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Happy New Year to everyone!

I bought my wife a flour milling machine for Christmas and fortunately it's been great. We get wheat from the local farmer, put it through the mill and get great wholemeal flour. We've baked a few loaves and after trial and error with the first two, we're not getting some of the best brown bread I've tried.

The milling machine allows you to select the coarseness of the flour, so far we have only used the finest setting but would like to experiment, for example getting the flour right for a granary loaf. I haven't found anywhere here that sells granary flour so I could buy some and check its make up but I'd assume it's something like 80% fine flour / 20% course - does that sound about right?

Cheers!

Granary is a proprietary name owned by the Hovis company.   To make a granary style loaf you need malt as well as the correct flour mix.   Try googling Granary flour for some recipes.  There's plenty out there.

I can thoroughly recommend Messrs Bakery Bits, who supply all sorts of ingredients and equipment.  Not the cheapest, but always high quality IME.

They suggest using Malted Wheat Flakes up to 15% of wheat flour weight, and Red Malt up to 4% to produce a granary-type loaf.

http://bakerybits.co.uk/Malted-Wheat-Flakes-P797157.aspx and http://bakerybits.co.uk/Red-Malt-Flour-P1490400.aspx

You might also find these ingredients in a health food shop.

Edit: Our local Morrisons supermarket sells this http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/flour-and-ingredients/organic-malthouse-bread-flour-x-1kg/ which is a similar product to the Hovis patent flour.  You can see that it's 15% malted wheat flakes, 3.6% rye flour, and an unspecified amount of malt flour (perhaps 2%?) which gives you another recipe for a mix-your-own..

Ohhh..how brilliant!..I've been thinking of buying flour mill all day and was going post question about them in here ;D
I've been thinking of getting one of these for years now...http://www.grains2mill.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_26
Elhuerto..is yours something similar?
Now type of wheat makes big difference with flours....to get good bread flour the wheat variety needs to be 'bread' wheat type or you do not get 'spunginess' to your dough..more like rock cakes ::)
It could well be there is not fault with you actual mix but the wheat just is not quite the right for the type of  use.

I have a grain mill that fits to my 30 plus year old Kenwood mixer, unless you intend to makes umpteen loaves of bread I find I can mill enough whole wheat etc for my needs...... the mill will grind all manner of grains, from fine to course 5 settings.
I expect you already know that whole wheat will start to go rancid in just a few dats some thing to do with the oil in the endersperm....
you will notice your mill whole wheat will taste a thousand times beytter than shop bought,,,
I always buy organic berry's,and mill what I want on the day I intend to bake.
I have been baking almost 50 years for home and friend consumption. :P :P    qahtan

Thanks Melbourne12 - that's very helpful. We're very keen to experiment and that looks like a good starting point.

Goodlife, that looks almost identical although the one we got comes from Germany http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Grain-mill-flour-mill-HAWOS-Oktini-New-/370395511001?pt=UK_Babay_Baby_Feeding_Cups_Dishes_Cutlery_LE&hash=item563d4af8d9 - it looks quite good in the kitchen, no mess and no cleaning required really. I think the problem was with the initial mix, and not enough water in the mixture but that's sorted now for a plain brown loaf.

Qahtan, just the smell of the freshly milled flour and you know the taste is going to be better - very true! I know some of it is down to doing it yourself and the senses can be fooled but the last couple of loaves have been among the best I've ever tasted.

Upps..the link got wrong..http://grains2mill.co.uk/grainmill-reviews ::)...
now it should work ;D
I ended up ordering one last night ;D..I've been thinking about getting one for years. Years ago I went to gardening exhibition in Finland and they were demonstrating these sort of mills then..I was fascinated about them then. At the time I didn't bake though ::)
Qahtan...how does the kenwood grind the grains?...is the grinding bit inside the attachment?
There is not that many options available for home milling and prize wise they are more and less same..unless you go really powerful things that grind you the whole sackfull of grains, sack and half a arm too ::)

Cool  8) Let us know how you get on. I found that the home milled flour requires a tad more water in the mix than the supermarket bought wholemeal packets but that might just be local differences.

By the way, the stats here make an interesting read http://grains2mill.co.uk/whole-grain-nutrition

so now I want a flour mill! something else I never had heard of or thought I needed! :-[

I had to think hard where to place my 'toy' when I get it ::) So after a long and hard thinking session I decided to put breadmaker away and give the spot for the new tool.
I hardly use my breadmaker now as I'm making more and more sourdough bread. My breadmaker has served me well so I feel little sad about packing it away...I need bigger kitchen :o :-X

Quote from: elhuerto on January 04, 2011, 09:21:11
we're not getting some of the best brown bread I've tried.

do you mean "not" or should it be "now"?

Seems I can't edit the initial post on a thread but that show be now

Thankfully, I can not digest wheat otherwise it would be another gadget I don't need I would end up buying.

I am grateful to you for pointing this out

Since from time to time I wanna be normal. I am glad I am not where this invention comes in.

Goodness me.

The depths these firms will go to, just to sell something which will be used once or twice in a life time is verging on criminal.

Any one want a sandwich toaster, pasta machine ,waffle maker, do-nut baker?

Quote from: pumpkinlover on January 05, 2011, 11:26:24
so now I want a flour mill! something else I never had heard of or thought I needed! :-[

I could go mad for kitchen gadgets, unfortuantly my kitchen is tiny so no chance.
I'd love one of those big american fridges but apart from being rubbish for the environment they are bigger than my kitchen!

you know , out of Ali the gizmo's I have bought over the years there is only one thing I never use, Ice cream machine, every thing else get used, not every day but they are not tucked away some where at the back of a cupboard, we I tell a lie, I did have that Kitchen-aid mixer that my daughter gave me, I think I used it maybe 3 times, it sat in the corner on the counter looking sorry for itself. In the end I gave it back to Karen and she sold it, yea, she kept the money.
I much much prefer my DLX, it has so much power..... I also still use my Kenwood for things like Genoise etc, and ofcourse I have a lot of the attachments for it ie- grain mill etc.
I enjoy my kitchen and all the toys I have in it...          qahtan :) :)

The depths these firms will go to, just to sell something which will be used once or twice in a life time is verging on criminal.
I have no intention of spending my hard earned money on something that I would only used 'once or twice'.... and I think is everybodys free choice if we want to buy something::)
I am glad I am not where this invention comes in.
...and what do you actually mean with your remark? ???
I don't see nothing wrong with the invention..it is nothing new by all means..nor I find anything wrong with the country it comes from.
Many good quality things are manufactured in Germany...I rather spend my money something that is made well and lasts years..rather than cheap throw away plastics.

 enclosed picture of my  Kenwood grain mill, this is an old one as it fits my old Kenwood, the design has been changed now.  also showing hard wheat berries, and whole wheat flour after going through the mill....
qahtan