Latest From Our Blog

Let’s talk about the Wheat Flavor Wheel and Sonora! At Grist & Toll, we’ve been milling landrace Sonora wheat into flour since the day we opened our doors. What is a landrace wheat? Landrace wheat varieties have been grown for hundreds of years without modern breeding or genetic interference. Though not necessarily indigenous, landrace seed […]

The Farmer Mai and Grist & Toll collaborative Flour Share is continuing thanks to popular demand. The program will last from Dec 2021 – May 2022, wherein expertly stone-milled whole wheat flour will be available each month. This season we’re offering two flour shares: Chiddam Blanc de Mars Flour Share and Farmer’s Choice Flour Share. […]

I developed a Wheat Flavor Wheel as a tool to help encourage the dialogue around discovering the flavor profiles of wheat and grain varieties. It will be a work in progress for probably as long as I am milling and baking! However, it’s a good start. Since Einkorn was most recently featured as part of […]

Our own local Los Angeles baker/restaurateur, Roxana Jullapat, has given us extra incentive to talk about ancient or mother grains in the form of her very first cookbook, Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution. In celebration of this wonderful book, we’re going to highlight some of Roxana’s favorite Grist & Toll flours using fun […]

If you’ve had trouble substituting Grist & Toll whole grain flour for All Purpose flour in recipes at home, this post is for you! We’re introducing a monthly challenge to help home bakers become more comfortable and confident integrating whole grain flour into their baking repertoire- STARTING NOW! Send us a whole grain recipe failure […]

This post is for any member of the public who would like to give the Biden administration, and specifically the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, feedback on how you feel about the current status of our agricultural supply chains and food security. You do not have to be a farmer or own a food business. […]

It’s mid-May 2021 and as the mask mandates are slowly being lifted, it’s time to begin looking forward to gathering again with family and friends. After more than a year of longing for dinners out, is it odd that the prospect of entertaining at home again feels strangely comforting and necessary? I’ve certainly had my […]

Yet another delicious recipe created for us by Sarah Owens! One of the most beautiful things about collaborating with Sarah is her flour intuition. Yes, that’s a thing! I’d like to encourage you to pay attention to your own flour intuition. Having a diversity of grain to mill and bake with is what allows us […]

Our new 2020 holiday gift set, Pancake Extravaganza, includes Amy Halloran’s wonderful The Pancake Papers, which is rich with regional grain information and includes both sweet and savory griddle cake recipes. However, since more is never enough where pancakes are concerned, here are a couple of my favorite whole grain pancake recipes with colder months […]

As I enter this post, it is Saturday, November 28th  2020, Small Business Saturday. It took a village to create the cookie recipe below. I am forever grateful for the work of other small businesses: Farmer Mai Nguyen for her beautiful Chiddam Blanc de Mars wheat, Masienda for the stunning heirloom Oaxacan corn, and Baker/Author/Dreamer […]

It’s the end of October in L.A. and as we finally break free of 100 degree weather, rounding the corner into fall much later than other states, it’s time to look forward to winter soups, oven roasted dinners and holiday baking. As if hearing our internal longings for legit sweater weather and brisk mornings, Sarah […]

A taste of history and the path to modern breeding Marquis wheat is an heirloom variety that holds special significance in the history of wheat breeding and cultivation in North America. The name Marquis first began to appear on my radar many years ago when I was looking through some historical agriculture bulletins dating back […]

I love coffee cake, especially one with tangy sour cream in the batter and a crunchy streusel layer in the middle. I love it even more now that I have this recipe created by Sarah Owens just for us, featuring one of my favorite grains, Wit Wolkoring. When I baked the recipe for the first […]

When a bit of malaise or lack of inspiration hits us here at Grist & Toll, we often turn to the beautiful books written by Sarah Owens: “Sourdough”, “Toast & Jam” and “Heirloom”. They never fail us, always delivering inviting images, delicious recipes, and Sarah’s warm, nurturing guidance. We have harnessed some of Sarah’s magic […]

There are many online resources and tutorials for feeding and maintaining a sourdough starter, and we encourage you to explore and read as much as possible. The specific flour you feed your starter, in what proportions and how often are all very subjective and at your discretion. What is most critical is that you understand […]

Flour 101 It’s Time! 5/8/20Hello all you COVID-19 home-quarantine-shelter-in-place-social-distancing bakers! I am so sorry for all of the stress and health concerns we are experiencing right now, but I am also hopeful that some small part of staying at home may renew your interest in baking from scratch. Perhaps it can even provide some much-needed entertainment […]

6/1/20: We are re-opening our retail shop this week for normal business hours: Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00-5:00 with the following restrictions Face masks required Number of customers in the shop at one time will be limited * 6/1/20 A reminder that all web orders remain for shipping only. Phone orders and curbside pickup are no […]

This is the formula we have been working with at the mill for several years. When you see our Instagram posts, this is the method we are using. You’ll find it closely mirrors some standard and well-known recipes, but with higher hydration and salt, and shorter bulk fermentation time – all important factors when working […]

Milk Bread Pull Apart Rolls When I saw the 2019 Thanksgiving Issue of Food & Wine magazine, I knew Grist & Toll had to create a 100% whole grain version of their show stopping Pull-Apart Milk Bread Wreath. The tangzhong method featured for making tender milk bread is one we use quite frequently when baking [...]

