Coffee grinders are excellent kitchen tools that allow you to have a fresh cup of coffee every day if you choose. These tools allow your coffee to taste as fresh as possible since you’re grinding the coffee beans only minutes before you’re brewing your cup.
While coffee grinders are fantastic for making that perfect cup of coffee, they’re versatile tools that you can use for other things in the kitchen. You can use your coffee grinder to grind spices, so can you make flour with a coffee grinder?
You absolutely can make flour with your coffee grinder if you choose!
You Can Use Your Coffee Grinder To Make Flour
Flour is generally a cheap ingredient to pick up at your local grocery store, but something is satisfying about making your own at home with your hands. If you want to try your hand at making flour at home, you can use your coffee grinder.
While flour is a cheap product, learning how to make it at home with your coffee grinder can be more cost-effective in the future. This is especially true if you regularly bake or cook using flour.
Is It Safe To Make Flour With Your Coffee Grinder?
It is safe to make flour with your coffee grinder. You’ll need to be careful when cleaning your coffee grinder, as always, to ensure you don’t cut your finger, though. Other than that, grinding wheat or another product to make flour with your coffee grinder is perfectly safe.
How to Make Flour With Your Coffee Grinder
Before you start using your coffee grinder to make flour at home, you need to make sure you do it properly. Not using the proper amount or taking your time can not only clog your coffee grinder, but you may end up with lumpy flour that isn’t easy to work with.
Don’t Overfill The Grinder
The first thing to think about is how much wheat you’re putting into your grinder. If you overfill the grinder, you run the risk of clogging and then damaging your appliance. It’s best to start with small amounts.
A good rule of thumb to follow is that you should only try to fill the grinder up to the halfway mark. This allows you to grind the wheat without worry.
Set A Timer
If your coffee grinder doesn’t come with a timer, you’ll want to set one. You can do this on your watch, phone, or by watching the clock. You’ll want to grind the wheat for about 30 to 45 seconds.
Sift Through Flour To See If You Need To Grind It Again
Once the 30 to 45 seconds are up, you can sift through the flour and see if you need to do it again. More often than not, you’ll need to grind the flour more than once to get the desired texture and fineness.
You’ll refill the grinder and run it for another 30 to 45 seconds. Repeat sifting through the flour and then decide if it’s where you want it to be or need another round in the coffee grinder.
Will Grinding Wheat For Flour Affect the Taste of Your Coffee?
As long as you take care of your coffee grinder properly, then it shouldn’t. You’ll need to make sure you properly wash and clean your coffee grinder before and after grinding flour to prevent the transfer of flavor between your coffee and flour.
If you don’t clean the coffee oils out of the grinder, your flour can taste like coffee and vice versa. The best way to clean your coffee grinder is to grind a small amount of white rice for several minutes before taking a paper towel, wiping it down, and removing all the particles.
You may have to do this more than once to remove all the oils or leftover flavors from the blades before grinding wheat or another grain for flour.
Pros and Cons of Making Flour With Your Coffee Grinder
As with anything in life, there are pros and cons. Before you break out your coffee grinder to make some fresh flour, here are the major pros and cons of making flour this way.
Pros
- It’s cost-effective
- You can have fresh flour quickly without leaving your home (as long as you have wheat)
- It’s cheaper than buying a wheat mill
Cons
- You may not get a consistent grind which can cause lumps
- You have to clean your coffee grinder before and after to ensure your coffee doesn’t take like flour or vice versa
- You run the risk of clogging your coffee grinder
Alternatives To Using Your Coffee Grinder To Make Flour
There’s nothing wrong with using your coffee grinder to make flour at home, but if you’re looking for other ways to obtain flour, here are some of the best alternatives.
Buy Flour From The Store
This alternative is an obvious one but worth mentioning. Sometimes the fastest way to get flour for your recipe is to head to your local grocery store. This is much faster than trying to locate wheat or another product to grind into flour.
Use a Food Processor of High Power Blender
If you cook regularly, you probably have at least one of these appliances on hand. Using your food processor or high-power blender can help you grind wheat or other grains for flour.
Buy a Wheat or Grain Mill
The best alternative to using your coffee grinder to make flour is purchasing a wheat or grain mill. These products are explicitly designed to make flour at home. The downside to these is that they’re a little more expensive but worth it if you’re making flour often.
Purchase a Coffee Grinder Only For Making Flour
If you love how your coffee grinder makes flour, then getting a second one so that you can use one solely for coffee and one for flour is a great idea. This way, you don’t need to worry about potentially clogging the one you use for coffee or transferring flavor between your products.
