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Re: micronizer

Mike Avery <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com>
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:13:31 -0600
v112.n006.2
Judy L <bh628@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I'm considering home milled flour.  What's a micronizer?  A friend 
>uses a Blentec and sells her breads at a farmer's market.  Another 
>uses Wondermill.  What mills use the methods you describe?

A micronizer mill uses several discs which spin at very high speed, 
like 45,000 rpm and up, and which cause grain that hits it to explode 
into flour.  When you turn them on, they sound like a jet engine 
revving up. Examples include the Wondermill, Whispermill, Blentec and 
Nutrimill.

The alternative is a more classic mill that crushes grain between two 
stone or steel wheels.  Examples include the KoMo, Country Living, 
Retsel, Tribest, older Magic Mills, Family Grain Mill, the KitchenAid 
grain mill attachment, and the Grain Maker mill.

Any discussion of mills and milling technologies has the inherent 
danger of running into religious territory, that is, beliefs that 
some feel must not be questioned.

There are tradeoffs between grain mills.  The first is price. 
Micronizer mills are available for well under $300.  A motorized 
wheel based mill will be much higher.

The tradeoffs are also a question of convenience and health benefits. 
Buying flour at the grocery store is very easy.  The down side is 
that all mills are, to various degrees, noisy and messy.  Also, some 
question whether the health claims made for home grinding flour 
aren't overstated.  The last tradeoff is baking quality.  If your 
goal is to make a nice, well risen classic loaf it's easier with 
store bought flour.  If you want to make a "healthy loaf", it may be 
easier with home ground flour, depending on your definition of "healthy".

Baking tests suggest that you get the best results with home ground 
flour immediately after it is ground (within 24 hours), or by waiting 
several weeks.  In between, the flour tends to make bucky, 
uncontrollably springy, dough.  Bucky dough is dough that when you 
try to roll it out contracts immediately.  Bucky dough is hard to 
handle and doesn't rise well.

Micronizers have a limited adjustment range, making flours that range 
from fine to very fine.   If you want to crack grains to make breads 
with cracked grain and "crunch" in them, a micronizer won't do that. 
Also, the micronizer heats the flour more than a well adjusted wheel 
mill.  This is one reason many bakers feel micronized flours don't 
perform as well as milled flours.  The flour does cool off quickly, 
so you won't see the difference with a thermometer stuck into the 
flour as it comes out of the mill.  However, the micronized flour was 
very hot. If you want to sift your flour to make a whiter flour, you 
can't do it. The output of a micronizer is very homogenous.

Mill ground flour is less homegenous, and can be sifted.  It can be 
hard to make as fine a flour with a mill as with a micronizer - I run 
flour through my KitchenAid twice to get it where I want it, which is 
a real waste of time.

Of course, when you grind your own flour, you are subject to the 
slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with regards to getting good 
grain to grind.

Hope that helps,
Mike

*Bake With Mike <http://www.bakewithmike.com>*
Mike Avery
A Randomly Selected Bread Saying Of The Day:
?If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all 
the heavens.?
-Robert Browning