bread flour options - hard red vs. hard white

I have access to a local mill with a factory store. I'm considering baking more bread. And not using AP flour. (oh, the horror, the horror)

Here's the thing, though. They offer a "strong baking flour" which I presume is a blend. I can get that in quantities from 4 to 80 pounds. What has me thinking is the fact that they also offer bags of all-hard-red and all-hard-white, in 45 and 50 pound quantities.

Short of marching in there and requesting to see a recent farinograph for each variety, I'm wondering what sort of qualities i'd get with all-hard-red vs. all-hard-white.

This would be degerminated but not bleached or bromated. I've zero interest in purchasing whole wheat flour - unless I get to watch them mill it, and I'm baking it that day.

Reply to
Eric Jorgensen
Loading thread data ...

Eric, you are very lucky to have a mill with a choice. I have not used all-hard-white, but I use hard red wheat. I grind it in my vitamix each time I want a loaf. I don't know if it is de-germinated. My bucket just says hard red wheat. I have never tried making it other than in a bread machine because I'm afraid of failure, and wasting my labors, but it is always devine. I use the dark setting.

When I grind it myself, it doesn't have the taste of the wheat already ground at the flour mills - my opinion - so after you try their already milled packaged product and if it is available to you to buy in a full grain and grind it for yourself, give it a try. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

Here is my own recipe.

100% WHOLE WHEAT BREAD / NO OIL - Whole Wheat Setting (3hr 40 min)

13 oz. water

1-3/4 teaspoons salt

4 Tablespoons of Honey or Molasses or Organic Sugar

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon of Hodgson's Wheat Gluten

2 teaspoons fermi instant yeast

I will use either Australian Honey or Date molasses if I want a different taste. Australian Honey has a middle eastern flavor. By using different honey's, you can really change the taste of this bread because the usual wheat flour semi-bitter taste is NOT prevalent in your own ground whole wheat.

Dee

Reply to
Dee Randall

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.