I receive lots and lots of emails asking about my whole wheat flour. What kind do I use? Where do I get it? Is it course? Do my recipes turn out heavy from using 100% whole wheat? Do I grind my own  grain? What kind of grain do I use?

I decided to tell you about my whole wheat flour preferences. (Some people have a favorite flower…I have my favorite flour. I’d say my husband has it made.)

My favorite flour is freshly ground from organic white wheat berries. I saved up and bought a “Nutrimill” about three years ago. Definitely one of my favorite kitchen tools. If you’re planning to “go whole wheat” I highly recommend investing in a grain mill so that you can grind your own flour. You will never find whole wheat flour as good as the kind that you grind yourself. IT IS SO GOOD. It is also healthier because it is fresher.

I prefer hard white wheat berries over red wheat berries. There is no nutritional difference…I just find that the white wheat berries make a nicer flour and create nicer, lighter loaves of bread and such. My Nutrimill grinds the flour nice and fine so my flour isn’t course or rough, like some might picture whole wheat flour.

I order my wheat berries from Azure Standard…usually 25 pounds a month. We don’t always go through that many pounds each month…but sometimes we do depending on how much baking I do. (25 pounds may sound like a lot of wheat…but we are a family of six big eaters…and I make everything from scratch. We can easily go through more than one loaf of bread at a time. No wonder I always have flour in my hair.)

If you don’t have a grain mill…I recommend trying to find whole wheat flour made from white wheat berries. I’ve been happy to see the Montana brand of whole wheat flour at my Walmart ground from white wheat. Montana brand is also “chemical free”.

You need to store your flour in the fridge or freezer, especially your freshly ground flour. It has a tendency to go rancid quickly if you don’t.

Occasionally I use soft white wheat berries, instead of hard white wheat berries. (You know, occasionally, like when I accidentally order soft white instead of hard white?)  I prefer hard white berries…but you can grind the soft white berries for making pancakes, waffles and muffins. For making bread, you need to use hard wheat berries.

What else?

Well, this doesn’t have to do with whole wheat flour…but I also use my Nutrimill to grind corn into cornmeal. Makes the best cornbread ever. And I’ve used it occasionally to grind rice when I want to experiment with rice flour just for fun.

What kind of flour do you prefer? Do you have a grain mill? What kind do you recommend? Do you also often have flour in your hair, or is it just me? I personally think it is a lovely accessory.