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Everyone needs a fresh milled flour bread recipe.

EVERYONE.

And if you don’t, well then, I’m better than you.  Because I have the perfect freshly milled flour sandwich bread ever!  And it’s beginner friendly and NOT sourdough… not everything has to be sourdough, ok?!

I’m honestly considering changing my tag line on my website to “because I’m better than you” since it’s all I say anymore!  hahahaha Mostly because I’m extremely sarcastic and I also want everyone to be baking homemade bread with fresh milled flour.  It’s so good!

And if you are new to my blog and social media, you may think I’m a butt, but it’s a joke.  People get all up in a wad over someone saying something is better than something, so I perpetuate it by saying BECAUSE I’M BETTER THAN YOU, well, because I am.  I use fresh milled flour.  DUH.

In reality, making your own bread is an amazing feat on its own and a great skill, but for me, moving to fresh milled flour was a move I didn’t know I needed until my Mom just nearly forced me a couple years ago.

She had an old Wonder Mill grain mill, threw it at me and said USE IT OR ELSE.  And so I did.  I ran with it.

I used to say, “I’ll not mess with milling my own flour.  If I can’t get flour, I just won’t bake.”  AND LOOK AT ME NOW.  Eating crow.  Because holy cow was I so wrong.

Not only the flavor and the texture, but the digestibility and protein content.  We can eat toast for breakfast and actually feel full for a while because I used literally WHOLE grains instead of dead highly processed flour.

I know.  Dead flour is offensive to some people.  But that’s what it is.  It’s sifted (removing the bran and the germ) and heat treated to really increase shelf life.  Not to mention is sickeningly white, which is a bit off putting using solely fresh milled flour for 2 years now.

What Yeast Do I Use for Fresh Milled Flour Bread Recipe?

For this recipe, instant yeast would work best, but being the rebel I am, I don’t have it and I’m not about to buy another kind of yeast.  I buy mine in bulk and I’m only storing one kind, active dry.

The yeast is added after a several hour autolyse, so just be sure your yeast is not dead.  I use my frequently enough that I’m confident adding active dry yeast to the dough without blooming it.

But if not, use instant or bread machine yeast.  But even then, you run the chance of having dead yeast.

So be sure and use yeast that’s been stored in the back of the fridge or freezer and that you’ve used it recently enough to know it’ll wake up.

Buttermilk or Whey?  Why?

I have found that using something acidic makes for a fluffier and less dense fresh milled flour loaf.  It gives it a better structure and crumb too.  If you don’t have either one of these, you could replace with milk with about 2 Tbs lemon juice.

Since I have dairy goats and make cheese, I always have so much sweet whey leftover and this bread is a great way to use it up.  And it’s not only just because I don’t want to waste it, but also because the acid in the whey really does lend to a better loaf.

Autolyse

With fresh milled flour, and extended autolyse isn’t totally necessary.  20-30 minutes is enough to allow the grains to rehydrate and on you go.  BUT, I have found that by extending that time to 3-8 hours, you soften that bran and have a softer loaf with better formed gluten.

When you don’t allow the bran to soak and soften, what can happen is the bran remains stiff and sharp, since we ran it through a grain mill, and it can be like tiny knives in your dough slicing through the dough as you knead it.  You won’t notice it kneading with your hands, but once you compare a short rest to an extended autolyse, you’ll understand why.

I’ve even mixed it up the night before and started the bread dough the next morning.  I prefer to only do this with raw milk or whey from my raw milk cheeses because they’ll ferment/clabber nicely since they’re alive and not dead… pasteurized sadness.

Enough flappin’, let’s make some bread!

Equipment

• Grain Mill
• Stand Mixer with Dough Hook Attachment
• Bread Machine
• 3 Bread Pans
• Thermometer
• Cooling Racks

Ingredients

• 1260 grams hard white or red wheat berries, or a mix of both
• 2 1/2 cups whey or buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 tsp salt
• 4.5 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast

Step 1:  Autolyse

Start by weighing out the hard white or red wheat berries and running through your grain mill on a medium fine setting.  On my Wonder Mill, I set it to “bread.”

Into the pan of your bread machine or bowl of your stand mixer, add the whey or buttermilk, 6 cups of fresh milled flour, eggs, melted butter, and salt.

Being mixing the flour.  Add more flour just until the dough barely starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and turn into very shaggy mass.

Cover and allow to autolyse about 3 hours minimum.

Step 2:  Knead

Sprinkle the yeast over top of the dough and begin kneading.  This takes a while and is cumbersome when done by hand, unfortunately, but you can do it!  I normally use my bread machine unless I have some aggression to work out and I need to talk with God while I do it.

My bread machine will mix and knead for about 25 minutes.  While it mixes, add in just enough more fresh milled flour to bring the dough together into a tacky, but not extremely sticky, ball.

