The Enabling Cook

Well, Hello Millie

by Ida Walker, under Uncategorized

This flour making is addictive. It’s so easy I can’t figure out why I didn’t start making my own sooner. And the Victorio manual mill works wonderfully. But I want to do larger batches, and frankly, my shoulder could prove to be problematic. So I decided to bring in a helper. Meet Millie.

Yes, I am now the owner of a Vitamix. (Incidentally, someone mentioned there was a gremlin in my Vitamix. No, it’s just that you can see my utensils through the container.) I’ve been very happy with my Ninja 1200 Pro, but it really didn’t do as good a job on grinding my grains as I wanted. I researched grain mills, but I wasn’t crazy about the price for a single-tasker. With minimal storage and counter space, it’s important to me that something has more than a single use. It wasn’t imperative that I find something right away, but I decided to keep my eyes open.

Then came last Sunday’s Today’s Special Value on QVC: a basic Vitamix. It has two speeds—high and low—and an on and off button. But what really caught my eye was that it came with the dry ingredients container, which is the one you use for grinding seeds, nuts, and grains. It didn’t hurt that it was endorsed by the Culinary Institute of America and was on Easy Pay. I went online to read what people said about using the Vitamix to grind wheat berries. The reviews were almost universally good, though many used the wet container for grinding. After reading through the reviews and watching the demonstration, I decided to order it.

It seems as though most people buy the Vitamix for juicing, but I’m not a big juicer. I do think I’ll try to do more, especially since this does a good job making smoothies and other drinks. It also says it can replace your food processor. I don’t think that’s quite true, unless you use your food processor primarily as a food chopper. No, I won’t be getting rid of my food processor.

But back to the reason I bought it. A couple of days ago, I started some wheat berries  to sprouting. They were ready to dehydrate at the same time Millie arrived. Talk about timing! So yesterday was milling day. One of the comments people made about grinding wheat berries in the Vitamix was that the flour got hot. In my research, I’ve found this is sometimes the case with regular grain mills, as well. According to the manual, Vitamix recommends putting the grains in the freezer for a while before grinding. I did, and the flour did not get hot. I started with 606 grams of sprouted wheat berries. After grinding, I had 600 grams of flour. Millie did a great job and did it fast. I was able to control the coarseness of the grind, so my resulting flour is just what I wanted. One of the complaints I’ve read about grain mills is that flour gets everywhere as the mill grinds the grains. I did not have that problem with Millie. When we finished, I didn’t have to clean up a trail of flour that had floated from the machine.

I think Millie and I will enjoy our time working together in the lab. It will also give me a chance to mill enough wheat that I can send out samples.

© Copyright 2013 Ida Walker, All rights Reserved. Written For: The Enabling Cook Tag: