Grain Mill Research

With my Whispermill grain mill sadly out of action, I immediately jumped into action myself, because we would not want to be without a grain mill for very long.  I have hand powered mills, but not that will grind fine enough to make flour.

 NutriMill Grain Mill

My first internet stop was the Gardenweb Cooking Forum, where Grainlady is an excellent resource for all things about milling grain.  She pretty much confirmed my thoughts that I needed to investigate L'Equip's NutriMill Grain Mill and the Wonder Mill, a version of my WhisperMill now manufactured by a new company. 

The Ultramill holds more grain (so produces up to 20 cups of flour instead of 12 or 13), and it can be turned on and off with grain in it, while it's recommended you start the WonderMill first before adding grain, and it's a clogging risk to turn it off, then back on while full.  The Ultramill seems to have a larger variety of milling size, creating coarser to fine flours, even though the WonderMill has a similar adjustment knob.

A Customer's Image on Amazon
showing all the parts and pieces
of the Ultramill

These details didn't help me decide, so I moved to videos in which users compared the two.  The most helpful was Breadtopia's set of 2 videos, comparing 4 mills, including these 2.  They checked milling time, noise level, and flour temperature, and discussed ease of use and cleaning.  The Wondermill was barely the winner on noise and milling time, but warmed the flour just a little more...although not into a damaging range. What influenced my decision the most is that the WonderMill seemed that it would be easier for me in terms of use, cleaning, and mess.

The parts and pieces of my WhisperMill... There's also a lid

Wondermill in the lead, I checked out the manufacturer's website.  I was impressed with the improvements they've made to the WhisperMill design, including a stronger motor much less apt to burn out from a clog.  
It's been proven in testing that this motor can handle milling 1000 lbs of flour, continuously for 9 1/2 hours, without a problem.  The motor didn't stop at that point, they just stopped testing.

WonderMill

The other thing I discovered is that they are willing and able to upgrade any Whispermill too a Wondermill with the new motor, etc., and would give it the new warranty, too.  The person with whom I emailed, said they could accomplish this, including new canister and shipping, for $200.  And they would have it refurbished and shipped back out the same day they received it.  A new one on Amazon, or almost anywhere else they're sold, is $259, so fixing mine would be a $60 savings.  The $60 would be reduced by what it cost me to ship it, which I figured at $15 for shipping, and whatever I needed for packing materials.


Hubby voted I buy new for the estimated $40 extra, and he'd take the original to an electrical shop to see if they could fix the existing motor, hopefully for much less than $200... Then one of the princesses could have it.


Back to Amazon I went, and as a precaution, started reading reviews before hitting the "Add to Cart" button.  Within some of the comments left for someone's review, which I rarely read, was mention of a re-set button on the bottom of the WhisperMill.... 


Eureka!  Indeed she was correct, and my re-set switch was tripped.  A simple click, a test plug-in, and my WhisperMill roared to life!!!!  (Amusing Prince Steadfast to no end that I did this in the dining room and it shot flour halfway up the wall -- A photo of that might have been good to add here...)

This can happen when dough is left to
'hydrolize' too long while the baker is too
focused on internet research!  Thank goodness
I didn't lock the lid, or I'd be looking for a new
one of those next.

A day dedicated to research just to finally find that crucial bit of info... 
Anyway, crisis averted, money not spent, and we're back in business.  PHEW.  It's all very good.

Plugged it in, Turned it on... Nothin'

We were in a customary state:  Breadless.  It was early, so I was confident I'd have bread done by lunchtime, and started adding ingredients to my bread mixer bowl.  I usually mill the flour first, but got out of order that morning, which shouldn't have made any difference.


Except...


....that when I turned on the switch on my beloved-for-10+ years WhisperMill to grind the flour, nothing happened!  I thought maybe the GFCI had been tripped, but it hadn't.  I tried another outlet that I knew was on another circuit, just to be sure.  Still nothin'.


I'd noticed that the exit tube was left too full of flour, indicating it'd had a clogging problem when last used.  I remembered running out the door to a doctor appointment after filling and starting the machine for Princess Eager.  Clogs happen, but not often.  She'd never used it, so wouldn't have recognized the change in motor sound or known the steps to take.  I'd burnt up a motor that way when the machine was just a year or two old, but the company who manufactured her was still in existence, and replaced it for free.  I'd been afraid this would happen again, ever since they went out of business.


