You might think that the only thing we must consider when we’re choosing the best grain mill for bread flour is whether we should buy an electric mill or a manual mill for making flour.
Indeed, one of the choices we should make is between manual and electric models.
Obviously, if you don’t want to do any manual work, you don’t have the time for it, the strength for it or if you want to mill a large quantity of grains quickly, then an electric mill for flour might be your preference.
However, I actually want to take things beyond various mill models. Of course, we’re going to review some options for the best grain mill for bread flour because that’s what this article is about.
Frankly, finding the best grain mills for bread flour or other grains is quite hard.
For example, I won’t review models that cost around $50 because, in my opinion, they’re cheaply made. I don’t trust their quality at all.
That means that the most affordable model that I really like is the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill, which costs under $150. However, if we buy the optional motor attachment to transform it into an electric model, the price increases and we’ll end up paying about $200.
The NutriMill Harvest Stone Grain Mill is not a top favorite of mine but, in a sea of disappointing mills, it manages to stand out. However, given the price tag around $400 I guess I just expected more. At least it’s electric so I love that.
Next, there’s the Country Living Hand Grain Mill. It’s the most expensive, costing around $700. That’s a surprising price for a manual mill. Still, the quality and the fine textures it creates are superb, beyond expectations.
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Best Grain Mill for Bread Flour Reviews
Beyond that, I also want to talk about other appliances that we can choose if we want to make flour at home.
One such example is the KitchenAid Grain Mill Attachment.
If you’ve already bought a KitchenAid stand mixer for kneading dough or for making desserts, then you might not want to buy a separate appliance to mill grains. You can use your mixer and save up on a lot of space. The attachments for these stand mixers are unbelievable.
Another alternative I want to talk about is blenders. There are actually blenders that can mill flour incredibly fast and in a pretty good quantity at one time.
We can choose the Nutribullet Personal Blender 600 + Nutribullet Milling Blade, which is a combo that will cost around $100 or a bit less than that. I think this is actually going to be the cheapest recommendation for the best grain mill for bread flour.
Or we can choose one of the most expensive options. I’m talking about the Vitamix 7500 Blender Super Package. With a price around $700 or something like that, this blender package is not something that most people can easily afford but it’s among my favorite options.
Of course, if you already own a powerful blender or if you don’t have any need for a blender, then you’ll want to focus on actual mills.
1. VKP Deluxe Grain Mill: My Favorite Grain Mill for Bread Flour
This is a very compact manual mill that comes with everything we might need. The price, under $150, is also among the most affordable.
So far, the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill is a very nice candidate for the best grain mill for bread flour. Let’s see what it offers.
Components
You can easily store the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill in a cupboard and take it out when you want to grind some wheat berries or grains. I love this aspect, that’s for sure.
I also love the fact that it’s so easy to install and to use.
We get a metal clamp, which means that you can attach it to your countertop or to any table or solid surface without any troubles.
It has a 2 inches thick wide clamp base that keeps the mill fixed while we turn the hand crank. It can be attached to stable surfaces from ½ inch to 2 inches thick.
I also like the hopper for the grains quite a lot.
It has a large capacity. The hopper holds up to 4 ½ cups of grain. That means that we can use the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill even if we want to make larger quantities of flour.
Manual mill that turns electric
While the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill is bought as a hand mill with a hand crank, it can also be transformed into an electric mill for flour.
This transformation is completely simple but it costs quite a bit.
We simply have to buy the VKPMOTOR that is sold separately. And just like that we can get an electric model, still fairly affordable, as the best grain mill for bread flour.
The advantage is that if we get the motor we can grind a larger volume of berries, grains in a much shorter time.
However, if you don’t want to grind a big quantity of grains, you can keep it manual and use the hand crank. It’s not difficult to operate.
The hand crank works easily so it won’t tire us.
Should you get the motor for the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill?
To answer this question, I’m going to take this YouTube video as an example.
You’ll see that the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill is amazingly good at turning grains into very fine flour. That’s definitely why it’s my top pick as the best grain mill for bread flour.
I definitely think that it’s the best option for people on a budget.
The VKPMOTOR costs around $80 so it’s definitely not cheap.
If you get the package VKP Deluxe Grain Mill + VKPMOTOR that will lead to a total price of around $200. It’s totally cheap in the world of grain mills, that’s for sure.
And, since I love recommending affordable appliances that are totally great and high-quality, the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill is definitely my favorite recommendation as the best grain mill for bread flour, especially for people on a budget.
While the Country Living Hand Grain Mill that I will review below is the very best without a doubt, it also costs around $700. The price difference is huge, there’s no comparison.
