caused many illnesses and mental health issues.
Retrospective Human Study
A study that looked back at populational health during World War II found some very interesting and quite inspiring information. Due to the food shortages in Denmark, a lot of animals were slaughtered in order for their grain to be fed to the population.
Whole-grain bread then became the staple of survival. During this time, the death rate fell to the lowest rate in Europe. Ever.
They also noted significant drops in heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney issues, diabetes, and cancer. Also, note there were no digestive troubles during this time.
HOLY. COW.
Studies on rats are one thing, but actually seeing results in the human population is amazing!
What is the benefit of whole wheat?
The nutritional and health benefits of whole wheat are significant! Decreased health problems, increased quality of life, increased life span, improved fertility…the list goes on! The nutrition found in whole wheat is impressive and significant!
Why is it important that I grind my own flour?
It is important to grind your own wheat because the nutritional value of whole wheat flour decreases 80% within 72 hours and goes rancid in two weeks.
You can slow this degradation by freezing the flour quickly. This increases the storage time to six months.
However, it is the rule of thumb to grind as needed. This way, you don’t have too much flour hanging around, losing nutritional value!
This does increase the amount of time that you need to spend preparing your food. I am a realistic and busy person, as I am sure you are. I don’t always make time to do things and go “the extra mile” unless I think it is significantly beneficial to me and my family.
However, this is such a simple way to take the nutrition of my family to a whole new level.
It is so much more convenient to use the store-bought flour. But there are so many key nutrients and health benefits from those foods!
It is so worth it to eat whole wheat. And homemade bread is the best bread anyway!
You will feel so much better in the long run and even now!
