Noob in early stages of project , looking for pointers

Without a display how do you know the number of seconds the grind is set for? You can get very small displays for very cheap, for example an OLED that is just under 1 inch (25mm). This would tell the currently set grind time. However, I don't know your exact space constraints. You could even save the time in EEPROM if you want to remember it.

An inexpensive Arduino Nano clone should be sufficient.