I recently had a friend introduce me to the idea of using freshly ground flour for my baking. She told me to watch a lecture by a food scientist named Susan Becker.
https://www.breadbeckers.com/blog/our-story/
After watching the presentation, I felt compelled to try for a while. I had been dealing with gluten and dairy intolerance for quite some time, sleep disturbances, and more. What could it hurt?
I decided to order the lower gluten ancient wheats named Einkorn and Sonora from a local farm. These are both unhybridized grains. The einkorn is a smaller, flat, brown kernel, and bakes up with a sweet flavor. However, it requires some recipe tweaking to get a decent rise of any sort. I would use this for sweets. The Sonora is a short, round kernel, which has a more buttery flavor. That would make great savory quick breads and pancakes.
I won’t try to recap all the health benefits, and the science behind the switch for you. That’s why I included a link to their website. I will say that after using fresh ground flour for a few months, I am seeing some health improvements. On the off chance that I eat something with standard glutenous flour, I don’t bloat up nearly as bad as I used to. My sleep disturbances have also started falling away, and I have more nights than not that I sleep for a full seven hours uninterrupted. That’s amazing in and of itself, seeing as I have met slept that well in the past 15 years.
We don’t eat tons of the stuff, but I have switched my breakfast from a bowl of oatmeal to a plate sized blueberry buttermilk pancake with butter and a teaspoon of brown sugar, and 8oz of raw, organic, vegan protein shake made with equal parts water and almond milk.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/20177/todds-famous-blueberry-pancakes/
One note to anyone thinking about doing this: invest in a high quality electric grain mill. After taking a half hour to grind 2 cups of flour in my vitamix, my honey treated me to a grain mill. I can grind 2 cups in about 30 seconds now.
I hope you enjoy trying this little experiment.
An Ordinary Life 