So, should we get the motor for the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill? If you don’t have a lot of time to mill grains manually, because it will take a while until you mill a big quantity of flour, then I recommend getting the motor because it will make this tiny mill work wonderfully fast.
The difference between the manual and electric version is huge.
But if you prefer the manual mode and you have the time and patience, that’s totally amazing, as well.
What we can mill
It has stainless steel burrs. These are of high quality and they’re exactly what we’re looking for in mills that can be used at home.
We can make fresh flour from wheat, oats, rice, rye, barley, etc. We can also grind peppercorn, spices, etc.
On the other hand, we can’t use it on oily nuts and seeds. That’s to be expected. Even much more expensive models can’t handle wet or oily grains.
We can use it to grind from coarse, cracked cereal texture to fine bread quality flour. The milling cone is optimized for large and small grains.
There is a front dial that lets us adjust from coarse for cracked grains to fine for bread flour.
If the first grind is not fine enough for you, then you can grind the coarser flour a second time.
All in all, we might not be able to grind pastry flour but we can certainly make bread flour of a fresh and wonderful texture for our breads or for our sourdough starter and maybe even for some desserts.
2. Country Living Hand Grain Mill: Overall the Best Grain Mill for Bread Flour
I am well aware just how expensive the Country Living Hand Grain Mill is.
I am also well aware that this expensive model is a manual mill. There are some people that will be completely put off by this aspect and it will act as a deal breaker.
Nevertheless, I still believe that this is the best grain mill for bread flour.
It’s such complex equipment, such an exceptional mill, even if it’s a manual one.
But it’s for people with generous budgets. And for people who have patience and don’t care about difficult installations.
Solid construction
The manufacturer describes it as a rugged and durable mill that is designed to last for generations.
It’s certainly true that the construction is absolutely solid.
It’s a solid l-beam construction from cast aircraft aluminum.
There are also double sealed agricultural-grade bearings.
And the food-grade powder coating is FDA approved.
Moreover, it has a stainless steel shaft.
Most importantly, the Country Living Hand Grain Mill is made with high-carbon steel grinding plates.
It includes a stainless steel spring auger for small grains.
And there’s a large auger for dry corn or dry beans. This is sold separately. I’m definitely disappointed that we must buy this large auger separately.
Some people will love the fact that this is a manual mill because that means that no heat is used during the process of making bread flour at home.
That means that the nutrients in the wheat berries, nuts, seeds or grains that we mill will be preserved intact.
It is considered that heat, which occurs during electric milling, can damage heat sensitive vitamins, some enzymes can become dormant, and some enzymes and nutrients can be destroyed if the heat is too intense.
We certainly don’t have to worry about any of that if we’re using a hand operated model like the Country Living Hand Grain Mill.
However, the manufacturer also mentions that the 12-inch Custom American-Made aircraft aluminum flywheel is compatible with ½ inch v-belt for motorization or pedal power.
We can turn it into an electric mill, as well.
Fine-textured flour
We can adjust the texture we desire. We get adjustable output, from cracked wheat to pastry flour in one pass. The fact that we can make pastry flour in a mill is certainly impressive. Not all are capable of fine textures.
This is the one thing that truly makes me prefer the Country Living Hand Grain Mill over all others.
It’s capable of milling fine-textured flours.
When some of us think of manual mills, we think of coarser textures for our flours. Thus, some of us believe that we need an electric model if we want to obtain fine textured flours. That might be true in some cases.
However, the Country Living Hand Grain Mill demonstrates that a manual model is capable of grinding fine textured flours much more successfully than even some electric models can.
It’s clearly superior in all areas. Well, the high price should have been our first clue about its superiority. But you know how it is. A very expensive price is not always met by exceptional quality.
In the case of the Country Living Hand Grain Mill that’s not the case. The quality is top-notch. One of the best.
What we can mill
We can use it for wheat berries, rice, quinoa, corn, millet, teff, amaranth, buckwheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, oat groats, sorghum, fully dried sprouted grains, lentils, dry beans, non-oily spices, etc.
We are advised that this mill is not intended to grind wet, moist or soft grains.
It might potentially mill wet or oily grains but I wouldn’t advise you to try it. That’s definitely a con, which certainly doesn’t apply to blenders. A powerful blender can handle any grains, seeds, and nuts. That’s not true even for the best grain mills.
Cons
Since we can somewhat turn this manual model from Country Living Hand Grain Mill into an electric mill somehow, I’m not going to mention the manual aspect as a con.
Plus, I actually like manual models because they preserve all nutrients.