Hello bakers this is Isaac, and I am excited to share a new holiday recipe with you! If Linzer torte had an American cousin, this shortbread tart is it - a new favorite at the G&T test kitchen as we experimented with a variety of fillings over the summer. The recipe is adapted from Allison [...]

Grist & Toll Farmer Feature Introducing Mai Nguyen, aka Farmer Mai, and two landrace wheats grown by her: Wit Wolkering and Chiddam Blanc de Mars A blog post featuring a California farmer and specially selected wheat varieties has been a long time coming. I’m really pleased that this first dedicated post involves collaboration with Mai […]

Stollen is one of my favorite holiday breads. There is a lot to love: fruit, nuts, almond paste, powdered sugar topping – Yum! A quick preferment of milk, yeast and flour gives the dough a nice depth of flavor, and the whole grain flours make everything taste richer, nuttier, and more complex. This is a […]

People Who Live in Spice Houses Linda Civitello for Grist & Toll Sweden’s pepparkakor (pepper cake) is pfefferkuchen in Germany, speculaas to the Dutch, gingerbread to the British, and pain d’épices (spice bread) in France. Notice a theme? All are northern European, at the opposite end of the world from the tropical Pacific islands where […]

How We Roll at Grist & Toll By Linda Civitello What History Has To Say About Nan’s Mother’s Buttermilk Crescent Rolls From the “It Just Wouldn’t Be Thanksgiving Without This” Department Crescent rolls had been around for centuries before the Pillsbury Doughboy, aka “Poppin’ Fresh,” made his spectacular debut: on Sunday, November 7, 1965, he […]

I am very pleased that author and food historian, Linda Civitello, will be contributing to the website from time to time. We have put our heads together, lining up topics and recipes drawn from history that resonate with how we want to bake and cook today. We are launching this collaborative series with the hottest […]

Please listen to this broadcast to hear Nan discuss wheat and the truly amazing difference of fresh flour. http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/good-food Also, enjoy listening to our friend Amy Halloran who joins the show before our spot.

Grist & Toll Classic Whole Grain Biscuits Yield = 6 one-inch high, 3-inch wide biscuits *See notes for turning this formula into shortcake at the end Ingredients: 2 cups (9 oz) Sonora or your favorite G&T whole grain flour 2 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda 1 tsp kosher salt 5 […]

G&T Blog Post: Spelt Carrot Cake with Cardamom, Pistachios and Coconut I really love carrot cake, but many that I buy are a disappointment: too sweet, too dense, too rich. Perhaps I’ve only been in love with the idea of carrot cake, as the more I think about it, the more I realize I’ve never really […]

Union’s creamy polenta with mushrooms Sometimes, it’s easy to predict the dishes that will achieve cult status on restaurant menus.

G&T Recipe: Thanksgiving Swirl Pie Yield = two 9-inch pies I just couldn’t decide which pie to feature for Thanksgiving this year. The cheese pie recipe below was the very first pie I learned how to make, so it has a special place in my heart as a childhood favorite. It’s an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe, utterly […]

I have been thinking a lot lately about what a loaf of bread should cost. Since opening Grist & Toll, I’ve been lucky enough to meet many budding artisan bread bakers. They all express the same passion: “I want to create something meaningful with my own two hands.” And they all share the same fear, […]

We have a broken system for growing and handling local wheat. In order to fix it, we’ll need to work together. The time has come to take a good, hard look at our flour and how it is currently being produced. If we want a better, local product we have choices to make.

This is a short and sweet post, just to share one of my favorite summer recipes remixed with Grist & Toll Flour.

We can get pretty fancy on the days that we have time for test baking and recipe development at the mill. On those luxurious days, we tend to focus on laminated dough and enriched breads, such as my current obsession with the perfect Grist & Toll brioche recipe.

The more I learn, the less I know. I could leave it right there, but I wouldn’t want you to think I mean that in a negative way, so I suppose I should elaborate a little.

I consider this topic to be even more monstrous and unwieldy than naturally leavened bread. And if you knew how many times a day I am asked to troubleshoot bread or dough of some sort, you’d know exactly what I mean by that! But let’s just dive in anyway.

I love shortbread cookies. It’s amazing how much more I love them now that I can make them with freshly milled flour. In the previous blog post, I mention how the flavors of fresh, whole grain flour really shine when there aren’t a lot of competing flavors and ingredients in the mix. This really rings […]

I find that when I am discussing what makes fresh flour so special, I can’t escape making multiple references to the time I spent working in the wine industry, which inevitably leads me to the sophistication of our current coffee culture. There are so many parallels. Just like grapes and wine, until we were exposed […]

My business partner, Marti, likes to say that Grist & Toll is the newest old idea in the world. And she’s right.