Stone-Milled Bread Flour - littlehousesimpleliving.com

I’ve been making bread for over 12 years now. I first started using freshly-milled flour where I grind my own wheat berries. They do make the most yummy and nutritious bread. Since starting Sourdough Bread three years ago, I’ve been using a mix of my freshly-milled and Stone-Milled Bread Flour. I find the two flours combined, really make a nice fluffy bread without sacrificing nutrients.

The History of Stone-Milled Bread Flour

Stone-milled flour is basically the process of how the flour is milled.

Some popular websites and books say that traditional stone mill wheels grind grain more gently, at a lower temperature than the big industrial mills called roller mills. Temperature’s important, because high temperatures can destroy key nutrients in grains.

Research shows, though, that stone mills generally operate at much higher temperatures than roller mills – as high as 90°C/194°F for stones vs. 35°C/95°F for roller mills. Plus, roller mills work so eﬃciently that the ﬂour they produce is held at top temperatures only brieﬂy, while stone mills take longer to reduce the grain to ﬂour particles. That could explain why some data show stone-milled ﬂour having greater loss of amino acids and healthy fats.

Stoneground grains often have a larger particle size than those ground in roller mills. This means that breads made from them may have a slightly lower glycemic index (healthier for your blood sugar). At the same time, though, studies show that vitamins and minerals may be less bio-available in larger particles. We give #1 a False, based on the data. Whole grain ﬂour has the potential to be healthy either way, as long as the miller has taken care with the process.

What is Roller-Milled

Roller mills are mills that use cylindrical rollers, either in opposing pairs or against flat plates, to crush or grind various materials, such as grain, ore, gravel, plastic, and others. They are an alternative to traditional millstone arrangements in gristmills. Roller mills for rock complement other types of mills, such as ball mills and hammermills, in such industries as the mining and processing of ore and construction aggregate; cement milling; and recycling.

In the 19th century roller mills were adapted to grist mills before replacing them. The mill used either steel or porcelain rollers. Between the years 1865 and 1872, the Hungarian milling industry upgraded and expanded the use of stone mills combined with roller mills in a process known as Hungarian high milling. Hungarian hard wheat so milled was claimed as integral to the “First in the world” success of the Vienna Bakery of the 1867 Paris Exposition.

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Modern Use of Stone-Mills

So, now that we know the history of stone-milled bread flour, things have changed quite a bit now in this modern world. I am so happy that there’s a few companies that I love and trust that are still using stone mills. It truly makes a delicious loaf of bread along with my fresh-milled flour.

Why Use Stone-Milled Bread Flour

While I love my fresh-milled hard white wheat flour for a loaf of yeast bread, it doesn’t really make a good loaf of Sourdough bread. Yeast bread is all I’ve been making for the first 9 years of my bread making journey. Fresh-milled flour using a Sourdough Starter, is loaded with nutrition but the bread is very dense when it comes out of the oven.

I was determined to use fresh-milled flour so I sought out for other fresh-milled flours but milled with a different process than what I currently use. I’ve been using this grain mill for 12 years and absolutely love it! It has a high power 2500 watts of a motor and can grind just about anything.

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Stone-Milled Flours

So, I searched and searched and finally found a few bread flours that lived up to my standards. They had to be non-gmo and absolutely NO chemicals/herbicides sprayed on the wheat. I get asked all the times over on Instagram where I buy my flour so I thought I’d make a post about it. Here are my favorite places to order from:

Guardian Grains – Enter code: lhsimpleliving for 15% off your order. A husband and wife team working to help their 4th generation farm thrive. They believe in assuring the health of their soils at the heart of every decision they make on their regenerative farm.

French Bread Flour – Known to be lighter on the digestive system, French flour lets you enjoy all those tempting baked goods without the bloating and pain. Our stone-ground wheat flour has a Nutriscore of A. It is unenriched, with zero additives and minimal processing. Non-GMO, organic and vegan , our stone-ground white flour is as close to nature as you can get it.

Unifine Bread Flour – Unifine milling processes the entire bran, germ, and endosperm of the grain into a nutritious, whole-grain flour in one step.