However, I want to mention a major con that people should be aware of.
The installation of this expensive, heavy metal mill is not easy.
We actually need to buy mounting nuts and bolts and mount it on a table, on a countertop or on some solid surface that can serve as a base. That’s extra trouble that you should be totally aware of.
The manufacturer also sells a countertop clamp on their website.
However, why couldn’t they include this clamp with the mill that we buy since it already costs so much? If they want the clamp, buyers will have to spend almost another $100. That doesn’t sit well with me.
Frankly, if all this thing with the Country Living Hand Grain Mill is just too expensive, too complicated, too big, too heavy, then check out my first recommendation for the best grain mill for bread flour because it’s pretty awesome.
It’s the absolute opposite of the Country Living Hand Grain Mill in all areas, from price to size to ease of use.
3. NutriMill Harvest Stone Grain Mill
After 2 manual models that can be turned into electric appliances if we buy some other additional things, it’s high time we reviewed a totally electric mill for flour.
I would say that the NutriMill Harvest Stone Grain Mill is a good choice even for people who need to mill big quantities of grains.
There is a review from a buyer who writes that this mill is still going strong after about three years. The person mentions that they have run probably about 10 to 20 pounds of grain through on any given week.
That shows that it has the potential to mill large quantities of wheat berries without any impact to its performance throughout the years.
And I like the bamboo design. It can be easily integrated in most kitchens and you’ll probably keep it permanently on the countertop if you have the space for it.
Components
It comes with a 450 watts heavy duty motor with auto-shutoff thermal protection. That ensures that the motor isn’t harmed during sustained milling.
It mills about 3 cups of flour in 1 ½ minutes or so. That’s quite fast. We can even go through large quantities of wheat berries in a short time span.
The hopper capacity is 3 cups. It’s not the biggest but it mills quickly and efficiently so that 3 cup capacity won’t hinder a fast pace.
In order to mill the grains it uses near diamond hard Corundum Grainmaster milling stones. Stone grinding is perfect.
What we can mill
Just like most mills, the NutriMill Harvest Stone Grain Mill doesn’t work well for lentils and any kind of beans.
It’s mostly designed for wheat berries and that’s why I decided to recommend it as the best grain mill for bread flour.
It won’t work for wet or oily grains., which is totally to be expected.
The manufacturer mentions that we can grind as fine as pastry flour or as coarse as cracked grain for cereal.
We can adjust the texture with their patented control knob.
4. KitchenAid Grain Mill Attachment
This attachment works for all KitchenAid stand mixers so it doesn’t matter which model you own because this grain mill attachment will be compatible with all.
The KitchenAid Grain Mill Attachment is actually a bit expensive, with a price around $150.
However, it works pretty well and it saves us from buying yet another thing to crowd our kitchens.
Even so, I should mention that it has quite a significant number of negative reviews.
Due to that, I would actually prefer buying the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill, even if it’s a manual mill. If you want to turn it electric, you’ll have to separately buy the motor.
All in all, while the KitchenAid Grain Mill Attachment sounds really well on paper, it has some serious negative reviews that we should consider. Due to that, I’m definitely not impressed.
How to mill grains with the KitchenAid Grain Mill
We have this short video guide from KitchenAid.
We easily attach the grain mill attachment to the power hob of your KitchenAid stand mixer.
Select the texture you desire from the 12 levels. It starts from the most coarse and ends up to the finest grind setting. Of course, most of the time we’ll turn the dial clockwise all the way to mill the finest flour we can get with the KitchenAid Grain Mill.
Fill in the hopper with grain.
Start the mixer at speed 10.
Continue filling the hopper until you’ve milled all the bread flour you need. It works quite fast so it won’t take long.
However, we must also note that we cannot grind more than 10 cups (2.4 L) of flour at one time. Otherwise, we might damage our stand mixer.
If we need to mill more bread flour than those 10 cups of wheat berries, then we need to leave the mixer to rest for at least 45 minutes before we start again.
5. Nutribullet Personal Blender 600
If you’re looking for one of the most affordable options to make bread flour at home, then I totally recommend considering the nutribullet 600.
Plus, I recommend pairing it with the Nutribullet Milling Blade. It’s a totally cheap accessory that clearly indicates that this small but powerful blender can replace a much more expensive, best grain mill for bread flour.
While we mostly can mill only 1 cup of wheat berries at a time because this blender it’s pretty small, it can still be a good turnout for people who don’t need to go through considerable pounds of grains every week.
Thus, I would say that the nutribullet 600 is a good grain mill replacement for those who only need small amounts of flour with minimum effort.
