I purchased a Mockmill several months ago and have been milling LOTS of flour. About half the time I make whole wheat bread - but sometimes want a loaf with some of the bran extracted. I’ve been sifting with 40# and 50# sieves (not both!). The 50# sieve extracts about 25% of the weight of the original flour (and still retains some bran); the 40# (in my hands) extracts about 10%.
However, it really takes a long time to sift several pounds of flour. I’m ‘knocking’ on the sides of the sieve above a large bowl… Any pointers for speed the process and sate my laziness, please? (My wife would note that that not all the flour makes into the bowl and I’m generous with the bounty - on the counter and the floor).
(Until reading the Breadtopia threads, I hadn’t thought about remilling the bran and the soaking techniques and will try this) - but my question is motivated more by laziness (no, lets say a desire for efficiency LOL), rather than taste.
And what to do with all the bran I have accumulating in containers everywhere?
Here’s my lazy, clean solution. I virtually always bake 100% whole grain bread so I don’t really do this much, but after doing the sifting thing for a while to get high extraction flour I realized that it wasn’t for me. It violated my laziness principles in both of the ways you mention. So now, if I want a high extraction flour, I’d just mix some percentage of whole grain flour with some percentage of refined, white (roller milled) bread flour. No more sifting. No more mess. Essentially the same result.
As there is on average about 30% by weight of bran and germ in a wheat kernel, most people consider roller milled white flour to be the approximate equivalent of 70% high extraction flour. So let’s say you wanted an 85% high extraction flour (T-85 equivalent). You could mill up some whole grain and mix it 50-50 by weight with the white bread flour and you’d have something pretty darn close to 85% high extraction.
Make bran muffin bread! Just yesterday I made a tried-and-true recipe from Tassajara for bran muffins (then baked in loaf pans) that doesn’t require any bran breakfast cereal. It calls for 3 cups of bran (I used store-bought) and 2-1/2 cups flour (I used home-milled hard white). If you’re interested in the recipe, let me know!
Hi Munching,
I only mill the amount of grain for the whole grain flour I am I am using for the next bake. At this time, I am not sifting any flour at all. To me, the big advantage to having my Mockmill is not having pounds of whole grain flours sitting around potentially gettin rancid. We don’t have enough freezer space to store pounds of whole grain flour so in the past it has been hope we use it up before it spoils.
Thanks, Arlo - I looked it up the Tassajara reference. This must be the only bread book that I do NOT own! Bran muffins it is. (I’ve been adding it to soups and other things when I remember it - but I still have a lot of bran/germ around).