But what to do with mixer bowl already partly full of 6 eggs, butter, water, yeast, and vital wheat gluten?  It was too much to throw away and we still needed bread.  I just bought some all-purpose flour, but couldn't accept the idea of making a whole batch of bread with it.  


I checked my freezer supply of already milled flour, and found I had 4 cups of hard white wheat and quite a bit of soft white wheat flour.


First, I used the microwave, very briefly, to bring them to room temperature, so I wouldn't have the problems I described in Won't Be Doing That Again.  But soft wheat is meant for pastry, cookies, and quick breads... not yeast breads that require more gluten.  To try to make up for the soft wheat's lack of gluten, I added more vital wheat gluten... Just guessing, I added about 3/4 cup to the 1/2 cup already in the bowl.  In retrospect, there is probably a way I could have checked the amount of gluten in each and done a calculation that would have been more sure, but I was in mourning for my grain mill and not thinking quite clearly!

After the dough had done its raising, I was happy that it seemed pliable and stretchy, as if it had the good gluten development it needed.  
When I shaped it, though, I noticed that the loaf tops were not as smooth, and the surface had what seemed to be minor tears.  They didn't get too much more serious as the loaves were raising, but 

I decided to slice the tops, hoping it would decrease any unsightly tearing as they baked. 

That seemed to be a good call.  Or maybe they would've been fine without.  In any case, they looked like 'normal' bread coming out of the oven.  The inside texture looked good.                                                                                                                                                                 
They've been a little more delicate and crumbly to cut and handle for sandwiches, but I was relieved to have a usable result to tide us over the next few days.


Now, what to do about a mill... Something we need every couple of days?!  Stay tuned for that part of my saga.

They Made Me Curious

9 grams whole grain

The other night on TV I caught a General Mills commercial touting their increased levels of whole grain in their Big G cereals.  I didn't catch all the numbers for certain, so I visited their website and found this quote: "All Big G cereals have at least 9 grams of whole grain per serving."  In the interest of full disclosure, I found that the different cereals range from 9 to 20 grams of whole grain per 27 to 30 gram serving. 

They also brag that whole grain is the first ingredient listed, meaning it is in the cereal in higher amounts than anything else.  I might not have thought anything of this latter claim, had they not listed cereals like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Chocolate Lucky Charms, and indicating (here) that they are a healthy breakfast choice for our children.  
A check of the list of ingredients for Apple Cinnamon Cheerios shows me that yes, whole grain oats are first on the list, but sugar is 2nd, brown sugar is 3rd, corn syrup is 5th, and apple puree concentrate is 7th.  Where this cereal might offer 14 grams of whole grain per 30 gram serving, it also dumps in 10 grams of sugar, which is roughly equivalent to a tablespoon.  One third of that serving is sugar.  If 1/2 cup of milk is added (14 grams), then, not counting the sugars in milk, the sugars in the cereal are 23% of the serving.

OK, one of my kids might occasionally add a tablespoon of some sort of sugar to their oatmeal, or the equivalent amount of sugar via dried fruit.  But I decided to look at the serving size and number of grams of whole grain in a bowl of our home-rolled oatmeal.  Using the standard serving of 1/2 cup, I got out my trusty Escali scale, and weighed some of our flaked/rolled oats.  60 grams.  

16 grams (top) vs 60 grams (bottom)

According to Quaker Oats, a half-cup serving of their Old Fashioned Oats is 40 grams, so what you have may be somewhere in between.  Wouldn't this mean that oatmeal, as an alternative, offers 40 to 60 grams of whole grain?  A cooked bowl of oatmeal is 240 grams.  If a kid adds 10 grams of sugar, it is 14% of the dry serving, and only 4% of the finished serving.










I was also curious about how our homemade bread (using the whole wheat dough derived from the Challah recipe) might measure up:

• A cup of wheat weighs 200 grams, so 8 cups in a batch of bread is 1600 grams.

• The completed dough weighs 109 ounces, so at 1600 g/ 109 ounces, there is 14.7 grams per ounce of dough.  

• I use 3.25 ounces (92 g) of dough for each sandwich bun, which would mean each of those has 48 grams of wheat (whole grain).  

• Bread slice thickness and overall size varies a lot, but my best guess for a 2 ounce (57 g) slice of bread is approximately 29 to 30 grams of whole grain.                                                                                                                                                                  1 tablespoon of jam would add 8 grams of sugar, which would become 21% of the serving.  With peanut butter or an egg, the percentage would improve substantially...as my kids rarely eat bread or toast without added protein.

