Milling your own flour doesn’t mean you have to give up the convenience of all-purpose flour.
With the right blend of wheat berries, you can learn how to make all-purpose flour from fresh milled wheat flour berries that work beautifully for cookies, muffins, pancakes, quick breads, and everyday baking.
If you’re new to home milling, start with How to Mill Flour at Home for a simple walkthrough of the process.
To understand why hard and soft wheat are blended this way, Best Whole Grains to Mill for Baking explains how each grain behaves.
And once you start baking, How to Convert Recipes to Freshly Milled Flour helps you use this blend confidently in your favorite recipes.
What You’ll Love About This Blend
- Reliable everyday results: This blend is designed to mimic store-bought flour, making it easy to use in cookies, muffins, pancakes, and quick breads without constant recipe adjustments.
- Balanced texture and structure: Using mostly hard white wheat with a portion of soft white wheat gives you strength for structure and just enough tenderness for softer bakes. You get a good rise without dense or gritty results.
- Beginner-friendly ratio: This is one of the easiest fresh-milled flour blends to start with. You don’t need specialty grains or advanced techniques—just two wheats that work well together in nearly any home kitchen.
- Flexible for many recipes: This flour works beautifully for everyday baking like banana bread, waffles, biscuits, and sandwich loaves. You can also adapt it easily with sifting or hydration tweaks as you gain confidence.
This was one of the most helpful and informative sites I’ve found on using freshly milled flour in baking. Thank you Emily
~ Tammy (Pinterest)
Ingredients
Tips
Weigh based on how you’ll use the flour: If you are not sifting, you can weigh your wheat berries before milling. If you are sifting, always weigh the flour after milling and sifting. Sifting removes bran, which changes both weight and yield, so weighing beforehand can throw off recipe accuracy.
Sifting changes your final yield: Sifting freshly milled flour removes some of the bran, so it’s helpful to mill 20–30% more wheat berries than the final flour amount you need. Using a finer sieve will separate out more bran, which naturally reduces the finished flour volume.
Fresh milled flour is not the same as store-bought flour: Freshly milled flour contains the bran and germ, which changes both its nutrition profile and how it absorbs water.
About the “1¼ cups fresh flour = 1 cup store-bought flour” rule: You’ll see this guideline often, but I do not rely on it. Fresh flour is lighter by volume but heavier by weight, and it absorbs more water. Using more flour often leads to dense or unbalanced dough. Weighing flour in grams is far more reliable.
Hydration matters more than flour quantity: Fresh milled flour absorbs liquid slowly. Always allow the dough to rest before making adjustments. Adding flour too quickly is one of the most common mistakes when transitioning from store-bought flour.
Sifting is optional, not required: This all-purpose blend works beautifully unsifted for muffins, pancakes, and quick breads. Sifting is most helpful for cookies, cakes, and delicate pastries where a lighter texture matters. To learn more specifically about sifting and what sieves I use, read this post: How To Sift Freshly Milled Flour
Mill as fine as your mill allows: A fine grind produces the most consistent results for all-purpose use. If your mill runs warm, mill in short bursts to protect flour quality.
Use fresh flour promptly: Freshly milled flour has the best flavor and performance within hours of milling. If storing, keep it airtight in the refrigerator or freezer and bring it fully back to room temperature before baking. To learn more about storage, read this post: How to Store Freshly Milled Flour Long and Short Term.
How to
- Mill the wheat berries: Add your wheat berries to the grain mill and grind on the finest setting suitable for flour. Both stone and impact mills work well for this blend.
- Decide whether you will sift: Before weighing anything, decide how you plan to use the flour. If you are not sifting, you can move straight to weighing. If you are sifting, complete that step first.
- (Optional) Sift for a lighter flour: For cookies, cakes, and pastries, sift the freshly milled flour using a #50 mesh sieve to remove some of the coarse bran. This creates a softer, more versatile flour.
- Weigh the flour after milling (and sifting if applicable): Once your flour is finished—either whole-grain or sifted—weigh out the amount you need for your recipe. This gives the most accurate results, especially when converting from store-bought flour.
- Use immediately or store properly: Freshly milled flour performs best when used right away. If storing, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze according to your baking timeline.
Storage Tips
- Use immediately when possible: Freshly milled flour is at its most flavorful and active right after milling.
- Short-term storage (up to 2 weeks): Store flour in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This slows oxidation and preserves flavor without drying the flour out.
