One of the core tenets of my bread baking philosophy involves using whole, un-engineered, heirloom grains as often as possible for both great flavor and important nutritional benefits. And when it comes to the freshness of that flour – again for both flavor and nutritional reasons – my practice is simple: I virtually always mill my own flour at home for every loaf.

In addition to the flavor and nutrition benefits, home milling also gives you the opportunity to be endlessly creative and versatile in combining various flavors and performance characteristics of different grains. Maybe today you’re in the mood for a bit heavier rye flavor. Or maybe you want to riff on a recipe you found by adding a little toasted buckwheat. Having a mill at home and a small stock of whole grain berries lets you decide on the fly.

When it comes to whole grain flour, the fresher the better. I literally mill the grain right into my mixing bowl just before I start mixing up the dough. (Our own commercial milling operation at Breadtopia is designed with the same philosophy – we mill in very small batches, so the whole grain or bolted flour you buy from us is never sitting on the shelf for more than a few days and it comes with the mill date right on the bag.)

One of the nice things about being president of Breadtopia is that I get to try all the cool goodies and gadgets we carry. And, being a bit of a home milling nerd, I’ve been looking forward to trying out the new Mockmill Professional line. Here’s a little intro video I made for the latest offering from Wolfgang Mock:

 

Giveaway (Note: this giveaway has ended)

To celebrate these new Mockmills, along with all things home-milling, we’re giving away an original [factory refurbished] Mockmill 200 grain mill along with an assortment of heirloom grains to get you started.

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment of any kind in the comment thread for this post (look for the big green “leave a comment” button below). It’s just a simple way for us to tally the entrants and contact the winner. Only one entry per person will be counted. If you are not already an active Breadtopian with an account here, leaving a comment involves a simple registration process where you give us your email address (if you do already have an account here, make sure we have your correct email address). Your contact details will be private and never shared, sold or otherwise abused by us (though you will receive an occasional email when we put a new post up on the site and make giveaway announcements like this one – you can unsubscribe from that list anytime if you prefer not to receive them). If you have participated in a previous giveaway, you should already be registered to comment, making things all the easier. Contest Details: The contest will close to new entrants at 11 pm EST on Wednesday, May 29. We’ll select a winner at random and make an announcement here, a few days later.

That’s it! Simple, easy, no strings attached.
Good Luck!

Introducing the Mockmill Professional Line