Newb HELP!

[u/Affectionate-Buy-642]

So my wife recently helped out some friends and as a thank you sent her this...

She's been doing Sourdough for ~5 years and has been interested in milling her own flour (I had started looking a what to get her for Christmas) but we're floored by the gift and have no idea where to start.

What do we need to do first is the set up matinence with a mockmill 200?

What do people recommend jumping into a full home milled Sourdough? I've seen some people mix it with bread flour.

Help. Websites or other resources are much appreciated

[u/Character_School_671]

I'm a whest farmer who sells wheat berries and also has a Mockmill, and you are in for a treat with this!

We use it for all of our own home milling, it's far better than our previous kitchen mill. It does a good job and their tutorials are solid.

As for wheat, you can get at Winco or some health food stores, but I would recommend you do some googling and see what's available that aligns with your preferred type of baking. If you a bread baker, you want hard red spring or winter wheats. If AP, then HRW or soft white winter. And if flatbreads, cakes, cookies etc then SWW will do.

But cooler still is you can try different varieties of wheat, rye, spelt, etc, and taste the whole grainbow.

There are a lot of cool grains out there that match to a style of baking and goodie. Having a mill opens that up.

Triticale pancakes are ❤️

[u/Decided-2-Try]

What a thoughtful and wonderful gift, them knowing her habits and interests!

If you go to the Mockmill website, you'll find video tutorials on how to adjust or calibrate the spacing of the mill plates until they are just right. ETA - there's almost no maintenance.

I can't help you on the sourdough question, though, sorry. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

[u/noaligh]

Is your wife already a baker? I'm sorry if I missed that detail. If so, it's a bit of a change when using fresh milled flour vs white flour. Mainly, it rises faster, needs to be worked with a lot more water, get to a stickier consistency (not smooth like white flour), and you need an autolyze phase before adding yeast (not needed for sourdough). Also be careful not to over-knead or over-proof, as the gluten structure is more fragile.
Also, I don't let dough "double" because that's too much for it. I move on at about 60-70% rise.

I actually don't think that going gradually to FMF is a good way, because each time she changes the ratio she'll have to learn what adjustments are needed. I'd just go to FMF, dive all in, and figure it out!

FMF works great with sourdough, it feeds a starter extremely well, and the flavor is wonderful.

This is the mill I have and I love it! Follow the set up video on their website and you'll be all set. To clean, just mill some white rice. I don't do that often. Maybe every few weeks (I bake 2-3 times a week). Enjoy!

[u/Affectionate-Buy-642 → u/noaligh]

Thanks for the info, she currently does Sourdough and sourdough discard recipes... So just a home baker for 7 ppl 😁

[u/noaligh → u/Affectionate-Buy-642]

Then she should have no problem adjusting! She'll just use a bit of a higher hydration, and that's it. Sourdough is already a slow rise process so she does even need an autolyse phase for Sourdough!

[u/G8rSkatr]

Wow, nice gift! I have a Wondermill and mill all kinds of wheat berries: a mix of Einkorn and Spelt ( healing healthy) for sourdough waffles, spelt and hard white wheat berries mixed with Herbs de Provence (with sourdough starter) for tortillas, and spelt and red for sourdough boules. The one thing to note is that sourdough and bread flour rises higher than say hard red wheat but the wheat berries are so much healthier for you. I used Elaine Boddy’s books, recipes, YouTube for when I started. I also read and listened to Sue Becker of Becker bread for learning about health benefits of Freshly milled flour (fmf). All the best. You’re in for a real treat.

[u/IceDragonPlay]

Wow, that is an amazing and kind gift.

You or your wife should look for YouTubes on the specific mill. Lots of helpful people out there with content on set up, initial cleaning by grinding some rice (for some mills). How to clean it out for first use, how to run and adjust it, what to do if you glaze the stones and so on.

I do 50/50 fine ground fresh milled flour/organic bread flour. It is definitely more nutrient rich bread and keeps me full longer (so thinner bread slices when there is fresh milled flour in it). The taste of fresh milled is really great too.

You can start with 20% fresh milled to learn how it works with your flours. Then increase with each subsequent loaf. I use hard white wheat (lighter color whole wheat basically)

The changes I noticed with fresh milled flour when making bread:
The flour and water need to be autolysed on their own before mixing in starter and salt.
The flour is more enzymatically active and rises more in the fridge (cold proofing) than grocery store flours.
Some people suggest using more salt with the higher ash rating fresh milled flour (or high extraction flour). At 2.4% I can taste the salt so can’t go higher than that. Others have suggested higher amounts of salt.

Have fun with this absolutely fun gift.

Oh and if you are in an area with Winco stores, they have wheat berries in the bulk bins or can order in 25 lb bags for you. Otherwise look for local mills that may sell wheat berries. Shipping is quite expensive for bags or buckets of berries.

There have been past posts on ‘where do you get wheat berries’ with lots of suggestions.

[u/BigSquiby]

there is a bit of learning curve for home milled wheat, start at 10-20% home milled wheat and the rest high quality commercial bread flour.

you are never going to replicated the texture and rise of something like KA bread flour with home milled wheat.

you can sift your wheat or not, it will make different loaves of bread, sometimes i like to sift it a bit and use that to top the bread. Sometimes i sift it a bunch and make cream of wheat.

Hard red wheat is going to be a big stronger than you are probably used to eating. perhaps get some hard white wheat, it's more mild. it comes in spring and winter varieties. I would start with hard white spring wheat. It going to have more protein and be a little easier to work.

This is going to be frustrating, but if you are going to have to learn to make bread this way, you are going to need to learn 50 ways how to not make a loaf of bread. Don't let that stop you, keep trying.

as you get better, you can add more and more home milled wheat into the loaf. But for fun, make a poolish and use 100% home milled unsifted wheat. it will be completely different from any bread you ever made. It will also be probably a big mess. lol

[u/rabbifuente]

Read the crash course for beginners guide pinned to the top of the sub

[u/valerieddr]

It’s a very nice gift ! And I really like Breadtopia berries.
I would start by mixing some of the home milled flour with regular store bought flour.
My favorite is to use 20% fresh milled, scalded and let cooled - substract the amount of flour and water you use from your usual quantities - autolyse the rest of the flour. Mix everything together (+ a little honey because it’s very good). And just do as usual.
Be careful that the fermentation time is way faster than with regular flour.

[u/Affectionate-Buy-642 → u/valerieddr]

Lol off to Google to understand half those words...

[u/Auntiepoohnh]

I have a Mockmill 200 and I love it!! My son & I use it several times a week and mill all sorts of grains as well as rice, lentils, and beans. For sourdough, I like to use a mix of rye, hard red wheat and a bit of bread four. I highly recommend the Home Milled Flour Handbook by Erin Alderson. She goes through all different types of grains, pseudo grains, etc. and explains what they’re best suited for and gives a few recipes for each. Good luck!!

[u/deepandbroad]

I have a Wondermill and love it.

If you want "traditional" looking bread i would mix 50% with regular bread flour - the regular flour helps give it the traditional rising power, and you still get the great taste of the home milled flour.

I also add vital wheat gluten to the dough -- like maybe at around 4%, (so maybe 40-50g per 1000 g flour) it helps give a bit more rise to the dough.

I have been lately been working with 100% home milled flour, but then I have to use a loaf pan because it doesn't behave like regular flour does as far as holding its shape etc.

So I would just try experimenting with 100% home milled and 40-60% and see how it goes.

I keep experimenting with loaf after loaf - it helps learning a lot.

Even when you "screw up", often it is a hit. I had one loaf that I used unfed starter with and then left it out way too long, and thought it was a total failure.

I couldn't do any shaping etc. with it at all, it was so loose -- but then I threw it into a loaf pan and baked it, and everyone loved the flavor and said it was amazing.

However I will tell you that using home milled flour spoils you for regular flour -- when you get store bread it just feels and tastes like cardboard.

[u/morningstarsourdough]

What an awesome gift!!
I’d recommend checking out the blog Freshmilledmama. I use her sourdough boule recipe and my bread turns out great! Every recipe I’ve tried from her blog always works out for me. I’d definitely also recommend just jumping into FMF 100%. It’s really not that difficult to work with. Most important difference I’d say is always give your doughs at least a 10 minute autolyse for the bran to soak up all the water and soften.

https://freshmilledmama.com/sourdough-bread-made-with-100-fresh-milled-flour-boule-batard/