If you’ve ever wanted to mill your own grain with a KitchenAid mixer, you’ll be happy to know that milling your own grain is easier than you might think. With the right attachment and a few simple tips, you can turn whole grains into fresh flour right in your own kitchen.
Milling your own grain at home might sound intimidating at first, but learning how to mill your own grain into fresh flour using a KitchenAid mixer is surprisingly simple. With the right grain mill attachment and a few simple tips, your KitchenAid mixer can produce consistent, high quality flour in minutes. Below, I’ll walk you through exactly what you need, which grains work best, and the step-by-step process for milling your own grain with your KitchenAid mixer at home so you can start baking with fresh flour right away.
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What You’ll Need to Get Started
- KitchenAid Mixer – There’s the Tilt-Head style or the Bowl-Lift style
I’m assuming that you already have a KitchenAid Mixer. If you don’t, and your main goal is to mill flour, I would consider an actual grain mill like this more affordable one or a splurge like this one.
- Wheat Berries (I’ll help you determine which kind you want down below)
- KitchenAid Grain Mill Attachment or the off-brand attachment
- A bowl
For Storing Wheat Berries or Freshly Milled Flour
- Gamma lids
- 5 Gallon Buckets (food grade)
- Gallon sized bags for freezing any extra fresh milled flour
Why Bake with Freshly Milled Whole Grains
Back in the late 1800’s, many companies realized that removing the germ and bran from flour makes it shelf stable, allowing companies to ship long distances and store it for a long time. I’m sure this seemed like a major advancement for society, but with this change came a lack of nutrition. This shift was the beginning of what we know flour to be today. People used small manual grain mills or visited a local gristmill, where they paid with a portion of their grain and had the miller grind it for them.
So in the present day, most flour has little to no nutritional value. Manufacturers ‘enrich’ some flour in an attempt to replace the nutrients they removed. These manufacturers typically add synthetic nutrients and I prefer to stay away from them.
Grinding your own flour sometimes requires more effort, but it’s worth it for the health benefits and nutrients that you are feeding yourself and your family. Anytime we can get closer to the whole food, it’s a benefit.
How to Order your Wheat Berries
If you have already have wheat berries, you can skip this step.
If you don’t already have them, I like to order my bulk whole grains from Azure Standard. I’ve always been happy with my purchases from them, and have never had an issue with anything I’ve ordered from there.
Before you order your grains, there’s some information you need to know. There are many different types of whole grains that you can mill into flour and use for baking, but you want to make sure to get the right kind for what you’re wanting to make. In the next paragraph I talk about many of the different types of grains you can mill and bake with.
Choosing the Right Grain for Milling
Hard Wheat
It has a higher protein and gluten content, being ideal for bread that rises or ferments. Inside of the hard wheat category, you have red or white wheat.
- Hard Red Wheat produces the type of bread you’d think of when you think of “whole wheat bread”. It’s dark, grainy and has an almost nutty flavor. It’s ground from red wheat berries. This flour is high protein and creates great bread. I will say, in my experience, that it creates a crusty/rustic type of loaf, probably ideal for a sourdough boule or artisan loaf. My preference with red wheat would probably be to do half red wheat flour and half of some other flour (either AP, bread flour or a different grain).
- Hard White Wheat is going to produce a product more similar to store bought bread. While it still contains the right gluten forming content that’s ideal for things that need to rise or ferment, it doesn’t have as much of the nutty, whole wheat taste or texture that Hard Red Wheat does. It also still contains all of the nutrients that hard red wheat does. If you’re on the fence about whole grains or you just prefer a milder flavor and texture, but plan to make bread often, this is for you.
Soft Wheat
It has more carbs and less protein, which keeps it from forming enough gluten for something like bread. This flour is best used for things like pastries, banana breads, baked goods. Inside of the soft wheat category, you also have white or red.
- Soft White Wheat – This flour is great for baked goods, things like cakes and pastries. It has a milder flavor and a whiter color.
- Soft Red Wheat – This flour is low-protein making it better for baked goods, but it still has that dark color and nutty flavor. I’ve personally used it for cookies, but it would also be great for crackers, muffins, pancakes, biscuits…
Ancient Grains
While there are many more than this, I’m just going to cover the ones that are more popular at the moment.
- Kamut flour has a good source of protein and fiber. It’s also known as Khorasan wheat. This flour works best in things like corn bread, banana breads, muffins, scones.
- Einkorn flour has weaker gluten, but still packed with nutrients. It often needs less hydration, and requires gentler handling. It also works well with pancakes, cornbreads, cookies or mixed with other flours in Sourdough or other breads.
