The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book: Baking with Whole Grains and Home-Milled Flour
In The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book, Sue Becker shows home bakers how grinding their own flour can transform everyday baking. By milling fresh flour from whole grains, bakers can unlock richer flavour, better texture and greater nutritional value than store-bought flour typically provides.
This comprehensive how-to details the whole process behind home flour milling with features such as:
- The history of whole grains and grain anatomy
- Benefits of commercially milled flour vs. home-milled flour
- Tools and equipment for home flour milling
- Baking basics, including mixing methods and techniques — the importance of gluten and moisture
- Going with the grains — a thorough description of grains such as barley, rye, kamut and buckwheat
- Nut flours such as almond
- Baking with freshly milled grains.
Learn how freshly-milled flour behaves differently in baking and how understanding the grain itself can lead to more successful breads, muffins and baked goods. Practice working with a wide range of grains—including rye flour, spelt flour and buckwheat flour—while discovering how each contributes its own character to baked recipes.
The book offers clear guidance on choosing grains, milling flour at home and adjusting recipes to make the most of freshly-ground ingredients. Alongside traditional wheat baking, Becker also introduces options for working with gluten-free flour and adapting recipes for modern dietary preferences, including ideas for hearty vegan bread and other wholesome baked goods.
Throughout the book, Becker shares practical baking knowledge gained from years of teaching and promoting whole-grain baking. Her approachable instructions help readers understand how freshly-milled flour behaves in dough and how to achieve consistent results when baking with whole grains.
With reliable recipes and detailed explanations, The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book inspires readers to rediscover the flavour and nutritional benefits of freshly-milled grain. For anyone interested in baking and experimenting with diverse grains, Sue Becker provides an accessible guide to bringing home-ground flour into the kitchen.
This cookbook includes measurements in cups AND grams!