- Longer storage (up to 2 months): For longer storage, place flour in a tightly sealed container or freezer-safe bag and freeze. Always bring flour back to room temperature before baking for the best results.
- Label and rotate: Mark containers with the grain blend and date milled. Fresh flour is best used earlier rather than aged.
- Avoid pantry storage: Room-temperature pantry storage causes fresh flour to lose flavor quickly and go rancid due to the natural oils in the bran and germ. Cold storage is always the better choice.
A Cottage Milling Note
The Cottage Mill is your complete fresh-milled flour library. Inside, you’ll find step-by-step guides covering milling, sifting, hydration, storage, and baking tips. Plus, I share sourcing, storage, and milling tools for beginners to advanced millers.
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Thank you for spending time with me here at The Modern Day Cottage. My hope is that each guide helps you mill and bake with confidence. May your jars be ever full, and your loaves rise high.
With love & gratitude,
Emily
I hope this guide has been a helpful companion on your flour journey
If it educated or inspired you, I’d love for you to share, comment, or connect—I truly appreciate you sharing, commenting, and connecting this guide with others.
Fresh Milled All-Purpose Flour Recipe Blend
Equipment
- Grain Mill
- Digital kitchen scale
- #50 Sieve Optional if you want to sift.
Ingredients
Fresh-Milled All-Purpose Flour Blend (120 g)
- 72 grams Hard White Wheat Berries (about 1/2 c. of whole grains) You will need about 20%-30% more whole grains(wheat berries)if sifting.
- 48 grams Soft White Wheat Berries (a little under 1/2 cup) You will need about 20%-30% more whole grains(wheat berries)if sifting.
Instructions
- Mill the wheat berries: Add your wheat berries to the grain mill and grind on the finest setting suitable for flour. Both stone and impact mills work well for this blend.
- Decide whether you will sift: Before weighing anything, decide how you plan to use the flour. If you are not sifting, you can move straight to weighing. If you are sifting, complete that step first.
- (Optional) Sift for a lighter flour: For cookies, cakes, and pastries, sift the freshly milled flour using a #50 mesh sieve to remove some of the coarse bran. This creates a softer, more versatile flour.
- Weigh the flour after milling (and sifting if applicable): Once your flour is finished—either whole-grain or sifted—weigh out the amount you need for your recipe. This gives the most accurate results, especially when converting from store-bought flour.
- Use immediately or store properly: Freshly milled flour performs best when used right away. If storing, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze according to your baking timeline.
Notes
- Expect yield loss when sifting: When sifting fresh milled flour, plan for about 20–30% more wheat berries than the final flour weight you need. The finer the sieve, the more bran is removed, and the greater the loss.
- Freshly milled flour is not the same as store-bought flour: Freshly milled flour contains the bran and germ, which makes it more thirsty. Doughs made with fresh flour almost always require more liquid and longer rest times.
- About the “1¼ cups fresh flour = 1 cup store-bought flour” rule: You’ll see this guideline often, but I do not rely on it. Fresh flour is lighter by volume but heavier by weight, and it absorbs more water. Using more flour often leads to dense or unbalanced dough. Weighing flour in grams is far more reliable.
- Hydration matters more than flour quantity: Fresh milled flour absorbs liquid slowly. Always allow dough to rest before making adjustments. Adding flour too quickly is one of the most common mistakes when transitioning from store-bought flour.
Nutrition
Emily Rider
Home miller with 25+ years of fresh-milled flour & sourdough experience.
Sharing from-scratch recipes and traditional kitchen skills, rooted in the seasons and inspired by everyday cottage living and seasonal rhythms.
If I sift the fresh Milled flour can my gluten free daughter eat the baked good?
Hi Geri,
Even when you sift fresh-milled flour, it still comes from whole wheat berries, and wheat naturally contains gluten. Sifting makes the flour lighter and softer, but it doesn’t take the gluten out. Because of that, anything made with wheat—fresh-milled or store-bought—wouldn’t work for someone who needs to avoid gluten.
I know that’s probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I’m really glad you reached out to ask. If you ever have more questions about fresh-milled flour or how it behaves in baking, I’m always happy to help.
Warmly,
Emily Rider
Such a helpful guide and exactly what I needed! Now I know how to get the perfect all purpose flour texture for my baked goods!
Thank you so much, Astoria! I’m so glad the guide was helpful for you. Freshly milled flour really is such a gift in the kitchen, and finding that perfect all-purpose texture makes all the difference in baking. I can’t wait to hear what you create with it!
Warmly, Emily