Combining Wheat Berries For Freshly Milled Flour

I’ve been milling my own wheat berries for years now and until recently, I only used one variety at a time. However, I have lately been experimenting with combining wheat berries for freshly milled flour, and I am happy to say it makes a world of difference to mix the berries before grinding.

If you are brand new to milling your own flour, read this post on using freshly milled flour in your kitchen

Whole grain flour has a flavor that is unmatched compared to store-bought flour like all purpose flour or even whole wheat flour.

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Why Freshly Milled Flour?

Fresh ground flour has the bran and germ intact meaning all the nutrition is still there. These parts of the wheat berry is where all the good stuff is.

Unfortunately, without grinding the flour fresh, you lose the amazing health benefits.

Commercial flour like bread flour or all purpose flour is sifted for longer shelf life. This sifting removes all of the nutrition from the flour.

One of the main reasons I grind my own flour and make whole wheat bread is for the nutritional value.

However, the taste is out of this world! You haven’t really tasted bread until you make it with fresh milled flour.

My journey to make the perfect loaf of fresh bread with whole grain flour

My journey to the perfect loaf of sandwich bread has been a long one. My husband prefers yeasted sandwich bread over sourdough bread. So, for me, it has been very important to make the best sandwich loaf I could.

Making a soft and fluffy loaf of sandwich bread with 100% fresh milled flour can be a challenge. Although, the loaves were great, I felt there could be improvements.

A few weeks ago, I came across a social media post about mixed wheat berry blends and the light bulb went off in my head, ha ha!

Mixing wheat berries??

Why hadn’t I thought of this before. So, I promptly went to my wheat berry collection and started mixing the berries to grind. The first few loaves were wonderful! I was so excited!

I kept fine tuning the mixture for my fresh flour until I found the very best. The sandwich loaf made with this blend is exceptional in flavor and texture.

To make the perfect blend, it’s important to know what each wheat berry brings to the table.

This is the grain mill I have been using for years: Nutrimill Grain Mill

Which Wheat Berry for What??

First of all, let’s talk about the difference between hard wheat berries and soft wheat berries.

Hard wheat berries have higher protein and lower moisture than soft wheat berries. This makes hard wheat berries the best option for yeasted breads.

Soft wheat berries are ideal for pastries, biscuits, etc…

Hard White Wheat Berries

Hard White Berries are what I like to think of as the universal berry. They grind into a light and airy flour and make bread that is just that. They do not lend a lot of flavor, but, the texture and airiness is great.

Hard Red Wheat Berries

Hard Red Wheat berries are great for adding flavor to the bread. They grind into a darker, more dense flour. Using 100 percent hard red wheat will result in a dark, somewhat dense bread.

Kamut

Kamut is an ancient wheat that grinds into a buttery light flour with a nutty flavor. It has a different gluten structure than modern wheat and will make an airy loaf without the rise of modern wheat.

Ancient grains have incredible flavor and can be easier to digest than modern wheat varieties.

Spelt is similar to Kamut in the way it performs in bread making.

Einkorn

Einkorn is an ancient wheat that grinds into a lightly brown flour and a very nutty flavor. It’s quite different to work with than the other wheats and takes some practice to achieve the perfect loaf of bread.

Soft White Wheat Berries

Soft White Wheat berries are used primarily for quick breads such as biscuits, muffins, pie crusts, and pastry.

When deciding which berries to use and in what quantity, it’s important to decide what qualities you want in your loaf.

Where I source my Wheat Berries

I generally order my berries from Pleasant Hill Grains because I can buy in bulk 42 pound buckets in mylar bags. The berries are clean and of a very high quality. The wheat berries I buy are also ORGANIC.

Other sources include Azure Standard and Bread Beckers. Both of which sell the berries in bulk.

My favorite mixture of wheat berries for fresh ground flour

Before I give you my favorite combination, let me tell you how to measure wheat berries for the amount of flour you need.

1 cup of wheat berries will give you roughly 1 1/3-1 1/2 cups of fresh flour.

Depending on how much flour the recipe calls for, I will always grind a little extra just in case.

The extra flour is stored in the freezer until I need it for another recipe.

My favorite flour is made with 2 cups Hard Red Wheat, 1 cup Hard White Wheat, and 1 cup Kamut.

This mixture will make 2 loaves of sandwich bread for me.

The bread recipe I like to use for this mixture is my easy soft freshly milled flour sandwich loaf

The resulting loaves are light, airy, flavorful, and the perfect texture.

For muffins, I will use 1 cup Soft White Wheat and 1 cup Kamut.

For biscuits, I will use 1 cup Soft White wheat and 1 cup Hard White Wheat.

**Note: These measurements are the wheat berry measurements prior to grinding**