Consider this; Whatever your experience level in cooking and baking, you are willing to make the time to fill your pantry and dinner table with more homemade food. Maybe you know you want to take back control over the food you provide in your household, maybe you just really enjoy baking. So, how do I get this set up and what is it going to cost?
The quick answer is it depends how equipped your kitchen currently is and what level of equipment you want or are willing to buy. Are you without mixing bowls, whisks, cookie sheets and pans or do you have some of these items? How long that takes to collect these items so you can save you more than those cost depends on how much you replace with freshly milled, homemade goods.
It all adds up!
Just bread at about $3 per loaf compared to a "quality" loaf at $7-10 (Dave's Killer Bread or bakery sourdough) is pretty nice savings. Everything else you add, compounds your savings; bagels, crackers, cookies... Factor in the decreased snacking...It all adds up to savings over time. A friend once mentioned how pleased they were the next day when they decided to do Breakfast for dinner to eat at home instead of going out. With whole grains, breakfast for dinner is affordable AND nutritious. A few at home breakfast for dinners or whatever you can pull together to eat at home will go a long way to getting your kitchen well-equipped.
- One dinner out for two people today is an average of $40. Multiply that by the number of times you eat out per week. Your new grain mill might be closer than you think!
Here's the plan:
Let me lay out my step by step plan with some approximate costs for you to consider and you can tweak it to fit your budget and family. Additionally I am happy to talk through getting from where you are to where you want to be and help with selecting and sourcing these items.
1. Start by buying a few pounds of freshly milled flour from The Simply Filled Pantry
-Take a few weeks to get familiar with some recipes to begin filling your home pantry to see how this can fit into your schedule and learn what your family enjoys.
TIP: I try to remember to write on my recipes how long each one takes start to finish so I can accurately plan.
2. Save for a grain mill, approximately $216 (manual but nice)-$350 (electric) unless you catch a sale or find used - and they are out there.
The Silver Nugget Hand Crank Grain Mill is a stone burr mill. Mill rate is about 1/2 C per minute. Not fast but if you plan to bake in small batches, this would do nicely. Lifetime warranty.
A Komo or Mock Mill stone burr mills will run you about $350, more if you want aesthetic beauty too. Both have a long warranty.
As far as an impact mill which micronizes the grain (explodes) I like the set up of the WonderMill better than the NutriMill.
-I didn't have a mixer for years! Cookies, crackers, bread, muffins etc. are all doable by spoon and hand.
3. Once you have the mill, you can now buy berries from The Simply Filled Pantry, in affordable, small quantities or consider a pre-order for bulk when that is available!
4. Save to buy bulk grains to fill your home grain pantry stash-The Simply Filled Pantry is establishing relationships with reliable sources that are organic, and small family farms. See our article on how our partner farms are selected.
-Ideally, you want to decide how many pounds you want to keep on hand, I'd recommend minimally 50# (about (2) 5 gal buckets, starting with your most used grain type; hard white or red for yeast baked goods, soft white for baking soda/powder baked goods.
5. Purchase a quality stand mixer
-Most people think of a Kitchen Aid mixer as the go-to, however it is not really the right mixer for whole grain baking. It just doesn't have the design or power to handle the dough well.
-I recommend either a Bosch Universal (~$350 refurbished-$500) or an Ankarsrum (~$625 for refurbished or $750 new) Either of these are far superior to Kitchen Aid for whole grains and I am happy to demo my Ankarsrum. I have also used a friend's Bosch and was equally pleased, it did the job. These can be found used as well.
-These mixers have a wide range of attachments you can purchase to run off the same motor including a blender, food processor, meat grinder, oat flaker, pasta rollers and grain mill*.
I didn't even know a mixer like this existed when I bought my original Kitchen Aid!
Other gadgets you might find helpful and possible alternate tools or inexpensive sources that work.
- pastry blender for biscuits, pie crust & crackers/fork will do- find at TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Marshalls, thrift
- benchscraper - both for working dough and scoring crackers/pizza cutter will work for cracker scoring - check TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Marshall's the Norpro brand is often there for ~$3.99-4.99.
- 3-5 bowls in various sizes for milling flour into and mixing batters and dough - go thrifting! I find great stuff at Hanger's of Hope and the Jacksonville thrift shop on Commerce by Austin Bank and estate sales too.
- 2-4 metal loaf pans depending how many loaves you plan to make at one time/glass pans work but are not ideal (more on that later) - standard size for most dough recipes is Outer Dimensions: 9.625 x 5.625 x 2.75 inches. USApan.com are American made aluminized steel pans coated with silicone, love these. I have seen these at Home Goods on occasion too!
- cookie sheets, 2 should be sufficient - cookies, crackers, rolls - I scored two perfect Doughmaker brand cookie sheet for $3 ea. retail $29 a piece.
- jelly roll pan - for granola and other - new I really like USA Pan which is at Home Goods on occasion
- whisk for blending dry ingredients/fork will do
*If you're thinking of making a mixer and grain mill attachment your first purchase; I tried this first. The problem I found was that I would realize I needed more flour mid recipe and once the mixer is mixing, it is a big disruption to switch to use the grain mill. It is an option though for sure!
And...Where do I find recipes for freshly milled grains?