Baking day today.
LB likes baking day.
Back in June I wrote a couple of posts about some bread flour somebody gave me, that had very bad results.
In the comment thread of one of those posts somebody suggested King Arthur brand bread flour, which nobody sells around here. But last weekend I got a care package containing a five-pound bag of it.
So today I opened it up. First impression: This flour is very different from the bread flour I have. The texture is much more flour-like. The other stuff is granular.
Today I made my usual recipe, no adjustments at all. And it resulted in the two prettiest loaves that ever came out of my oven.
So I know it’s the flour, and not just me.
I’ve been using up that bad stuff one cup at a time, mixed with my usual flour on baking day. One cup of it in a couple of loaves doesn’t do any harm.
I have never had flour…. bread or otherwise that was “granular”. Where did you get that? I bake bread twice a week with organic Montana flour and never had any issues or failures. I must say that those loves are really beautiful that you baked.
I got them from neighbors, who I think got them from Costco. They’re 25-pound sacks – and I’ve never seen “granular” flour, either. It makes terrible bread, that’s for sure.
Me either. What could make flour granular? I use King Arthur too, the white and the white whole wheat and the bread flour. It is more expensive that other flours and doesn’t often go on sale where I live, but the results are worth the slight added expense.
Wheat Montana is best for me, their white whole wheat. I’m glad I bought a lot of the whole wheat berries years ago because the shipping is now more than the cost of the wheat itself. Can’t imagine any flour that would be “granular.” I’d have to see it. Sometimes the gift horse has rotten teeth. 🙂
Those loaves look good, Joel.
Granular… That never occurred to me. I know what you’re talking about though, because I’ve gotten that from my own mill when I had it set too coarse. If you’ve got a mill, run it through. If you don’t, either use it for quick breads, or treat as whole wheat when adding it to the KA flour.
Thanks for posting the pic Joel. Now I have to bug my wife to make some fresh bread, sigh. I would make my own but as a guy I’m limited to “a man, a can and a plan” type of cooking. :^)
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
Wheat meal is “brown flour that contains some but not all of the outer covering and central part of the wheat grain”. Might that be what you have instead of wheat flour?
That’s not what it said on the bag.
If my mill is set too coarse, I get granular too. Not a problem. You can get little boxes of gluten. I add a teaspoon or so to the mix, and it turns out fine.