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Conventional (Non-GMO)

Organic

At Grist & Toll, we are not your average flour millers. We are bakers who became obsessed with our primary ingredient – flour. It has become our mission to source the best and most delicious grain, mill it in a purist’s manner on an authentic stone mill, and get it into your hands as fresh as possible.

We share the same heart, soul and devotion to our craft as the amazing farmers who grow for us, and the same passion and determination as the bakers and chefs who inspire us with their creativity and skill.

Grist & Toll

100% Extraction (100% whole wheat) French Renan flour. Custom and organically grown for us in Northern California, this French red wheat is one of the most delicious you will ever taste. It’s gluten strength is a little more mellow, but we still love it for sourdough artisan bread (do not over-hydrate!), lamination and enriched breads, as well as most pastries.

2020 marked our first significant harvest of this highly sought after French Red Wheat. Custom grown for us in Northern California, the seed stock was procured from The Bread Lab at WSU several years ago. Renan is one of the most delicious red wheat varieties we have ever tasted. It’s gluten structure is not as strong as the California modern hard red varieties – don’t over hydrate! –  but it still makes terrific bread, and we love it for all kinds of pastry too: cookies, graham crackers, quick breads like pain d’epices and pumpkin bread etc. Very special wheat, very special flavor.

French Renan Hard Red Winter Wheat Flour

Heirloom Red Cornmeal. Soft, delicate texture with very rich roasted and candied aromatics. A stunner. Replace conventional cornmeal in your recipes with this variety and prepare to be wowed by tenderness and depth of flavor.

When we are able to source organic corn grown from Native American seed sources, it makes the finest, most aromatic cornmeal. This stunning red variety produces soft, delicate cornmeal with incredibly rich flavor and aroma: roasted, floral and candied flavors with a bit of fermentation on the nose (in a good way!) Our cornmeal has a much finer texture than our polenta. Limited availability, while supplies last.

Heirloom Red Cornmeal

We are currently milling Joaquin Oro, grown in CA by Gonzales-Siemen Family Farms. Longtime G&T customers know this wheat variety well, as it has always been a favorite. Joaquin Oro is a strong, reliable bread wheat for both sourdough and commercial yeast baking. It consistently surprises us with its depth of flavor: rich, nutty, malty with no bitterness. In the conventional world, hard red wheat varieties are not supposed to be this nuanced or gentle in flavor profile. It will not disappoint.

Bread bakers will want to pay attention to their hydration percentage and will definitely need to increase it. Freshly milled whole grain flour tends to be on the “thirsty” side and will absorb more water in artisan bread applications. For this harvest year of Amorojo, our hydration for a 100% loaf made with this flour is 85-90% hydration. However, for more general baking and pastry applications, you may find that it does not absorb as much liquid as an All-Purpose flour, so you may want to hold off on some of your liquid such as buttermilk or cream in scone recipes and add back in as needed, for example.

It is a wonderful, stand-alone bread flour and will create loaves with superior flavor, crumb, color and volume. We are milling this as a 100% extraction, whole wheat flour. We also love incorporating it into all different types of baking. Start by substituting up to 50% of your All-Purpose flour with this whole grain flour. You will love the rich flavor and color it adds to muffins and cookies, and you will be surprised at how delicate they will be in texture. Freshly milled whole grain flour is nothing like supermarket whole wheat flour. You can bake with it in the same manner, but with more delicious, tender outcomes.

Joaquin Oro Hard Red Spring Wheat Flour

The cultivation of rye does not go back as far in history as some other grains. It came to America with European settlers in the 16th century. In addition to its distinctive flavor and color, rye contains high levels of dietary fiber in its endosperm, not only in its bran as is common with other grains. Because of this, rye baked goods generally have a lower glycemic index.

Rye has higher enzyme activity, which is why many people love it for their sourdough starters.  It can move the fermentation process along a little more quickly, so keep that in mind specifically when baking bread with rye. The gluten structure of rye is much weaker than that of wheat, so breads made mostly of rye do not expand and trap air as much as wheat breads, and the doughs can be more dense and sticky.

We think we know rye, but we really don’t. It is generally associated with dark European, caraway studded breads. However, rye adds such interesting flavor and character that we hate boxing it into a specific corner. Do we love it as a 100% loaf of bread? Absolutely! But, we love it so much that we include rye as part of our flour blend in almost any yeasted application from sourdough hearth loaves to pizzas and flatbreads. And we can’t sing its praises enough for the malty, fruity quality it brings to pastries. We put it in everything, and we’re not joking: chocolate chip cookies, pie dough, pancakes, crackers, scones, shortbread, and crepes. It’s also becoming a pasta superstar ingredient.

Gazelle Rye Flour

We are currently sourcing California grown, certified organic corn.  Our polenta  has a much more coarse texture than our cornmeal and will knock you out with its dreamy texture and rich flavor. It is virtually whole grain: we hand sift just to remove the large pericarp (the seed coat) particles.

You can cook our polenta using only water and its freshness and texture will blow you away. You really don’t need to dress it up dramatically to make it taste special. However, we are never ones to scoff at gilding the lily, so feel free to use milk as your cooking liquid for added richness and depth, or add a splash of heavy cream and grated parmesan at the very end. If you ever make your own ricotta cheese, save the whey: cooking your polenta in whey will turn you into a kitchen rock star. Follow the normal ratios for a soft polenta: 1 part polenta to 4 parts liquid.

Cooking freshly milled polenta is a completely different experience, especially since our product is mostly whole grain. That means we haven’t removed the corn flour. Because of this our polenta, while chunky in texture, has a creamier mouthfeel than others and depending on how you cook it, and almost rich soufflé-like texture. It cooks a little bit faster than traditional brands (less than an hour) and has an undeniable fresh, sweet corn flavor.

Grist & Toll

An urban flour mill