New York’s Blue Hill restaurants are famous for their ultra-fresh, locally-sourced ingredients, and their flour is no exception. You can recreate the delicious flavor of their flours and cornmeal at home by milling your own grains. While grinding your own flour at home might seem time-consuming, it’s actually very quick and easy–just like grinding coffee beans for your daily brew. What’s more, the results are more nutritious than commercial flours, and can be easily incorporated into your cooking routines.
We recently went to Blue Hill and talked with chef and culinary director Adam Kaye about how to mill to your own grains. Read on for his tips and a video demo.
Grinding their own flour “came out of a desire to look at grains as we would any other fresh produce,” says chef Kaye. “Flour is usually the most overlooked (ingredient) in the kitchen. Commercially ground flour has been sitting on the shelf for who knows how long. We discovered that in grinding our own grains, recipes we’d been making for years suddenly took on a whole new dimension.”
Requiring only a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a grain mill attachment, grinding wheat and corn takes just minutes. To maximize freshness, Chef Kaye recommends keeping grains in the fridge or the freezer and grinding only what you need for that day.
Watch the video below to see chef Kaye in action–and get inspired to create your own flour at home. We love using emmer wheat and corn from Blue Hill–they’re perfect for using in these recipes.
5 comments
Jake, freshly ground flours do lend a different taste and color to your baked goods, but we think you’ll be thrilled with the results — our team loved the flavor boost! Substitute for all-purpose flour in equal quantities, but note that the texture may be different from what you’re used to. Alternatively, you can start out by substituting a portion of the all-purpose flour with freshly ground flour.
Alex, yes, freshly ground wheat can be used in place of regular all-purpose flour in a variety of baked goods without aging or drying. Keep in mind that the flavor and texture will be a bit different from your normal results — the freshly ground wheat adds a deep, nutty taste to the finished product. Read more about milling your own flour in our grains primer: https://blog.williams-sonoma.com/grains-primer-2/
If I grind my own flour, will it change the color/taste of my baked goods? And how will it differ from all-purpose (ie., do I need to use different amounts)?
Is freshly ground wheat suitable or cakes, scones, etc? I read that even freshly milled wheat must be aged, or dried, to work properly? Love the idea of grinding my Ian! Thanks!
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