Making your own flour...

[Amy]

I saw wheat berries (various kinds) in the bulk section at my hfs and wondered if it was cheaper to grind your own flour or just buy it prepackaged? Has anyone done this?

[Aerynne]

I grind my own. I don't do it because it's cheaper, though it might be. My wheat grinder was $300, so it's not really a money-saving proposition, at least not for a long time. But there are cheaper ones. Anyway, I buy wheat in 50 lb buckets for about $13. So I guess it is cheaper, especially because I make my own whole wheat pastry flour, which is more expensive than regular whole wheat flour. I do it so it will be fresher and for long-term storage.

[Amy]

I grind my own. I don't do it because it's cheaper, though it might be. My wheat grinder was $300, so it's not really a money-saving proposition, at least not for a long time. But there are cheaper ones. Anyway, I buy wheat in 50 lb buckets for about $13. So I guess it is cheaper, especially because I make my own whole wheat pastry flour, which is more expensive than regular whole wheat flour. I do it so it will be fresher and for long-term storage.

Do you know about how much flour you make from 50lbs?

[Aerynne]

Do you know about how much flour you make from 50lbs?

50 lb of flour :giggle But I don't know the volume if that is what you are asking.

[HindsFeet]

The grinder is an investment. :yes And wheat prices have gone up a lot lately, so I don't know how it compares to flour prices anymore. But it's obviously better for you, and I can make much tastier whole wheat products with freshly ground flour than I can from the store bought version.

I will say that in my bread making I didn't have as much success with the wheat berries I could buy at our local stores. I had a friend recommend Wheat Montana's Prairie Gold, and that's all I'll use now. It's awesome. :rockon I use it for everything, because the soft white that I had people recommend for cakes and such I just didn't like as well.

Anyway - 1 cup of berries will give you about 1.5 cups of flour. From conversions I've seen online, you would get around 165 cups of flour out of 50 pounds of wheat.

[Amy]

50 lb of flour :giggle But I don't know the volume if that is what you are asking.

Haha thanks! I didn't know if they were equal or not as far as # of cups go.

[Aerynne]

Haha thanks! I didn't know if they were equal or not as far as # of cups go.

Number of cups would not be equal. But the weight is.

[ValiantJoy07]

We're gluten free and we grind our own flours ...we invested in a kitchen aide with mill attachment ($100 I believe) ...with rice flour 1 cup of rice makes 1.5c of flour:shrug3

It saves us a ton as we can make flour at a fraction of the cost of manufactured flours.
it is seriously the only way we can do gf.

[KLin]

I make quinoa flour and rice flour in my vita mix,with the dry attachment. I only make a few cups at a time and use it right away. If we could have wheat I would get a good grinder.

[Castle On A Cloud]

I grind it as I need it, in my blendtec. It works well so far (about 2-3 yrs)