Converting Recipes to use Fresh Milled Flours

One of the most common questions that I am asked is, "How do I convert my favorite recipe to use fresh milled flour?" To be honest, it depends on the grain you are using and the type of recipe. As this blog develops, I will cover more in depth the different factors that come into play to help you make your good recipe, your best; but for now, let me share with you some simple hints.

First, if you are making a quick bread that will be 'light', use either spelt or soft white wheat. Use about 1.25 cups of fresh flour for every cup of all purpose flour. If you have made your favorite recipe repeatedly, you will know if you need to add more or less based on the thickness of the batter. I should also state that when I convert a recipe, I am not only changing the flour used, but the sweetener from sugar to honey. If you are not at that point, start with a one to one substitution for your flour, but expect to add a little more unless you use 'rounded' cups. Yep, that's right, with fresh flour, to get a good fill of a measure, use a rounded cup which is not what you were taught in Home Ec Class.

If you are making a bread that will use yeast, you will need to use a flour that has gluten. Good choices are hard red wheat, hard white wheat or even kamut. Again, if you use a 'rounded' measure, and do not change the sweetener, then use a one to one conversion.

For the Easy Peppermint Chocolate Brownies that I made, the original recipe called for 1.5 cups of all purpose flour. Since I changed the 1 cup of sugar to 1.25 cups of honey, I had to add one extra cup of flour due to the extra liquid. And remember, I ALWAYS use rounded cups; so I actually added more than one cup.

Simple rule of thumb for a starting point:

Use rounded measures when using fresh milled flour.

If you are not converting the sweetener, then use a one to one ratio.

If you are changing the sweetener from sugar to honey, you will need to add extra flour. A good starting point is 1.25 rounded cups of fresh milled flour to 1 level cup of all purpose flour.

Hope this information is helpful and happy baking!