Grinding Your Own Flour: The Tightwad Method

As promised in my recent article about bread baking for the absolute beginner (not for dummies... if you want to bake bread you can't be dumb), I'm going to detail here what I do to get absolutely top of the line, REAL whole wheat flour. This flour loses nearly none of the nutrition present in the wheat kernels when they were harvested, because it hasn't been stored on someone's store shelf for most of a year. You don't have to pay extra for packaging or brand names, and using the blender method, you get the fabulous byproduct of great-tasting hot cereal as well. In my next article I will detail the reasons behind grinding your own flour, and why it could add years to your life. (Well, maybe not...but maybe.)

What you do have to do is put in a little time. However, it's a lot like the bread itself in that most of the time is spent in allowing it to rest. Actual time in the kitchen grinding and sifting the flour comes to 20 minutes at most.

First, your tools. These will be very simple, and very very cheap. I developed the method during one of the lowest financial times I have ever had, where I was going through change to buy diapers and milk, so it's on the severe end of tightwaddery. You could, of course, spend upwards of $100 getting a grain mill, and I do intend to move up to one - an unpowered model which will allow me to grind our flour even if the electricity goes out - but for those of us who don't have an extra $100, this is a good place to start. I went to the secondhand store and found a blender for $8. I recommend getting a cheap blender just for this purpose even if you already have a blender, because I don't believe the manufacturers intended them to be used for flour making and it's possible the blender could wear out early. I haven't noticed a problem with mine yet, but if and when the poor thing finally dies, I'll go back to the secondhand store and get another one. Also, the flour must sit and rest at times while grinding, so the blender will be tied up for quite a long time; if you use your blender for other purposes, it could get annoying to have the flour always in your way.