Grain Mill Help
 

I got a Nutrimill in June and have had some issues. The mill works fine, but if I follow the recipe for any of the breads I normally make use 3.5 cups (for example) the dough is always way too moist. What do you do? Do you measure by weight instead? I found a recipe to try (via King Arthur Flour's website) that uses weight, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Any tips?

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

I never measure flour which is probably bad. But add more flour if the dough is to moist. Remember though that with whole grain flour you want a dough that is moister as it will get gummy if it is as firm as white bread dough. When I bake bread I can literally pour my dough into my pan

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

:yes Flour amounts in most yeast bread recipes are suggestions, not exact amounts. The amount you use will be very variable according to the moisture in the air on the day you're making the bread. I use a Bosch, so I just go by adding flour until the dough no longer sticks to the mixer, but by hand, you sort of have to go by the recipe as a guide, go by feel, and add more as needed. If it's too sticky or moist, by all means add more :yes. Another thought --how coarsely or finely are you grinding the flour? On my nutrimill, when I'm doing bread flour, I just put the dial on about the 10 o'clock position, and that seems to work fine (no pun intended :duck).

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

another "don't measure the flour" bread maker here. :) i go with add enough until the sides of the mixer are clean...it will varry with exactly how much water/liquid you put in, the temp and humidity and how well the yeast do.

and i grind with the nutrimill too

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

Thanks! We have a KA mixer that I use for bread making. I'll try eye-balling the flour next time. My curret bakig goal is to consistently make good bread.

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

I have another recipe of bread rising now. We'll see how it ends up working out. I have learned that I definitely need to mill more berries prior to starting the bread; I needed more flour and it was a pain.
Do you measure how much you mill or do you guess?

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

I usually only run my mill once a week or so. I mill enough flour to make a couple of loaves of bread and pancakes or waffles. The amount varies depending on how much I plan on baking. More during the winter months less during the summer. There is nothing as frustrating as running out of flour so I make sure to mill a little extra.

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

This. I freeze extra milled grain. Better to mill more than less. You can pretty much count on 1 cup of berries turning into 1 3/4 cup of flour

Re: Grain Mill Help
 

Well, my bread is about half-way through baking and didn't collapse! I've never been this excited about a loaf of bread. I ended up using a King Arthur recipe.