Can you grind wheat in a coffee grinder? Grinding soft food ingredients in a coffee grinder is always possible. Since wheat is not too hard for a strong coffee grinder, the answer is yes. You can actually crack wheat in a coffee grinder or blender. I am going to mention other ways you can grind your wheat as an alternative to a coffee grinder.
What will be of Wheat Taste after Grinding with a Coffee Grinder?
Don’t you think it will be important to ask what will be the condition of your wheat after grinding it in a coffee grinder? The taste of our ingredients is very important and to get the deliciousness out of it, the taste must be in its original form—no mixing.
It remains a fact that we risk the taste of our food items when grinding them in our coffee grinder. The taste of your coffee is not safe, in case you will grind your coffee beans in the same grinder in the nearest future.
The good news is that when grinding your wheat, the flavor is rather restrained. Thus, the taste of your coffee will hardly be affected. If it does affect it, it will be minimal. Read: Can I use a coffee grinder to grind almonds?
Just like I mentioned earlier, there is a probability that the flavor of your wheat flour may be affected by coffee odor or taste. In order to prevent that from happening, ensure that you clean your grinder thoroughly before using it for grinding.
How to Grind Wheat in a Coffee Grinder
We have many types of coffee grinders. One of them is the burr coffee grinder. If you are using it to grind your wheat, do not overfill it. You should grind wheat in batches.
Put only enough wheat in the coffee grinder in such a way that it only fills up halfway.
Your grinder could be expensive or inexpensive, manual or electric in as much as it is wheat berries you desire to grind. If your coffee grinder has a timer, you can as well set it for 30 to 45 seconds and then check your wheat. If you don’t have a coffee grinder with a timer, set the time on your phone or smartwatch or do the counting manually.
You must keep in mind that your wheat flour may not come out as smooth as you desire when grinding it in a coffee grinder unless you repeat the grinding process up to two or three times.
Why you Should Grind wheat in a Coffee Grinder
If you don’t have a grain mill, a perfect alternative could not be better than a coffee grinder. Coffee grinders are cheaper compared to grain mills, perhaps you are not ready to spend that much, then go for a coffee grinder to grind your wheat berries.
The taste of your coffee may not be affected by the wheat flour. If it affects your coffee, it will be minimal.
Why you Shouldn’t Grind Wheat in a Coffee Grinder
These days most of the coffee grinders in the market are burrs. This in particular will affect the result of your wheat after grinding. Your wheat may not come out as fine as you want it. If you actually want your with to come out fine, then you will have to grind it twice or thrice in the coffee grinder.
There is a risk of clogging your grinder if you grind grains regularly in it. To prevent this, clean and check your grinder for blocking regularly.
Other Methods of Grinding Wheat without a Coffee Grinder
You may not be interested in using your favorite coffee grinder to grind your wheat. Don’t worry, there are other ways you can grind your wheat and the result will be nice.
Grain Mills
Grain mills are specifically created for all types of mills. Therefore, I will say, it is the best alternative. In fact, it is the real way to grind your wheat. This will not stress you at all as you will not need to repeat the cycle of grinding twice or thrice.
The grain mill may be more expensive than any other product I will mention but if you grind grains on a regular basis, I think it is worth it. You can try grain mills such as Northern Brewer – Hullwrecker 2-Roller Grain Mill. It is easy to use and has superior dependability.
Food Processor or Grinder
It is possible that you have a food processor or a blender in your kitchen. You can use any of these two kitchen appliances to grind your grains or wheat. The issue is that they equally work in a similar way with a coffee grinder. However, they are a good alternative as well.
If you want to avoid your coffee taste being affected, going for one of these grinders mentioned will be a smart decision.
There are some powerful food processors or blenders I can recommend to you such as Braun FP3020 12 Cup Food Processor or Oster BLSTTS-CB2-000 Pro Blender. These two kitchen appliances can grind your wheat to your desire due to the powerful motor and durable blades they have.
Mortar and Pestle
Using mortar and pestle is another good alternative. This method has been there for ages and works perfectly fine if you have the bicep to pound. It will ensure that the flavor of your flour comes out perfectly. The reason is that since it is an analog method, the heat production will be extremely minimized and thus, your grain flavor is well preserved.
How to grind wheat in Mortar and Pestle
It is not that difficult to grind your wheat with a mortar and pestle. All you need are the steps mentioned below:
1. Get your mortar and pestle ready.
2. Clean them thoroughly by dusting rather than washing them.
3. If you must wash the mortar and pestle, use ordinary water. Avoid the use of soap or detergent to prevent altering the taste of your wheat.