Recap:  

• Big G boxed cereals: 33% to 67% whole grain (dry), depending on type chosen.  That's a big difference.  I sure wouldn't say all those cereals are equally as healthy or nutritious, especially as they vary in sugar from 1 to 10 grams, which is 2 to 25%, by weight per serving.  (To give the best benefit of the doubt, this includes 1/2 cup milk for weight, but doesn't include milk sugars)  Some are OK, but many wouldn't meet my definition of a healthy breakfast.

• Rolled oats with 1 Tbsp sugar: 86% whole grain by weight 

• 2 slices of toast with 2 Tbsp jam: 79% whole grain by dough weight

2 servings to equal the amount of food in a bowl of oatmeal, means doubling the sugar.  It takes only 2 minutes to microwave a serving of oatmeal, so it's not that time-consuming.  --And expense?  Too much for a big family who could polish off several boxes in a week. Another topic for another day.

I wonder if I may be missing something, and there may be something awry with my comparisons.  Maybe their statistics are measured differently than what I am doing.  If I've gone out to left field, please let me know.  My intent is not to mislead, or exaggerate any facts, but to ponder, try to calculate, and possibly share useful information.

Won't Be Doing That Again

I know that most recipes recommend starting with ingredients at room temperature.  I often ignore this when it comes to eggs, butter, and refrigerated dairy products.  First of all, I don't plan far enough ahead, and even if I did... How long does it take to get these things to room temp, and how long is it safe for each to sit out at 65 to 75 degrees?  I don't know, so I don't bother worrying about it.

Last Friday I needed to grind more hard white wheat in order to mix up the batch of dough for next Friday's pizza.  I knew that we were out of bread and I'd need to make some the next morning, so decided I'd just grind that flour Friday night, while I had my mill out and set up.  I then froze it to retain the nutrients, and felt satisfied I'd saved myself a bit of time and effort for the next morning's task.


The next morning I thought to set the flour out of the freezer while I gathered and prepared the other ingredients for my now-favorite bread recipe, but then dumped it in while it was still pretty cold.  


I was surprised that it seemed to take less flour to get to the consistency I usually have with the whole batch.  I have no idea if that was related to the temperature of the flour, or just the slight difference that can happen from one batch to another.


With this recipe, there is a half hour 'hydrolyzing' step, for which the dough rests and allows the moisture to really permeate the grain.  I knew after that half hour, the dough was not looking quite the same, and accepting that it was because of the temperature, allowed it to sit another half hour or a little longer.


At this point, it was time to knead, which I did, then let it sit, covered and oiled, for the usual hour to rise.  After an hour, that recipe usually looks like this:                                                                                          

Instead, this batch looked like this:                                                                                                                

I neglected to look at the time when I finally was able to see it rise to the usual level, but I think it was a couple hours later.  When I divided that dough, it felt heavier and tougher... It pretty much snapped when I stretched and divided it into loaf-sized pieces.


The rise of the shaped loaves took longer than usual, too, of course, and I had to do the guessing game of whether or not it has risen enough.  When it passed the fingertip test, I put it in the oven to bake until the internal temperature was 200 degrees.  

The bread was finally done just before 5 PM, when it normally would have been ready for a late lunch (about 1 or 1:30).  So my saving myself approximately 7 minutes of mill assembly and grinding time, added 3 1/2 hours and a lot of extra effort to my bread baking... And I got denser, 3/4 loaves to show for it.   Not a good trade!

I did say that multitasking doesn't always work well...

As I rolled out my wheat bin on Monday, I took the opportunity to straighten the pantry a bit.  I noticed 2 partial bags of  Prairie Gold hard white wheat, so I poured the last of the older one into the bin.  I was surprised to see that it had debris in it. What, again?!  I made note of the number on the bag and took photos to send Montana Wheat.  I also measured out 8 cups for making bread.  I thought the wheat looked a little odd, too, but figured I was just remembering wrong and shrugged it off.  1st hunch ignored.                                                                                                     
I didn't make bread until Wednesday, and still thought the wheat looked puffier than usual, but proceeded to mill it in my WhisperMill/Wondermill and start the sponge.  2nd red flag waving in my gut...ignored.                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Later I went to check the sponge, which was not as high as I'd expected for a 4-hour rise, and strangely bubbly.  Warning sign #3... but I mixed in the rest of the ingredients.                                                                                                                                                        
As I added the last of the freshly milled flour, I thought it looked unusually white and fine.  I wondered if I milled it at a finer setting than usual, and went on with the kneading.  NUMBER FOUR...Hello?!!!                                                                                                                                                               
At the end of kneading, the dough seemed stretchy, but limper and just a bit sticky.  I'd label this a more subtle sign, but being #5, it should have been taken more seriously.                                                                             

What I didn't notice the
other day... 2 colors?!

