I've had this for a couple days now and have gone through a few cups of grain. This mill does the job for a budget price. My wife and I wanted to start making bread, but we didn't have the money to drop on the Bosch Universal with the Nutrimill (All said, around $750ish). So combined with the Bosch Compact Mixer and the grain mill (~$250), you can start making your own bread with a much smaller cost of entry. We have made around 10 loaves with the ground hard red spring wheat flour we've made from this, and it is delicious.
Now the down side, this mill is slow. I just timed it to see how long it would take to grind 3 cups of HARD RED SPRING WHEAT on its finest setting. It took almost 40 minutes exactly, and produced a fraction shy of 5 cups of flour (probably closer 4 3/4 Cups). That means that it takes 8 MINUTES TO PRODUCE ONE CUP OF USABLE FLOUR. That's a long time, especially when you consider that it's also very loud - about as loud as a typical vacuum cleaner. If you set it to be coarser it is noticeably faster, but then the flour isn't great for bread. It works very fast if you are only looking to crack the wheat to make a cracked wheat cereal, or corn meal.
Also, it doesn't produce very fine flour. I wanted my flour about the finest this machine could produce, so I set it just a tick below where the dots stop and there is a solid line (meaning the finest it will go without actually grinding steel on steel) and the flour is still pretty coarse. The one batch we made with the flour ground SOLELY from the mill didn't rise very well because of how coarse the flour was. I've adjusted our recipe to make the bread with about 50% ground flour, and 50% finely milled store-bought flour, and it will rise to the normal size. Anything less than that and it won't rise as well.
One last thing, we had 1 unit break (sounded like the internal gears stripped out) withint 10 seconds of using my first unit, and the replacement unit broke instantly. The 3rd unit is the one we've been using. It's been fine for now. I'll update this review if I run into problems. However, Dave at Kitchen Resources was excellent about replacing it.
Overall, I still like it because homemade bread is better than anything in the store, and it's much healthier for you and cheaper to make. The coarse flour from this is a great way to add a bunch of tasty fiber to your diet without the compromises (also better for your blood sugar). So long story short, if you plan on making more than 2 loaves of bread per week, you'll want to upgrade to a faster process. Anything less than that and you'll do fine.
** EDIT 9/19/09 ** The only working unit I had broke within a day or so of writing my original review, and the replacement broke within minutes. I took apart all the units to see what was wrong, and the first point of torque is made with a cheap nylon plastic gear that is very easily broken. I can't recommend this product anymore. If you get a working one, 3 stars, otherwise I give this product one star for low craftsmanship. Such a disappointment considering all the quality Bosch products I have had over the years. Get more detail about
Bosch MUZ 4 GM3 Grain Mill with Steel Grinder Cone.
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