Milling whole gluten-free grains into flour is a great way to boost nutrition, so today I’m happy to tell you about a new grain mill that’s on the market with some features you’re sure to love – the Mockmill. And I have a special discount code so you can get a great deal on one. But before I tell you about the mill, let’s talk about why you would want one.
Why Mill Your Own Flour?
Freshly Milled Flour Has More Nutrients
When whole grains are made into flour, the nutrients in the grain begin to oxidize from exposure to air. Heat from processing, transportation, and storage can also take its toll, and some flours go rancid before they’re even sold. You can avoid those problems and increase the nutrition of your baked goods by using freshly milled whole-grain flour.
Milling Your Own Flour Can Save Money
Most of the time it is cheaper to buy whole grains than to buy flour. You are paying for someone else to process the whole grain when you buy flour. Think about how much you pay for a large bag of rice versus a small bag of rice flour. Of course, it depends on the brand and where you are purchasing.
There is the cost of a mill, but a good mill will last a lifetime, so the cost is spread out over many years.
It’s Convenient
It is really convenient to be able to make a wide assortment of flours when you want them. Whole grains keep longer than flour, so if you only use certain flours once in a while, it’s better to store the grain (or whatever you’re milling) and make the flour when you need it. And in some cases, you might have that whole grain on hand for eating anyway, such as rice, oats, and quinoa.
So, for example, there’s no need to store quinoa and quinoa flour. Just keep quinoa on hand for cooking, and when you want quinoa flour, throw some in the mill!
Why Choose a Mockmill?
It’s Small
There are plenty of grain mills available, but most of them take up a good bit of space. The Mockmill is a stand mixer attachment, so part of the mill is something you already own and use!
The compact and attractive design of the Mockmill is a huge benefit over other mills because most of us don’t have unlimited kitchen storage, and many people have very small kitchens.
It’s Easy to Use and Clean
Let’s face it, making things easy in the kitchen is always a plus. If milling flour was complicated and time consuming, it simply wouldn’t be worth it. But the Mockmill is easy to use in every way. The flour even goes straight into your mixing bowl!
And what surprised me was how easy it is to take the mill apart and clean it.
How the Mockmill Works
There are different types of grain mills. The Mockmill uses a stone to grind grains into flour. There is a control knob that allows you to adjust how fine or course the flour is.
The mill attaches to the front of your KitchenAid, Kenmore, Electrolux, or AEG mixer and you use the mixer’s power lever to run the mill. And don’t worry – using the mill does not burn out your mixer. In fact, the motor barely gets warm.
What You Can Mill
All dry, non-oil grains including rice, sorghum, millet, teff, amaranth, corn, quinoa, buckwheat, and oats. You can also mill dry legumes but you cannot mill popcorn, nuts, seeds, or coffee beans.
My Experience with the Mockmill
The Mockmill was really easy to attach to my KitchenAid mixer and quite simple to use. I milled both white rice and sorghum. (I realize white rice is not a whole grain, but I do use it some and it was a cheap grain to play around with.) At first, I followed the directions to try out the finest setting by lining up the arrow on the dial with the smallest dot. (The dots decrease in size to indicate coarse, fine and in between.) I was very unhappy with how gritty the flour was, even on the finest setting. Then I realized that the dial turns past the smallest dot a little ways and that resulted in a finer flour like I was expecting.
The rice flour was slightly more coarse than what I have milled with my impact mill. I wasn’t surprised because that’s typical with a stone mill, but I was happy to find that the sorghum flour felt more finely milled.
As I mentioned, the mill is easy to take apart and clean by using a dry brush on the stones, but it also cleans itself if you run some grain through on a coarse setting.
More About Mockmill
Years ago, Wolfgang Mock discovered the benefits of freshly milled flour and the great taste of bread that was made from it. In 2014 he revived his dormant company to launch the Mockmill with the desire to make grain milling affordable and to make nutritious freshly ground flour available to everyone.
Special Package
Now through the end of August you can get a special package that includes the Mockmill plus one package each of whole grain corn, teff, and buckwheat along with the book Flour Power – all for less than the retail price of the mill alone when you use my special discount code “glutenfreehomemaker” (don’t use the quotes) to get $80 off your order. Click here to learn more and order.
The grains included in the gluten-free package – corn, teff, and buckwheat – are not shown in this photo.
Notes about the gluten-free package:
The book Flour Power is not a gluten-free book and it contains lots of information pertaining to wheat. However, it also contains plenty of useful information about home milling, and it does talk about gluten-free grains.
The whole grains – corn, teff, and buckwheat – are inherently gluten-free. However, they are not certified gluten free. Each one is coming from a different company, so here is more specific information for each.
The corn was harvested in a year in which they grew no wheat, with a combine that had not seen wheat for three seasons. It is processed, however, in a room where there might have been wheat dust because it’s that hard to get rid of it.
The teff comes from a company in Idaho that processes and sells only teff. This one sounds okay.
The buckwheat comes from a company that also processes wheat. I don’t have any further information than that.
If you have celiac disease or are very sensitive to gluten or wheat, then you could pass the possibly contaminated grains along to someone else. Even without them, you are getting a discount on the mill and you can use it with grains you feel are safe. Another option for the corn and buckwheat is to wash the grains and then let them completely dry before milling.
Disclosure: Mockmill sent me a mill free of charge in exchange for writing this post, however, all opinions in this post are my own. I will earn a small commission on sales made using the links in this post.
I’m so jealous! I’ve been coveting one for ages but still can’t afford it. Was hoping to find just the mill, but the package is a good deal (if the code works for Canadians!)