Organic flour vs. regular flour?
I recently bought a 20kg bag of organic unbleached white flour, and have loved it so far. However, I was trying to make a pre-ferment for the "Pane coi Santi" recipe in Maggie Glazer's Artisan Baking book (I haven't got a sourdough starter ready yet, so I'm making a preferment with yeast instead), and I found I had to add WAY more water than it called for in order to get the stiff dough to stick together into a ball. For those Canadians out there, I'm using flour from Anita's Organic Mill in Chilliwack, BC.
UPDATE: the preferment was a disaster - waaaay too dry, so it didn't do anything. I'm going to wait until I have a sourdough starter and then proceed.
Anyone else out there had a similar experience with organic flour? Do I just add more water until the consistency feels right, then proceed?
Anyone?
I use organic flours exclusively, mine are from Millbrook which is milled in Toronto, Oak Manor from Tavistock, and Milanaise from Milan Quebec.
Each one behaves differently, so play it by what you need
Hi Pumpkinpapa - how do you like the Milanaise flour, and what kind have you used? I'm curious about it because I can buy a 50lb bag at a good price from the Bread Alone Bakery down the road if I want to, but thought I'd find out more about it before buying that much. Bread Alone carries 3 types from Milanaise: the organic whole wheat bread flour, the organic unbleached white flour, and the organic 6 grain cracked cereal mix. I'm surprised to learn from the Milanaise website that they are located in far Eastern Quebec, near the border of Maine and New Hampshire! I never knew wheat could be grown in that area on a large scale, I always think of that as a crop grown in more arid conditions than the Northeast.
Right now I use King Arthur organic artisan white and organic whole wheat. I have not noticed much difference in hydration since I switched from King Arthur AP to Organic, but they have the same protein level. I read in various bread books that the higher the protein in the flour the more water it will absorb, and I'm sure surface area and milling methods also impact that. I also add enough water until the consistency feels right after mixing any kind of dough rather than adhering to the recipe, since there can be so many variables with flour.
I bought the pastry flour first when I couldn't get my regular and it was nice, good to roll out for pie.
I've used the unbleached white with good results. I'm not good on any technical ratio's or numbers but it feels good.
I can only get KA through the mail, there is no Canadian distribution, likely because KA isn't a mill itself, but I would still like to try them. Probably in the spring when my experiment budget is more flexible :)
Also some organics are pure with no added barley flour (for enzyme development, I think) so absorption is different there too. There is a Mennonite farm nearby that stone grinds there own wheat and rye and sends most of their crop to needy third world nations after their church takes there, I have to get in touch with them before the spring to see if I can buy some flours from them.
I used some spelt from my freezer last night, I've got moths so the freezer protects the flour, and it took a lot of water as I didn't let it warm up I think. That or I'm getting old and losing my memory :)