Maslin and Golden Flour Breads

baking in every way.  I love the crust on your bread with the tanm brownm and darker flecks of what ever it is.  The crumb is to die for as well.  Now I'm torn as to which I like better your Dark Chocolate Rye or these.  I like them all.......Just great baking.  If these don't taste excellent then there are no bread gods ....or possibly any other kind either.

Happy Hanukkah Varda!

Beautiful loaves, Varda! I'm quite fond of flax seeds so I'm particularly drawn to your maslin loaf---looks absolutely delicious.

Despite that I don't own a mill, it was a pleasure reading your post. Your enthusiasm and dedication to milling and sifting is something to be admired. I swear, one day when I purchase myself a mill (with access to grains), I'll certainly look back at your posts as references and motivation. 

Take care and happy holidays,

Zita 

Hi Varda,

Wonderful looking loaves, with a very appealing crumb and crust on both of them.

Having followed and enjoyed your adventures in milling since you began them, I'm now starting to wonder if I'm too lazy to own and make the best use of a milling machine. I already spend a good deal of free time baking and cooking, so I'm not sure I have enough of it left to justify having having my own flour mill while I'm still working full time. Still, the idea of working with freshly milled flour holds a lot of appeal for me and will give the matter some more thought before I decide one way or the other. Thanks Varda!, for taking the time to write up this excellent series of posts on your home milling experiences.

Best Wishes,

Franko 

I almost as elaborate as my own.  I've got some professional milling books waiting for me at home, and with luck will use some of my holiday "at home" time to do study, refection, and (natch) milling.  Stay tuned.

Nice stuff.

Pat

Your batard's crumb reminds me hansjoakim's in his famous posting of Hamelman Pain au Levain w/Whole Wheat (famous because JH himself -- presumably -- commented).  Both his and your batard have five-star crumbs (and yours - six star shape, if such a thing is possible).  (My) ideal crumb in air and wheatiness. 

I'm hoping to find some milling/sieving time over the holidays as well.  Baking for sure, but the other fun stuff...hopefully.

Have a good one!

Tom

Excellent results, varda! i love their looks, very appealing! The ear on the batard is something to aspire to. Well done.

That is one extensive milling regime, Varda! i admire your presistance with this labir intensive work. However, an easier way to go about it in my opinion, is to try and get rid of the larger bran after 2 (3 if needed)successive coarse millings. What i do, is i sift ( after the coarse millings) in a high mesh strainer (i use a splash screen), to filter through the fine bran/flour that resulted from the coarse milling, afterwhich you will be left with semolina, and large bran only. From then on, it would easier to separate the larger bran through an appropriately sized strainer. The end result will be coarse semolina with very few white middlings. Milling the semolina ( which would still contain some fiber) will result in a really smooth branless flour. I say this, as i don't wish to see you laboring under a milling regime so extensive, that would drain your power and passion.

Khalid

Hi, Varda 

While i'm sure that you are separating enough bran from your kernels, using your milling regime is time consuming, and you'll have more bran being crushed into dust which end up in your fine flour. No problem with fine fiber in your end result, don't get me wrong, but you'd want to exclude the larger bran ( the ones surrounding the wheat kernel) as much as you can during the early part of the milling, and start milling fine and sifting later on. what i do, is grind the kernels quite coarsly, and refrigerate them until the day i plan to mill/sift, which helps in preparing the cracked kernels ahead of time, and minimizing the overheating during later stages.

On the day of milling/sifting, i take out the cracked kernels and mill them coarsly twice, this is stage 1. At the end of stage 1, what i'll have on hand is a mix of large bran flecks, coarse semolina, and fine semolina/ bran; the latter is what you have to get rid of at stage 2. On stage 2, Sift  the proceeds from stage one using a medium fine mesh. At the end of stage 2 what you end with is coarse mixture of cracked grain and large bran. At stage 3, i would mill my mixture to medium fine with a single pass, and sift out the larger bran -This is the most crucial stage were the large bran is extracted. At Stage 4, i will have coarse, and fine semolina with soft fiber intact, which is what you need in the end product, sift the mixture and mill on fine for  the last time.

I hope this helps, Varda :)

Khalid

Varda, gorgeous breads, especially love the crumb shots.  I'm thoroughly enjoying following your obsession enthusiasm, so glad you posted.  You just might inspire me to get a mill myself, have been contemplating it ever since the time I used my heavy-duty blender to grind fresh whole wheat flour, which made one of the tastiest walnut loaves I've ever baked.

Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!

Julie

Hello Varda,

A lovely Maslin loaf, and really good to see you post on breads produced using experimental methods of sieving flour.

E J T Collins wrote "Dietary Change in Britain in the 19th Century" which demonstrates the shift from consuming cereals grown locally to a greater consumption of wheat throughout Britain.   For instance in the North of England, where I live, and where the Watermill is located, the conditions are less than ideal for growing wheat, and rye was the dominant 19th Century cereal.   So, in the North, a Maslin flour would have a bias to rye, similar to the ratio you chose, I suspect.   However, the South East of England is more suited to wheat, and that was the most common arable crop in this time period as well as it still is today.

For flax seeds, I use "Organic Golden Linseed", which looks like this:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=organic+golden+linseed&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1161&bih=479&tbm=isch&tbnid=oM5iJnqZH96mrM:&imgrefurl=http://www.buywholefoods...

Middlings are the very outer layers of the endosperm.   Lack of precision is a fair comment, but remember that bolting flour was the milling method used before the precision of roller-milling was adopted during the Industrial Revloution.

Very best wishes

Andy