Super Quick & Easy Fresh Milled Chocolate Chip Cookies

These fresh milled chocolate chip cookies are going to be your family’s new favorite! Made with 100% freshly milled soft white wheat, they’re a treat you can feel good about giving them, too!

Remember how Grandma always seemed to have a jar full of fresh-baked cookies just waiting for you to dip your hand into it. They always tasted better than any cookie from the store and you knew it was because they were made from scratch (with a whole lot of love sprinkled in).

How did Grandma do it? Surely she wasn’t googling the recipe every time she wanted to make those cookies?? She wasn’t. Not because she didn’t have Google (although she didn’t), but because Grandma knew the value of having her tried and true recipes memorized, ready to whip up at a moment’s notice. This recipe fits that bill.

These no wait fresh milled chocolate chip cookies come together in a snap… you don’t even have to remember to soften the butter! I love having the cake stand on my kitchen table filled with them for my kiddos to grab any time they want and I know you will too!

Hop on over to the farmhouse with me and let’s whip up a batch of these fresh milled chocolate chip cookies!

Why You Will Love This Fresh Milled Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Healthy – Fresh milled flour has so many health benefits. It provides many of the vitamins and minerals our bodies need in natural form, no synthetic flour here!
Super quick – These cookies come together in about 5 minutes and can be made in one pot! No softened butter required makes them the perfect on the fly treat.
Delicious – The most important part of any cookie recipe of course! These easy fresh milled chocolate chip cookies are so good your family won’t even realize they’re healthy, too!

Benefits of Fresh Milled Flour

In order for stores to keep flour on the shelves without having to worry about it spoiling, many of the natural properties are removed from the flour to make it shelf stable.

Conventional flour is able to remain on the shelf for a long time due to heavy processing. This processing includes removal of the germ and its oils that cause the flour to spoil quickly.

Through this conventional milling process the flour loses 70-80% of its total nutrition. Vitamins and minerals lost include:

• Almost all dietary fiber
• Vitamins including Vitamin A, B Vitamins Niacin (B3), Thiamin (B1) Riboflavin (B2), almost all Vitamin E
• Mineral loss includes significant portions of Manganese and Magnesium as well as loss of Cobalt, Phosphorus, Zinc and Iron
• Loss of healthy unsaturated fats present in the germ
• Loss of antioxidants and enzymes

Because these naturally occurring vitamins and minerals are stripped from the flour, conventional flour has synthetic versions added back to it under the term “enriched”. Our bodies do not benefit from these synthetic additives in the same way they do from the naturally occurring version found in whole wheat.

Can’t I just use whole wheat flour from the store instead of milling my own?

While it would seem store bought whole wheat flour would be a good alternative to conventional flour, it is still found to be lacking the nutrition of fresh milled flour.

Some of the reasons for this are that the germ is still often left out of the flour marketed as whole wheat, leading to many of the nutritional deficiencies found in conventional flour.

Another issue with store bought whole wheat flour is that, if the oils are left intact, it can quickly become rancid and therefore loses much of the nutrition and health benefits as well.

Where can I source wheat to grind for my own fresh milled flour?

With the rise of popularity in grain mills and home ground flour, wheat berries (the whole form of wheat used in mills) are becoming easier to source.

Some popular places to source wheat berries include:

• Azure Standard – Arguably one of the most popular suppliers of wheat berries, Azure Standard is a whole food co-op that delivers natural groceries to local drops all across the United States. You can search for a drop local to you and join on their website. You then will be given an order close date with a “week of” delivery window every month. The delivery windows can be slightly unpredictable, but reach out to your local drop coordinator to see what arrangements can be made if you can’t make the drop. They offer wheat berries in large quantities and this can be a significant cost savings.
  • Some of the wheat berries Azure Standard offers
    • Soft White Wheat
    • Hard White Wheat
    • Hard Red Wheat
    • Spelt
    • Kamut
    • Einkorn
• Bread Beckers – Like Azure, Bread Beckers also has co-op drop dates but rather than monthly the drops occur a few times a year. They also have the option of ordering retail from their website. Sue Becker, the founder of Bread Beckers, is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to home milling flour. She did a wonderful podcast with Lisa from Simple Farmhouse Life that was a great resource for information on fresh milled flour. You can find that podcast here.
• Other places to find wheat berries include Pleasant Hill Grain, Palouse Brand, Amazon, or reach out on a local Facebook group to find a wheat berry farm near you.