4. Pour the wheat batch by batch into the dried mortar bowl.
5. Start pounding your wheat continuously until the desired consistency is reached.
6. Repeat the grinding process part for all the batches until you are done.
I have some mortar and pestle recommendations for you. If you want perfect grinding, it is highly advisable to try them out. ChefSofi Mortar and Pestle Set
The two recommended mortars and pestles are some of the best in the market and people have been saying lots of great things about them. You can try them out yourself to break the doubt you may have about them.
How to Choose a Coffee Grinder
Probably after this piece of information, you decided to purchase a coffee grinder, I suggest that you follow this guide I am about to present. This guide will aid you in selecting the best coffee grinder that will serve you well and lasts long.
Shape
In my next article, I will talk fully about how to choose a coffee grinder, I will elaborate more on what makes a good coffee grinder. For the scope of this article, let me simply mention the ideal coffee grinder to be a burr grinder. Burr coffee grinders come in various shapes, materials, and sizes.
There are flat, or conical shape types. Whether one shape is better than the other is a debatable topic but I have to tell you that a flat shape burr coffee grinder can produce more consistent textures, although conical coffee grinders produce faster.
I prefer a flat burr whenever I am grinding coffee beans for espresso while a conical burr for brewing press, pour-over, and drip. The brew methods are known for demanding larger sizes and don’t need super fine ingredients for a good result.
Size
The size of the burr coffee grinder is normally measured in millimeters and ranges from 40 mm for a less expensive version capable of home use, an almost 60 mm range for prosumer-level espresso-based grinders, and 80 plus mm for large commercial scale level rated grinders. In conclusion, larger burr grinders produce higher quality grind and grind faster.
Material
Burr material should be considered before purchase. The material is usually ceramic or steel. Sometimes you may find one made of coated Titanium that lasts longer for most people using it at home. The most common ones are steel burrs. They are durable and also perform a great job.
If you grind lots of times, the steel burrs will do a better job at dissipating heat compared to ceramic burrs. The ceramic burrs however maintain their sharpness longer than the steel burrs but can be easily damaged by foreign objects. From my personal observation and opinion, I will rather advise that you go for the one that satisfies you the most in terms of material. The reason is that they are both good at their ends.
Motor Power
The motor power of your coffee grinder should be durable enough to grind with great power. The rated watts for coffee grinders are from 100 to above 400. This means that more powerful motors will give you longer performance cycles. In other words, they grind more coffee beans and do it faster than coffee grinders with lower motor capacity.
Lower-power motors normally have performance cycles of 60 seconds and you will have to wait for about 10 minutes before you can start using them again.
Adjusting Grind
A coffee grinder should have an adjusting grind so that you can adjust the size of the grind as you may desire. There are two initial types which are step-less and stepped. If you are using a stepped grinder, you should find stops for each grind size. As for grinders with step-less adjustment, they have no stops for each grind size. What this means is that you can make extremely precise and important continuous grind size adjustments.
You don’t actually need a step-less grinder unless if you are making a higher-end espresso on a prosumer-level machine.
Conclusion
You can grind wheat in a coffee grinder but you will have to repeat about 3 cycles before you can get a fine texture if necessary.
There are alternative grinders that can do better than a coffee grinder in terms of grinding wheat and they are the grain mill grinders. You don’t need to repeat a cycle before you get a fine consistency after one round of grinding. Grain mill grinders are quite expensive.
Apart from the coffee grinders, you can as well as use a food processor, or a blender to grind your wheat berries. The issue is that they are not better than a coffee grinder. You have to repeat the cycles of grinding up to 3 times also.
The manual alternative is the use of mortar and pestle. The method is very antic and still brings out a greater flavor from your wheat due to the low heat involved. However, you must be ready to use your energy. Apart from that, it consumes lots of energy and no one will like to adopt this method unless the grain to be ground is in small quantity.
To Round things up
There are various coffee grinders out there and the best should be your focus. In case you are already planning to get one for yourself recently, the ones I recommended in this article can do a perfect job for you.
There are also other grinding tools I mentioned in this article, you can check them out too; perhaps, you decided to go for any of them
I gave a brief guide on how to select your coffee grinder; you can use this guide to choose the right machine that can grind your coffee beans at any time.
The shape, size, features, and motor power of a coffee grinder should be considered before purchasing your coffee grinder.