Making your own flour will give your bread a fresh taste.
Flour grinders or mills can be very expensive, especially if you just want to make bread from your own flour to save money. There are alternatives to buying a dedicated flour mill, most of which can be accomplished by reworking some existing kitchen tools. Making your own flour from your own selected grains gives your homemade bread more authentic and fresh. You can choose to make your own grinder from scratch, or modify a pasta roller to give you a head start.
Instructions
1. Disassemble the pasta maker. Remove the two pressing cylinders of the pasta maker by unscrewing the knots from the tubes where it is attached. The pasta maker's cylinders are smooth, but a flour grinder needs a rough surface to press and crush the grain into powder form. Sand the cylinder's outer portion with a nail file or sand paper to make the surface rougher. Once done, re-assemble the pasta roller, making sure that the rough surface is facing outward.
2. Position the catch basin. Place the pasta maker on top of the wood board and trace the outline with a marker or a pencil. Cut out this shape with a saw, leaving a hole the shape of the pasta maker in the middle. Position the bucket over the board and trace the outline of the bucket on the same wood board. Cut the edges of the board, which will then make the board fit tightly over the bucket.
3. Clamp the pasta maker on to the board with the counter clamp of the pasta maker. In this case, the board will be your substitute counter instead of your kitchen counter.
4. Install the soda bottle. Get the cleaned soda bottle and cut the bottom with a sharp pair of scissors. You just need to cut out 2 inches from the bottom of the bottle so that the cylindrical shape is retained. Place the soda bottle on top of the other wooden board, trace its shape and cut out the hole to its size. Place the bottle upside down and into the hole and tape the bottle to the board with the double-sided tape. The flour mill should now look like there is an entry funnel on top of the soda bottle and there's a bucket catching the milled flour at the bottom.
5. Test your creation by getting some grains. Place it through the soda bottle and mill it with the pasta roller. Observe how finely it mills the grain. You may need to pass the grains several times through the mill to achieve the desired smoothness to make flour.
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