So the bread was rising, the oven was heating.  I was cleaning up my supplies and tools, but before I put the mixer away, decided I'd roll the oats for Prince Steadfast's granola.  The pantry was disheveled, and I straightened again.  Now I had room for that other small portion of hard wheat, so started to pour it in the bin...  Ack!  It didn't look the same at all!  But it looked like I thought hard wheat should look, so what had I poured in there yesterday?!  Oats?  No... I looked in that bin, and the oat groats looked more like hard wheat than the puffy and lighter stuff I'd added yesterday.  It slowly began to dawn on me what had happened.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Finally...The clue I noticed

Several weeks ago when I'd gotten new bags of both soft and hard wheat, Hubby and I had taken out the bad, debris-filled soft white wheat I'd gotten from a different source, poured it out of the bin, and into an empty grain bag.  Unfortunately, instead of getting thrown away or put aside for possible use as bird feed or seed for a cover crop, it got tucked back into the

A close-up of the difference.
It's not a shadow.

 pantry by a well-meaning helper...and yesterday I blindly dumped it into the hard wheat bin, and ignored every indication that should have stirred this memory and formed this realization.                                                                                                                   
I learned that I did know more about wheat appearance and behavior within the bread making process than I realized... Enough to notice the warning signs, but not be actually warned.                                                                                                                                     
So now, here I was with fully formed and raising loaves of bread, likely to turn out low and crumbly.  I thought about dumping them back in the bowl and adding some high protein ingredients.  But overworking lower protein bread can cause problems, also, and I knew it had already been worked to or past that maximum recommended point.  Still, I decided to 

All's well that ends well

let it have another full rise, then work in a little more vital wheat gluten, with some yogurt to get it from getting too dry, and rise again.                                                                              
Meanwhile, Hubby and I sorted through the wheat, taking out the soft, dirty wheat, and this time, Hubby went straight to the garbage can with it.

Baking Experiment - Different Flours in same Banana Bread

Now that I have a new and wonderfully clean bag of soft white wheat berries, it's time to experiment with soft wheat flour again.   It gave me a great reason to stop sitting at the desk, awaiting phone calls and emails that weren't coming in anyway.                                                                                                                                   
We had several very ripe bananas, so decided to start with banana bread.                                                    
I made 3 batches using identical ingredients, except for the type of flour.                                                    
I heated the oven and gathered my tools and ingredients...                                                                                   

The Motivators

3 flours, from left:  All-purpose (unbleached),
Hard white wheat (what I use for yeast bread), and Soft white wheat (pastry)

3 identical, ugly, old pans.
Sprayed with Pam, of course

3 equally weighted amounts of mashed banana.
I thought just going by number of bananas per batch
could be too variable and affect results

I used a fairly simple Banana Bread recipe from America's Test Kitchen's Family Baking Book.  The batters were very similar.  If anything, the batch using all-purpose flour seemed the least fluid, which is opposite of what I would have guessed.                                                                                                    

I marked each, so I'd know which was which.
Again, left to right, all-purpose, hard white, & soft white

So far, so good... The whole wheat loaves are flatter,
but maybe the toothpicks on top weren't a good idea?

Stay tuned for the taste and texture results... I suspect I won't have any trouble finding critics glad to taste and share their opinions.

Soft Wheat Room for Improvement, Part II

When we left this subject yesterday, I told you I would talk about the soft wheat flour and my first experience with it.

For the Soft White Wheat

First we'll talk about grinding the flour:  On my Whispermill, I chose a setting one notch finer than what I use for bread flour. 