We get a 600 watts motor. Given the small size, that makes this blender to be very powerful and capable of doing anything a large, powerful blender can but in smaller quantities.
The 24 oz cup is small but it can handle grinding 1 cup of grains.
Also, I should mention that I totally recommend sifting the flour, whether you make it with a grain mill or with a blender.
6. Nutribullet Milling Blade
This is such a cheap accessory that it would be a pity not to pair it with the nutribullet 600. Well, if you decided that a blender could be a good option for making flour at home.
Overall, I still think that the VKP Deluxe Grain Mill is the best option for the best grain mill for bread flour for those on a budget.
But the nutribullet 600 can work as a substitute for those who only need to make small quantities at one time.
We can use the Nutribullet Milling Blade to make: whole grain flour, millet flour, chickpea flour, rice flour. Or to grind lentils.
It also works for grinding coffee beans.
And for grinding spices for making your own spice mix.
It can also be used to make peanut butter
7. Vitamix 7500 Blender Super Package
The Vitamix 7500 Blender Super Package is among the most expensive appliances we could buy.
However, it’s incredibly complex. A powerful blender alone is a fantastic, versatile, complex appliance.
The Vitamix 7500 Blender Super Package is even more so thanks to one very important accessory.
Components
The reason why I chose to review the Vitamix 7500 Blender Super Package is due to the 32 oz dry grains container that is included in the package.
However, you can buy the Vitamix Dry Blade Grains Container separately if you already own a Vitamix blender. Just make sure that it’s compatible with your model. It’s not compatible with the Vitamix Ascent and Venturist series.
This package contains:
- Vitamix 7500 – a powerful blender with a 1,440 watts motor or 2.2 HP and a large 64 oz container
- Vitamix Dry Blade Grains Container with a 32 oz container
- 2 20 oz cups for warm and cold beverages on the go
It’s actually the complete package. And one of the most powerful blenders on the market.
The Vitamix Dry Blade Grains Container has specially designed blades that grind whole grains into fresh flours.
It’s made especially for blending dry ingredients until they turn into fine powders or flours.
This dry grains container can also be used to knead dough so it’s a dough kneading machine, too.
We can knead pizza dough, bread dough, and everything else we want. It’s quite versatile.
The blades are designed to create a reverse vortex, which pushes the dry ingredients away from the blades to prevent packing.
We can grind up to 2 cups of wheat berries at one time. It’s not a large quantity but the process doesn’t last more than a minute so it’s very fast.
You can check out this video if you want to see how Vitamix grinds whole wheat berries into flour.
Versatility
What I’m talking about is the fact that this Vitamix blender is capable of grinding all types of grains and nuts and seeds and whatever else we want.
That includes wet or oily grains.
I know that we’re here to talk about the best grain mill for bread flour but we can use this blender for so much more than grinding wheat berries.
The case is that most mills are not exactly the best when it comes to grinding wet or oily grains. But we can use a blender for nuts and seeds.
According to this website, most grain mills can be good for wheat berries and other grains like that but they will have problems grinding wet or oily grains. That’s definitely true.
However, powerful blenders can do all that. The Vitamix 7500 Blender Super Package mills successfully even wet or oily grains.
What are wet or oily grains?
They’re nuts, like almonds and walnuts and the like.
They’re also seeds, like sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds etc.
Oats and coconut can also be put into this category.
Blenders can handle all that without any problems because they work on a different principle than any other mill that we could choose as the best grain mill for bread flour.
How to make bread flour with Vitamix
In The Vitamix Cookbook, which in my opinion is the must have for most Vitamix users, we will come across a recipe for whole grain flour. Whole grain flour is great for sourdough, too.
The recipe is made with 2 cups (400g) whole-kernel grain placed into the Vitamix Dry Blade Grains Container.
Turn the machine on and slowly increase the speed to the top. Grind up to a minute or to your desired degree of fineness.
Sift your freshly milled flour and you’re done. You can move to make some delicious bread with a flour milled completely at home by you.
As you can see and as I’ve already mentioned, 2 cups of wheat berries is the max we can mill in the Vitamix Dry Blade Grains Container at one time.
Thus, we’re restricted in the quantity of bread flour we make mill in one session but we must also consider that each milling only takes 1 minute. So, even if we need 2-4 pounds of flour on a certain day, we can still mill enough grain quickly enough to obtain that quantity.
All in all, considering a blender like the Vitamix as an amazing pick for the best grain mill for bread flour might seem a bit unconventional but it absolutely works, especially if you want an appliance that can mill bread flour but make so many other drinks and foods, as well.
