say hello to your

freshly ground future

Our Bread

From freshly-milled flour to a warm, crusty loaf in just 1 hour

At The Mill Maid we believe in home-baked bread that is part of every day. With each and every one of our loaves baked daily, we start with whole spelt berries, which are then freshly stone-ground, milled very fine.

Using techniques taught in our private online classes, our dough is able to retain a high moisture content due to our unique kneading method and the natural oils contained in the freshly ground flour. Our high-moisture dough mimics the steam release in professional bakeries to produce an artisan crust with no need for oven bricks or a pizza stone.

The result is a beautiful artisan loaf with a crackly crust and a soft robust crumb.

Our Class

The ultimate bread class

At The Mill Maid, we offer our students three online, private classes to choose from: the Ultimate Bread, the Ultimate Chocolate Cake, and the Ultimate Chocolate Mousse.

During the Ultimate Bread class, we demonstrate each detail of the extraordinarily short 1-hour process from grinding the grain to taking the hot bread out of the oven. During rising and baking times, our students learn how to make grinding their own grain part of their daily routine and how to take the same recipe and turn it into pizza, bagels, calzones, and breadsticks, as well as sweeter variations like cinnamon raisin bread.

In our Ultimate Chocolate Cake class, our students learn how to use only freshly-ground flour and natural sweeteners (pure maple syrup and honey) to make the richest, softest chocolate cake. White flour could never create the delicate, fluffy texture of our signature chocolate cake.

Imagine for a moment chocolate mousse light as a cloud with incomparably delicate richness. You truly have never tasted anything so good. In our Ultimate Chocolate Mousse class, our students will begin by making their own chocolate (yes, really) to then transform it into the ultimate chocolate mousse dream.

Whether it’s the Ultimate Bread, the Ultimate Chocolate Cake, or the Ultimate Chocolate Mousse, the skills and techniques taught in our classes are truly unique.

Our Story

Meet the Mill Maid

Our instructor, Heidi, has a Master of Science degree focusing on the body’s interaction with glucose sugar. From family travels in Switzerland and Austria to quiet farm country in the Midwest, settling in the Wine Country of Sonoma Valley in California, Heidi perfected artful food with fresh ground grain. From a very young age Heidi knew that green buckwheat made superior pancakes to the roasted variety and that pearled barley is “white flour” compared to the more healthful barley groat. She experienced that the Austrian grains of Emmer and Einkorn had lower protein content than their American counterparts and were therefore more delicate.

Her family’s original freshly-flaked granola recipe was served in some of the finest hotels and restaurants in the Sonoma Valley and was carried by Scharffen Berger Chocolate Makers and offered in their San Francisco and Berkeley boutiques.

In Heidi’s Ultimate Bread Baking Class you will spend 1 hour watching the creation or creating along with, from milling the grain to a warm, crusty loaf. You will learn about ancient grains, salts, and a kneading technique that takes less than 1 minute! Our students have found this to be truly life-changing.

Our Pantry

The ingredients that are the essence of our food

Changing your health is a change of mindset. What you add to your diet is just as important as what you eliminate.

What you will find in our baking pantry:

Grains (spelt, wheat, barley, oats, and buckwheat)
Olive oil
Maple syrup
Honey
Celtic sea salt (generally gray and wet)

What you will not find in our baking pantry:

Flour
"Vegetable" or seed oils
Sugar (of any kind)
Artificial sweeteners
Processed salt (which has been stripped of its minerals and nutrients and to which dextrose has been added)