For Hard White Wheat (bread)

 Why?  Because I have the impression that flour used in waffles, biscuits, cakes, etc. should be finer than for bread, and I also think that my bread flour is a fairly all-purpose texture, so I just went a bit finer.  No real knowledge or science behind the decision.  A guess, really.                                                                                                              

Soft Wheat, more clingy

Hard Wheat, more grainy

It's probably difficult to tell by the photos, but the soft wheat flour is softer and more talcum-powder-like in the way it feels and clings to my fingers.  The hard wheat (bread) flour is more like individual grains and doesn't coat my hands the same way.  It's not a big difference, but it's there.   It's most obvious on my index finger, where the soft wheat flour adhered to the lines in my skin.                                                                                  
The hard wheat also makes a browner flour because of, I think, having darker bran.

Browner Hard Wheat

The whiter, softer Soft Wheat

                                                                                                                        




Now onto using it:  I used my favorite biscuit recipe, Biscuits Supreme, from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (1968).  For me it's a never fail recipe, and usually produces tall, flaky biscuits, nicely brown and crispy on the top and lusciously soft on the inside.                                                                                                                               
When I mixed up the biscuit dough, using the freshly milled flour, I had a much wetter dough.  I would've thought the finer flour would soak up more of the milk, not less. According to "Grainlady," helpful contributor on the Gardenweb Cooking Forum, protein content, again, is the reason...The lesser protein levels in this, compared to all-purpose or hard wheat flour, makes a difference in moisture absorption.  She said I should decrease the liquid or increase the flour until the result is more 'normal' for biscuit dough.                                                                                                                                                      

I kneaded in some flour to that initial attempt, but just enough to barely be able to handle the dough.  It wasn't enough, because the biscuits didn't rise very tall and they weren't as light and crispy as usual.  I should have trusted my gut, and the 'feel' I was after.  I will know better next time.

First Use of Soft White Wheat - Room for Improvement

I have only ever used Hard White Wheat, which is supposed to be great for breads, because of it's higher protein levels that are useful in developing the gluten.  Soft wheat has a lower protein level, so is better for cakes, cookies, quick breads, etc.  I finally decided to try it and see if it might work for things like biscuits and pie crust...Things we didn't like when made of whole (hard) wheat.                                                                                                                             
I was a little aghast when I opened the bag of soft wheat and readily noticed pieces of stalk and little pebbles mixed in.  I emailed the friend with whom I'd discussed the merits of soft wheat and asked her if this was normal.  She said that occasionally she'd seen such things in wheat, but not as a rule.  I didn't make the time to use the wheat for awhile, so just put it away and didn't think much about it.                                                                                                                               
This past weekend we had a guest overnight, so I decided to make a breakfast of biscuits and eggs for everyone, trying out the soft wheat.  I knew I'd have to sort through, since any of these foreign objects might ruin my beloved ($260) WhisperMill.  I sorted and I sorted...at least 3 times through, to make sure I hadn't missed anything.


You can see in the photo what I found.  It amounted to approximately 1 Tablespoon in the 8 cups of grain...a little less than 1%.  That may not sound like much, but since one little pebble could wreck any of my mills, it doesn't take much to be a lot.                                                                                    

I took photos and sent them to my friend and also posted on the Gardenweb Cooking Forum, asking if this was normal or acceptable.  The answers were unanimous...NO!  Everyone said it showed a lack of adequate cleaning.  One woman said she'd be afraid to use the wheat at all, as it shouldn't be considered 'food grade' with that low level of cleaning.                                                                                                  
The place from which I bought it said they shoot for a debris level of less than 1/10th of 1%, so what I got wasn't necessarily common, but because it's tough to remove objects that are the same size as the wheat berries,  'it happens.'  (He also said they don't test for protein levels in their wheat, and that they knew of no such standards for wheat. Well, King Arthur Flour and Wheat Montana sure have them.)  Since everyone else I got answers from expressed such outrage, and said they'd rarely seen debris at all in the large bags of wheat they ordered, I think I'll play it safe and return to my old source...Central Market, who can order bags from me from Wheat Montana,  a company who puts out highly regarded product.

The other 'room for improvement' was in my use of the resulting flour.  More on that tomorrow.
                                                                   
Late update:  I got a follow-up email from the customer service rep at Azure Standard, from whom I'd ordered the problem wheat.  He checked with someone else more 'in the know' and amended his previous statements.  They DO test for protein levels and do NOT have such a casual attitude about the amount of debris in the wheat.  Apparently a few bags of a batch they refused a few months ago were accidentally sent out and this may be one of those.  Unfortunately, I have long since discarded the bag, which had the lot number on it.  Anyway, it sounds like I still may be able to order from them with some confidence that I won't have these same problems again.  I sent the debris photo and will see what they say from here.