Books on Home Milled Flour Baking

Hello fellow bread bakers! I just received my MockMill 200 (I love it so far, it works beautifully!) and I have just started my first bake with the fresh flour. I’m thinking that I’d like a good book on home-milled flour and baking. Has anyone purchased one that is particularly good?

Thank you,
Linda

Hi Linda,
Have you found any books that fit this bill? I’d be interested in any titles like this too.
Andy

You might follow @wolfgangsmockmill on Instagram. The account re-grams the posts of home and professional bakers who are using the mill. A lot of people put recipes and techniques into their posts. I’ve been featured a few times :slight_smile: pie crust, pasta, buckwheat pancakes…

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Hello there, Andy, sorry for my delayed reply. I haven’t had any books recommended, but I see the reply by Melissa to look on Instagram. Thanks, Melissa!
What I’ve been doing is keeping a bread journal so that I can see what my experiments yield. What I’ve found is that the flavor of fresh-milled flour is superb (natch), and it’s not as different to work with as I thought it might be before I started. I do add some extra liquid, by feel, to aid in mixing. I’ve been using recipes from the Ken Forkish book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. As for flours, right now one of my favorite is made from the Red Fife grain I get here on Breadtopia.
I hope you’re having as much fun with fresh-milled flour as I am. I’m so happy that I got into this aspect of bread baking.
Linda

Hi Linda, I’m new to baking and have been trying Ken’s book as well. I have a local farmers market that has fresh milled whole grain that I love, but I’m not sure how much I should increase the hydration to in order to get a great (not dense) loaf. I went on a limb and tried the Saturday bread with the fresh whole milled and didn’t increase the hydration, just to see how it reacted, and the dough was way stiffer, and didn’t do the relax in between folds like the store bought flour. Still baked a tasty loaf, just a bit too dense. Could you share some of your journal notes so I could get an idea of how much I should increase the water by? Kind Regards, Dee

Hello Dee,

I think it was smart to try your regular recipe as is, with the new flour, as it gave you a baseline on how the fresh-milled flour might work. I do find it requires more hydration. As for my notes, I keep a it of a free-form style of notes! Using my fresh-milled flour mix (red fife, spelt, einkorn, etc.) I started out the first time following the hydration ratio in the recipe (the ww with biga one at this writing) and I immediately felt the dough was dry and stiff, not supple like a good dough will feel. I added 10 grams of water, then 10 grams more, adjusting until I felt the right amount. As you know, once you’ve been baking for a while, you start to get a feeling for your dough. There were a few bakes when I added a bit too much water, and the dough stuck to the baskets when I was removing it to place in the hot dutch oven, so mostly I add just a bit of water at a time as I’m ‘reading’ the dough. I also love using rice flour in my proofing baskets, as I find the dough doesn’t stick to it.
Hope this helps,
Linda