Ultra Grain flour
I bought some new flour the other day at Sam's Club. I was blowing through the 5lb bags of flour way too fast so I figured it was time to buy in bulk.
Quite by accident I picked up this kind
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=7848
I thought it was regular white flour until I got to the register. Yay for not paying close attention. When I read what it was I was kind of excited. New flour to play with!! I like white Bread and white flour. If I could get the same results and it would be healthier for me, that would be awesome.
So I made an old standby of mine, Cinnamon swirl bread. Just my regular white bread with a cinnamon swirl shaped in. Good to experiment with since I know how it should turn out.
It was FANTASTIC!
I used all ultragrain flour. If your gonna test somehting do it all the way I say. The loaf rose a little more then usual and it had a lot of oven spring. I dont often get a lot of oven spring. The bread itself was so soft and yummy. It really does taste and act like white flour. Its slightly darker though. not pure white. thats probably because its not bleached. Frankly I like unbleached better anyways.
I honestly dont think I am going ot buy regular white flour anymore.
April
Interesting. I've looked at the Official Web site and I've read a couple of news articles, and I still can't figure out what this stuff is. A new variety of hard white wheat? A blend of whole wheat products that mimic whole wheat properties while tasting like regular white flour?
Anyone have any insight into what this stuff actually is?
Thanks for posting about this, April. It's the first I'd heard of it.
I've been trying to figure this out too ever since I first saw it at Sam's a few months ago. I think UltraGrain is just a catchy trade name for white whole wheat flour blended with AP. I see it states right on the product literature web-page that it is simply a blend of white AP flour and "white whole wheat" flour. I.E. I guess you could get the same thing by blending the King Arthur White Whole Wheat with regular white all-purpose, that would make the flour look even lighter than 100% white whole wheat and taste more like AP flour. Which is fine if that's what you want, as this flour is probably cheaper per pound than buying KA white whole wheat and mixing it with KA AP.
I think I paid like $5 for 20lbs of it. A great deal as far as I am concerned. And I didnt have to mix flours together like you suggested ;)
April
According to the ConAgra website, the protein content is 13.7%, doesn't that put it in the range for Artisan breads?
SD Susan
My understanding is that it is processed in some special way that gives it the same baking properties as white flour. I believe that the germ and bran are ground much more finely that in conventional whole wheat.