Make Fresh Milled Flour! Pumpkin Spice Muffins and Bread Recipe #Mockmill #Baking #Fresh

  

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A KitchenAid mixer was used with my Mockmill, but it will fit most stand mixers that take attachments, including Kenmore and Elextrolux. 

When I was a kid my mom went with the lady across the street to a COOP that had a mill, and they ground their own flour.  It was the early 1970s and all kinds of stuff like this was happening, some fortunate (fresh bread, music) and some not so fortunate (macrame, velour).  Her flirtation with fresh milled flour ended when the neighbor moved, but I never forgot the light-as-air bread and cakes and the heavenly taste.  Ahhhhhhhh!  I have baked plenty of stuff from scratch through the years, always relying on the standard flours that are sold at the grocery store.  While they produce perfectly adequate results, I always wonder about how healthy that flour really is, especially in light of the recent E-Coli flour recalls.  Plus I would love to be able to try milling different things like beans, corn, etc. and incorporate some healthier options into our diet.  Enter the Mockmill.  I am NO pioneer woman who is going to be grinding stones together or sweating to grind anything let me tell you.  BUT I was reassured that in fact while this mill was not itself electric, it attached to my Kitchen Aid mixer which IS electric.  So I decided to venture into the realm of fresh milling.  I got the Mockmill and a great book Flour Power.  I am thankful for that book as I am clueless when it comes to the subject and this book was easy to understand and full of great information. I felt flour empowered! The mill itself is easy to attach to my KitchenAid.  It literally took me 30 seconds.  It is sleek and well constructed, and it perfectly marries with my mixer.

 

Enough admiration, it was time to grind some stuff!  I started with a cup of plain white rice in order to clean the stones.  On the first use, some flaking of the stones occurs and I wanted to use something cheap that I could throw away, plus I wanted to experiment with the grinding adjustment.  After dumping that initial grind out, I was ready to mill some grain!  I decided for my first time out that I would not get TOO crazy, so I went with some Hard Red Wheat, which is great for overall use.  We love the taste and texture of whole wheat and don’t have any gluten issues in our home.  The beauty of this Mockmill is that you can grind just about ANY non oily grain.

Here’s the actual grinding in action.  I set my mixer on the recommended speed of 9 or 10 (I went with 10) and I poured the grains in the self feeding hopper.  It took a few minutes to grind the amount of flour I needed, but I went ahead and did a full pound to see how long it took and how the mixer handled the load.  I did a pretty fine grind as I wanted texture BUT fine flour to make muffins with.  It took a total of around 5 minutes to grind the full pound.  The mixer did not labor at all, and was NOT over hot at the end.  I have done worse beating heavy dough many times.

I ended up with perfect flour!  I did include gram measurements for the flour in the recipe since fresh ground flour contains more air than store bought and the measurements can be off. (Because it has not settled yet).

4 eggs

1-2/3 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Oil (I used canola.  Alternatively use another oil or substitute a cup of applesauce in place of oil.)

1 15-oz can of pumpkin

315 Grams of fresh milled whole wheat flour (This measured to approx. 2 level unpacked cups if you use store bought or if you don’t have a weight measure like this one.)

2 Tsp baking powder

1 Tsp baking soda

2 Tsp cinnamon

1/2 Tsp ginger

1/4 Tsp ground cloves

(If prefer, you can use 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice in place of the ginger and cloves)

Cinnamon and sugar mixed for topping, 1 tbsp sugar to 1/4 tsp cinnamon mixed together

Optional: 1 Cup chopped nuts, craisins, or raisins

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Line muffin tins with cupcake papers or spray the pans you will be using with cooking spray.  The baking spray works best as it contains flour.

Cream the eggs and sugar together till light.  Add the oil (or applesauce) and the pumpkin and mix together well.

Combine all dry ingredients together, then gently blend into the wet mix. Do NOT over beat the mixture as it will make the dough tough.  You just want to mix till combined (see image of mixed batter).  Fold in nuts, craisins, or raisins.

Allow batter to rest 2 or 3 minutes before filling pans.  I use an ice cream scoop to make it uniform and easy.  Fill mini and large muffins to 3/4 full.  For loaves, divide batter evenly between pans.  Top with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake in 350° preheated oven till done.  Start checking if done 5 minutes before these times as ovens will vary.

Mini muffins approx 20-25 minutes.  Regular muffins 30-35 minutes.  Tops will spring back when touched when they are done.

Mini loaves 40-50 minutes.  Large loaves 60-70 minutes.  To check if done, insert a toothpick in center, if clean, they are done.

Cool all in pans for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to completely cool.  Store covered 2-3 days.  Freeze to enjoy later!

Approximate Yield: 36 mini muffins, 18-24 regular muffins, 2 large loaves, 8 mini loaves.  I like to divide it and make some mini muffins, regular muffins, and mini loaves at the same time.  They can all bake together, just watch the times so you don’t over bake, and you may want to rotate half way through to even the baking.