What to know when grinding your own wheat…

While grinding wheat in itself is not a difficult process, there are some differences when working with freshly milled flour versus your standard all purpose flour from the store.

Some helpful thing to know about grinding your own wheat:

• Freshly milled flour is lighter and fluffier than all purpose when it comes out of the mill. For this reason you will want to use weight measurements if possible for recipe accuracy, especially if you are converting a recipe from all purpose flour.
• Baked goods with soft wheat like soft white wheat typically need an extra 1/2 cup per cup more than a recipe with all purpose flour calls for. For example, if a recipe calls for 2 cups all purpose flour, you will want to use 3 cups of freshly milled soft white wheat rather than 2.
• Freshly milled flour has a shelf life, and it’s pretty short. Once ground, the flour needs to be used within 24 hours. If it is not used, it can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

What kind of wheat is best for these fresh milled chocolate chip cookies?

The best wheat for baked goods like cookies, cakes, brownies, etc is soft white wheat berries. This variety of wheat is fluffier and not as dense as hard wheats like hard red and hard white.

If you like a nuttier flavor in your baked goods, you can use spelt grain. If you prefer to use an ancient grain, einkorn would be the best choice for these fresh milled chocolate chip cookies.

Common mistakes when using fresh milled wheat

Using too much flour – fresh milled flour is slower to absorb the liquid in a recipe, leaving your dough feeling sticky at first. It can be tempting to add more flour, but giving the dough 15-30 minutes to hydrate often does the trick. This works especially well with sourdough bread using fresh milled wheat as the longer rising time gives the flour more time to absorb the liquid.

Not kneading the dough properly – often dough with fresh milled flour needs a slightly longer kneading time. Your dough should be able to pass the “window test”, which is when the dough can be stretched out enough to allow light to shine through without tearing.

Ingredients

Butter
Sugar
Brown sugar
Egg
Vanilla – I like this one from Costco
Freshly milled flour – My rule of thumb is to always use freshly milled soft white wheat for baked goods. This is the variety of wheat suggested for the best results with this recipe.
Baking soda
Cornstarch
Salt – for an extra nutrition boost use a high quality salt like Redmond Real Salt

Tools You Will Need

Grain Mill – for grinding your wheat berries. This is the one I have and absolutely love!
Small Dutch Oven or Pot – for melting butter and mixing ingredients. At least 2 quarts is a good size.
Cookie Sheet – nonstick or stainless steal line with parchment paper.

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies With Fresh Milled Wheat

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a small pot melt one stick (113 g) of butter. When the butter is about half way melted remove from the heat. Gently whisk or stir the butter until it is fully melted. This will prevent the butter from getting too hot so you can add the other ingredients directly to the pot.
3. Whisk sugar (1/4 cup/50 g), brown sugar (3/4 cup/165 g), vanilla (1 tbsp/13 g) and egg into melted butter (again making sure the mixture is not too hot to avoid curdling). With this method of keeping the butter from getting too hot you are able to keep everything in one pot for easy clean up!
4. You can grind the wheat directly into your wet mixture if you are weighing out your wheat berries before grinding (300 g). if using cup measurements you will need to grind your wheat and measure it out after (2 1/5 cups).
5. As the wheat is grinding add in your salt (1 tsp), baking soda (1 tsp) and cornstarch (2 tsp).
6. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients by folding in flour with a spoon or spatula just until there are no dry spots of flour left. Then add in chocolate chips (1 cup/170 g) and fold in until incorporated.
7. Form dough into balls using about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
8. Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just set.
9. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and enjoy!

This post was all about how to make fresh milled chocolate chip cookies!

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