09/17/2026
One of my favorite parts of learning to bake with fresh-milled flour has been realizing just how different it is from the flour most of us grew up baking with.
A whole wheat berry contains the bran, germ and endosperm, and wheat is often credited with providing 40 of the 44 essential nutrients our bodies need. When I mill our wheat berries fresh, I'm using that entire grain — nothing sifted out.
But there’s a tradeoff I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, and I’d really like to know what YOU would choose.
Texture.
We’re used to white-flour bread being very light and fluffy with a big, open crumb. When you bake with 100% whole, fresh-milled flour, you’re working with the bran and germ too. Those are exactly the parts I want to keep, but they also make it harder to achieve the same light, airy texture you get from refined white flour.
I could sift some of that bran out.
That would help me work toward a lighter loaf with a more open crumb — but then we’re trading away some of the whole grain and the nutrients that came with it.
And that's where I'm torn.
I'm getting really close on both a fresh-milled sourdough loaf and a fresh-milled sandwich bread, and before I keep chasing the lightest loaf possible, I want to know what actually matters to the people who would eat it.
If you were buying fresh-milled bread, what would you choose?
A — Keep the whole grain.
Nutrition and flavor matter more to me. I don't mind a slightly more substantial crumb.
B — Give me the lighter loaf.
I'd rather sacrifice a little of the whole grain for a lighter, fluffier texture.
C — Somewhere in the middle.
Keep as much of the whole grain as possible, but sift a little if it makes a noticeable difference in texture.
There really isn't a wrong answer. That's what makes this fun to experiment with.
So tell me — A, B or C?
And if you've never had bread made with freshly milled flour before, you might be surprised by the flavor. Wheat isn't just “wheat.” Different varieties have their own flavor, color and baking characteristics, and that's one of the things I'm enjoying most about learning to work with them.
Pictured below 👇is a blend of heritage wheat Hard Turkey Red with the bran sifted out and 100% whole grain of Rouge De Bordeaux a rich, naturally sweet and nutty wheat flavor with deeper toasted, earthy notes.