Knead until smooth and supple.  You can do the windowpane test if you want, but I can’t be bothered.  Sometimes the dough takes 2 kneading cycles in my bread machine.  Do not try this recipe in a small tilt-head kitchen aid, it’s too big and it can’t handle the amount of dough.

Step 3:  First Rise

Once kneading is finished, add the ball of dough to an oiled bowl and toss to coat.  Cover and set aside in a warm area to rise til doubled, about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Step 4:  Second Rise

Once dough has doubled, punch down and separate into equal thirds.

Press out air pockets and shape and place into greased or lined loaf pans.

Cover and allow to rise 1 hour or til the top of the dough reaches the top of the bread pans.

Step 5:  Bake

Preheat oven to 375F (or whatever temperature you bake your bread at, I know all ovens are different).

Place bread pans in oven on the same rack, spaced apart and bake for about 20 minutes.

After this time, insert a thermometer and bake until the internal temperature is 190F.

Remove loaves from the oven, turn loaves out of bread pans immediately, and brush with butter, tallow, or lard.  Brushing them with fat helps keep the moisture inside.

Step 6:  Storage

Allow loaves to cool completely and then store in airtight reusable bread bags or place in a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 1 year.  Freezing prior to consuming actually lowers the glycemic index of your bread.

If, you are going to eat within 2-3 days, go ahead and store on the counter.  But, if it will take a while, slice and flash freeze and store in a freezer bag and only pull out slices as you need them.

Fresh milled flour loaves will dry out QUICKLY, especially after cutting.  Nothing french toast or a stick of butter can’t fix though!

I hope you enjoy this easy fresh milled flour sandwich loaves recipe!  Learn fresh milled flour tuh-day!

The Only Fresh Milled Flour Bread Recipe You’ll Need

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes

Resting Time: 5 hours hours

Total Time: 5 hours hours 55 minutes minutes

Servings: 3 loaves

Author: Ruby – Red Feather Farm

Equipment

• Grain Mill
• Stand Mixer with dough hook attachment
• Bread machine
• 3 Bread Pans
• Thermometer
• Cooling Racks

Ingredients

• 1260 grams hard white or red wheat berries or a blend of both
• 2 1/2 cups whey or buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 2 tsp salt
• 4.5 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Step 1:  Autolyse

• Start by weighing out the hard white wheat berries and running through your grain mill on a medium fine setting.  On my Wonder Mill, I set it to “bread.”
• Into the pan of your bread machine or bowl of your stand mixer, add the whey or buttermilk, 6 cups of fresh milled flour, eggs, melted butter, and salt.
• Being mixing the flour.  Add more flour just until the dough barely starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and turn into very shaggy mass.
• Cover and allow to autolyse about 3 hours minimum.

Step 2:  Knead

• Sprinkle the yeast over top of the dough and begin kneading.  This takes a while and is cumbersome when done by hand, unfortunately, but you can do it!  I normally use my bread machine unless I have some aggression to work out and I need to talk with God while I do it.
• My bread machine will mix and knead for about 25 minutes.  While it mixes, add in just enough more fresh milled flour to bring the dough together into a tacky, but not extremely sticky, ball.
• Knead until smooth and supple.  You can do the windowpane test if you want, but I can’t be bothered.  Sometimes the dough takes 2 kneading cycles in my bread machine.  Do not try this recipe in a small tilt-head kitchen aid, it’s too big and it can’t handle the amount of dough.

Step 3:  First Rise

• Once kneading is finished, add the ball of dough to an oiled bowl and toss to coat.  Cover and set aside in a warm area to rise til doubled, about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Step 4:  Second Rise

• Once dough has doubled, punch down and separate into equal thirds.
• Press out air pockets and shape and place into greased or lined loaf pans.
• Cover and allow to rise 1 hour or til the top of the dough reaches the top of the bread pans.

Step 5:  Bake

• Preheat oven to 375F (or whatever temperature you bake your bread at, I know all ovens are different).
• Place bread pans in oven on the same rack, spaced apart and bake for about 20 minutes.
• After this time, insert a thermometer and bake until the internal temperature is 190F.
• Remove loaves from the oven, turn loaves out of bread pans immediately, and brush with butter, tallow, or lard.  Brushing them with fat helps keep the moisture inside.

Step 6:  Storage

• Allow loaves to cool completely and then store in airtight reusable bread bags or place in a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 1 year.  Freezing prior to consuming actually lowers the glycemic index of your bread.
• If, you are going to eat within 2-3 days, go ahead and store on the counter.  But, if it will take a while, slice and flash freeze and store in a freezer bag and only pull out slices as you need them.
• Fresh milled flour loaves will dry out QUICKLY, especially after cutting.  Nothing french toast or a stick of butter can’t fix though!