Ok, hopefully you now feel good about what you’re ordering.
I’d order hard white wheat for bread and maybe some einkorn to mix in with it. For cookies and things like that, I’d probably just use my hard white wheat.
Say I bake a lot of pastries, I’d order soft white wheat.
How to Mill Your Own Grain With a KitchenAid Mixer (Step-by-Step)
Set up Your Mill
This is what my KitchenAid mill attachment looks like. While it looks like this exact mill attachment is no longer available, I’ve linked 2 options for you to choose from that are very similar.
This one is an off-brand model and I’m sure works very similarly to the actual KitchenAid brand, but is half the price (we like that).
This one is the grain mill attachment from KitchenAid and I’m sure is a great choice as well, if your budget aligns.
You’ll want to attach it to the front of the mixer, like you do with any KitchenAid attachment. Make sure it’s locked in place by twisting the knob on the side to tighten it. You’ll use the speed control level to adjust how quickly it grinds your flour. I typically don’t set it too fast, because if I have a lot of berries to grind, I find that the machine gets hot and I don’t want to overwork it.
Adjusting the Grind: Fine vs. Coarse Flour
My mill has a knob for adjusting the texture of the flour, as will yours. I have mine set as fine as it goes. You might have a different preference, and that’s fine. Just make sure that you set it before you start milling.
I find that the finest texture is the most similar to normal flour.
Place a Bowl Underneath
This is a step you don’t want to forget. Make sure you add a large bowl underneath to catch the flour as it comes out. I typically use a large bowl and just fill it most of the way, saving extra in the freezer for another day.
Add the Wheat Berries
Now that your machine is all set up, go ahead and add your wheat berries. If you are looking to mill a certain amount (cups or grams), pre-measure that and dump them in.
Set your machine to 3-4 speed, and adjust as needed. The machine will start spitting flour out into your bowl. Change the machine speed to change how fast the flour is milled.
**Tip** Since it takes a minute to set all of this up, I typically like to mill quite a bit in one sitting and then store the extra in a gallon size ziplock in the freezer until I’m ready to use it. The thing about freshly milled flour is that it spoils if you don’t use it quickly. Wheat berries will last forever (or close to it) but once they’re milled into flour, they expire quickly. When you store them in the freezer, it doesn’t clump or freeze together since there’s no liquid. As soon as you’re ready to use the flour from the freezer, just scoop out as much as you need from the bag and use it. This saves me time later when I want to bake something quickly.
Use or Freeze Right Away
Once ground into flour, wheat berries are not shelf stable. They either need to be used the same day or refrigerated or frozen.
When I get everything out to grind my flour, I typically like to do a bunch at one time. I like to batch my freshly milled flour, if you will.
I mill as much as I can in one sitting and then I put all the extra into a ziplock in the freezer for the next time I need flour. This is much easier than getting my mill out and set up every time I need flour.
FAQs About Milling Your Own Grain with a KitchenAid Mixer
How to Store Wheat Berries
I like to buy my wheat berries in bulk from Azure Standard. Their prices are unmatched and they have a great selection. I’ve been very happy with my purchases from them. Since it’s such a large quantity, I store them in 5 gallon (food-grade) buckets with these Gamma lids. The lids snap onto any 5 gallon bucket and then have a twist off lid, making them easy to access. Yes, please!
Using Freshly Milled Flour for Baking
I typically follow the same recipe, whether I’m using AP flour or FMF. But sometimes there does need to be adjustments. Freshly milled flour (FMF) is thirsty, so sometimes it needs more liquid. However, sometimes it just takes a moment to soak up the liquid fully, so I would wait before changing anything too quickly. Give it some time to soak it all up before adjusting the flour amount. They say 20-30% less freshly milled flour, compared to normal flour, or more liquid.
Is Freshly Milled Flour Shelf Stable
No. When the flour is freshly milled, the nutrient rich germ touches air which causes it to oxidize and go bad. Once you mill the grain, you should use the flour immediately. If you don’t plan to use it right away, store it in an airtight container for a week or in the freezer for longer term storage.
How to Clean Your Mill
Since I’m using the same things over and over in my mill, with no concern for contamination of anything, I typically don’t wash anything. Maybe occasionally I’ll give the mill a quick rinse and let it dry really well, but most of the time I just shake it out and put it away.
Once you know how to mill your own grain with a KitchenAid mixer, you’ll never want to go back to store-bought flour.
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