For my first foray into milling flour, I decided to make the whole wheat chocolate chip cookies from Kim Boyce’s book, Good to the Grain. I’ve made them before, so I already knew they were great and I figured they would be a safe place to start with freshly-milled flour. Safe and delicious, it turns out!
Milling the flour in the WonderMill is probably the simplest part of the recipe. I was a little bit wary of the seemingly sparse operating instructions, but it really is that easy: connect the canister to the hopper (the part that does the grinding), turn it on, add the grain, and within a minute you have freshly milled flour. Miraculous! When Nate, my partner, came into the kitchen and asked what I was doing, I responded, “I’M MAKING FLOUR!!” and he was almost as impressed as I was. I can’t vouch for the claim that this is the quietest grain mill on the market because I’ve never used any other grain mill, but it’s no louder than a blender. It is loud enough, however, to scare the bejeezus out of the cat, who, when I turned on the grain mill, was hiding in the cardboard box on the kitchen floor that the mill had been shipped in. He flew out of there like a rocket, let me tell you!
So back to the cookies. I milled the flour on the “bread” setting, which gives the final cookies a satisfyingly crunchy texture, reminiscent of finely ground cornmeal. I bet they would be equally good with flour milled on the “pastry” setting for a more delicate texture. Fresh out of the oven, they are crispy on the edges and gooey in the middle, just like a chocolate chip cookie should be. I’ve said it before and I say it again: these might just be my favorite chocolate chip cookies. And doubly satisfying because I MADE THE FLOUR MYSELF, YO!
- 3 cups freshly-milled whole wheat flour, milled on the “bread” or “pastry” setting
- 1½ tsp baking power
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ⅔ cup granulated white sugar
- ⅔ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups coarsely chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, either by hand or with an electric mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir to combine. The dough will be slightly drier than normal cookie dough. Add the chopped chocolate (or chocolate chips) and stir by hand to combine thoroughly (you can get right in there to mix the dough with your hands if necessary).
- Drop the batter by heaped tablespoons a few inches apart on cookie sheets lines with parchment paper or a silicon mat. Bake in the middle of a 350⁰F oven for 14 – 18 minutes (mine were perfect at 14 minutes), until just crisp around the edges. Let cool on a wire rack, then store in an airtight container at room temperature.
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