My New-to-Me Wheat Mill

My friend gave me her Magic Mill.

These don't appear to be manufactured any more, but at one time they were the wheat mill of choice for people who ground their own flour. My friend bought hers in the 1970's. So did my parents. My oldest sister had one. I knew a lot other people who owned them, too.

My K-Tec Kitchen Mill next to the Magic Mill:

The size difference is obvious! Believe me, there is a corresponding weight difference as well. I don't mind moving the Kitchen Mill from its home to the counter to use it. The Magic Mill is too big to live on the counter where it is used, but too heavy to lug around easily.

I will put up with its inconveniences for its benefits.

The Magic Mill is a stone grinder. Here you can see the stones. The wheat feeds into the hole and then is ground between the stones.

The metal plate that fits over the stones makes it a lot easier to feed the grain into the hole!

Here's the pan that slides into the bottom drawer to collect the flour:

It's really easy to collect the flour and then go on with more milling. With the Kitchen Mill, I have to brush off all of the surfaces after each batch of flour. With the Magic Mill, I can wait until I'm completely finished milling before brushing everything off.

The Magic Mill doesn't mill flour quite as fine as the Kitchen Mill does.

But it has a wider milling range, so it can crack wheat. Up until now, I've just been using my hand mill to crack wheat.

If I had to choose one over the other, which would I choose? I'm not sure.

If you are interested in learning about grain mills, Pleasant Hill Grain is a good place to start. We (my former husband and I have joint custody of the Kitchen Mill) bought the Kitchen Mill in the early 1980's. Pleasant Hill Grain doesn't sell it, but you can go to Harvest Essentials to learn about the current version. (Other than the addition of Blendtec in its name, I can't see any difference.)

Here's my dream mill!

The Quest: Whole-Grain Cracked Wheat Bread

Cracked Wheat Bread--the favorite bread of many.

It is good bread: soft and springy with the chewy nuttiness of the cracked wheat; salty, and sweet with molasses.

It contains whole grain: freshly-cracked wheat berries.

But the flour is white flour: high quality flour--King Arthur bread flour--unbleached and unbromated. But lacking the nutritious bran and wheat germ of whole-grain flour.

Could I use whole-grain flour and maintain the distinctive taste and texture?

Today I am using flour freshly-ground from hard white wheat. This flour is milder than "regular" red wheat flour.

It is good bread: soft and springy with the chewy nuttiness of the cracked wheat; salty, and sweet with molasses.

The whole-grain flour adds some welcome complexity to the flavor. And the nutrition of whole grain.

I prefer this version of cracked wheat bread.

What about you?

Aunt Betty's Cracked Wheat Bread

Pour 4 C boiling water over 2 C (8.5 oz.) cracked wheat and stir. Let stand until most of the water is soaked up, but not dry.

Add:

⅓ C molasses

½ C plus 2 Tbsp. canola oil

Stir together and add, mixing with the dough hook of an electric mixer if you have it:

1 lb. flour (about 3½-4 C)--white bread flour or hard white whole-wheat flour

½ C sugar

2 Tbsp. yeast

1 C instant powdered milk

2 Tbsp. salt

Add and mix:

2 eggs

1¼ lbs. flour (about 4-4½ C)--white bread flour or hard white whole-wheat flour

Pour the dough onto a floured counter and knead it, adding more flour as needed, 1-2 C, until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place dough in an oiled bowl; cover with waxed paper. Let rise once. Measure and shape into 4 or 5 loaves. Let rise and bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes.

Cold? Crack Wheat!

I was cold.

After a few minutes of cracking wheat ...

Now I'm not!

Cracked Wheat Rolls

I almost forgot to take a picture of these rolls before I ate them!

Cracked Wheat Rolls take me back to my Aunt Betty's kitchen, where these were a regular part of dinner.

This is my Aunt Betty's recipe. It is based on her regular dinner roll recipe, which you can find here.

If you can, plan to serve dinner about 15 minutes after these rolls come out of the oven. That is when they are at their best. Thankfully, they remain awesome even after they cool.

Here is the recipe:

Cracked Wheat Rolls

2 C boiling water
2 C cracked wheat
1 C cold water
½ C canola oil
1/3 C molasses
3 C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 T yeast
1 C sugar
½ C instant potato flakes
1 C instant nonfat dry milk
1 T salt
3 eggs
5-6 C unbleached all-purpose flour

In the mixing bowl, pour the 2 C boiling water over the cracked wheat and stir them together. Let stand a few minutes and then add the 1 C cold water. Add the oil and molasses. Mix together the 3 C flour with the yeast, sugar, potato flakes, dry milk, and salt. Add them and the eggs to the cracked wheat mixture. Beat with mixer until smooth. Kneading by hand or with dough hook, add enough flour to make soft dough (5-6 C). In oiled bowl, let rise once or twice. Shape into rolls and place in greased pans; let rise. Bake at 350°F until brown, about 20 minutes.

Cracked Wheat Bread--Updated

Today I'm going to bake Cracked Wheat Bread using my Aunt Betty's recipe. Just thinking about it brings back a flood of happy memories from my childhood. She was--and is--a great cook, among her many other talents and abilities. I spent lots of time at her any my Uncle Frosty's farm while growing up, and it always involved home-made bread which was likely to be Cracked Wheat Bread.

My electric grain mill doesn't grind coarsely enough for cracked wheat, so I use my hand mill. It does a good job. I've made whole wheat bread using this mill to grind all of the flour. It's a little time-consuming and the flour is not quite as fine as the flour milled in my electric one, but it's fine enough. In fact, I have a friend who, when her husband was a medical resident, used this same model hand mill to grind all of her flour for baking bread. She did have a couple of boys who helped her.

My hand mill

Whole-grain wheat and cracked wheat

I'm baking Cracked Wheat Bread in this Friday's baking. So, if you are interested in ordering some, e-mail me at ksimmonsd@gmail.com and I will send you an order sheet.

I'm also baking White Whole Wheat Bread made with 100% white whole wheat flour this Friday.

I'll update this post after the bread is baked!

The Cracked Wheat Bread is baked, and it looks and taste great!