New mill, sifting bran and adding later?
I am taking my new mockmill for its virgin voyage today! First time working with freshly milled flour. I am working with a blend of fresh milled red winter wheat and central milling ABC and a little HM for a protein boost. I might add a little milled spelt but trying to restrain myself for this initial experiment. I am planning a 3 hr autolyse. Using a Maurizio recipe as a rough guide. It uses a moderate amount of fresh milled, but It’s not an exact match for what I want to d. Planning 85% hydration but will add more water if it feels too stiff,
i have used a strainer to filter some of the courser bran. I plan to add it back at some point after gluten develops. I have no real instructions for how to approach that. Q) Should I soak it with some of my autolyse water? Or will that make it really difficult to distribute later? When should I add it? Midway through bulk with S&F’s? Or maybe do an earlier lamination and spread it out then?
any other tips or warnings are more than welcome. Thanks in advance.
You can just incorporate it after kneading by which ever method you like (by hand or machine). You should be fine with 85% hydration when working with fresh milled flour.
You can just incorporate it after kneading by which ever method you like (by hand or machine). You should be fine with 85% hydration when working with freshly milled flour.
My ramblings on coarsely-ground home-milled flour:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64863/7-things-about-freshmilled-flour
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I also recommend this baker:
www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64101/tips-100-freshmilled-whole-wheat-baking
And used it to feed my Levain. The idea was that the acid broke the hard bits down. Well sifting wore thin pretty quickly even with having a sifting attachment that hooked up to my komo mill. These days, I just do a 2 hour autolyse and 10 minutes in the kitchenaid mixer to develop gluten. I still get decent loaves.
I grind at the finest setting. Note: with the Mockmill you can adjust the stones so they are closer together so you get a finer flour. I sift with a #40 drum sieve and save the bran for later. I don’t bother to add it back to the current bake. There is still more than enough bran in the flour in my opinion. Instead I add some of it to my leaving that I make the night or morning before.
I need to look into how to adjust the Mockmill because I think it slipped just a bit after initial use. I can barely hear the stones meeting at the finest possible setting and that wasn’t the case when I first turned it on.
i used the bran this time but may not always do that. This first loaf was only about 20% fresh WW
see this article. Also, I find using milled flour right away tasted a bit green or grassy. this article says 10 days is beneficial. Also, while it may sound like heresy, I freeze my freshly ground wheat or rye and find this gives the equivalent outcome. this allows me to grind periodically rather than every bake and also allows for a supply readily available to feed my sourdough starter. Many on this site say use it right after grinding. Try both ways but seriously, freezing works and is easier in the long run. No need to separate the bran.
https://former.buhlergroup.com/europe/ru/573-11173.htm?title=
Full text below:
Flour Quality: Flour Aging - The effects on flour quality and baking performance. Uzwil, 07/05/2012 Today, more and more wheat is processed directly after the grain has been harvested. This creates some challenges to the milling and baking industry in terms of ensuring consistent raw material quality, because flours from newly harvested wheat have a lower baking quality.Dr. Manfred Dirndorfer explains the effects of this development on the quality of flours and shows how flours with quality issues can be upgraded by using maturing agents.In times of wheat supply shortages and highly volatile prices, wheat is often processed immediately after the grain has been harvested, which creates some challenges for the milling and baking industry with regard to consistent quality.
Newly harvested wheat generally has a lower milling and baking performance. However, after the wheat kernels have been stored for some weeks, the bran is easier to separate from the endosperm, flour extraction increases, and ash content drops. Aged hard wheat flour has a higher water absorption, better mixing tolerance, and greater gas retention capabilities and produces bread with a greater loaf volume.
A directly ground flour that has not aged for a certain time period cannot develop the gluten as expected, resulting in a final bread loaf with less volume and a weaker gluten structure. Yeast doughs made from aged flour are easier to handle than those made from un-aged flour, because dough with a stronger gluten is less sticky and less likely to tear when stretched. This, in turn, allows for a higher volume and finer crumb on the baked bread.
The relationship between physical dough properties and bread-making quality during flour aging was investigated by two Japanese domestic bread-making spring wheat cultivars and a winter wheat cultivar. The specific loaf volumes increased for four weeks after milling in all cultivars. Farinograph stability increased for two weeks after milling and showed higher correlation coefficients to specific loaf volumes.
These improvements have been related to post-harvest maturation and physical changes in the wheat kernel. On the other hand, directly milled flour does not perform as well as flour that has been kept in storage for a certain time period. To address this issue, additional flour storage capacity is needed for a natural aging process, or the millers and bakers will have to add ingredients and flour additives to the flour.
NATURAL AGING
Natural aging occurs when freshly milled “green” flour is exposed to air for several days or weeks. One way of (bio-)chemically impacting gluten functionality is by letting the flour oxidize with oxygen in the air (“natural aging”) for approximately 10 days. With modern milling and distribution processes, flour is sufficiently aged when it arrives at the customer’s site (3 days to a week at least), but it might be up to 3 weeks for the very large (50 kg) almost-airtight bags professional bakeries use.
Flour is naturally aged when it comes into contact with the oxygen in the air. The gluten network gets strengthened by oxidizing gluten-forming proteins, allowing them to create a stronger gluten. Flour components change during aging. The unique properties of wheat reside primarily in its gluten-forming storage proteins. Prominent reactions include sulfhydryl (SH) oxidation and SH-disulfide (SS) interchange, leading to SS crozs-links which strengthen the gluten network.
Natural aging has some constraints. First, it requires time, often several days up to weeks. During this time, the flour takes up valuable silo capacity and might support mould growth or become infested with insects or rodents. Natural aging can also be inconsistent, and it is not as effective as many bleaching and maturing agents.
MATURING AGENTS
Maturing agents are additives that change the baking properties of flours by strengthening the wheat gluten network. Maturing agents are added to flour by the millers or are available in many dough conditioners that are added by the bakers. Only very small amounts – parts per million – of maturing agents are needed to increase the performance of the flour.
Maturing agents that strengthen gluten simulate natural aging. They oxidize portions of glutenin and gliadin molecules, altering them so that more bonds are formed during gluten development. The more bonds, the stronger, drier, and more cohesive the dough. When gases expand during final proof and oven spring, the aged gluten network has a better elasticity. The loaf volume is higher, and the bread crumb is less coarse. In general, maturing agents that strengthen the gluten network do not whiten flour. However, many are more effective than natural aging at strengthening gluten.
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is one of the most popular ingredients used in flour improvement. The mixing of flour leads to a decrease in the low molecular thiol glutathione and an increase in cysteine concentration. Adding ascorbic acid reduces the concentration of both thiols to a minimum at an incorporation level of ~ 100 ppm (parts per million). Furthermore, the concentrations of high molecular weight thiols in the glutenins of flours from different wheat cultivars isolated from the dough increased to a maximum using a comparable application rate of ascorbic acid.
Dr. Manfred Dirndorfer
Senior Consultant Flour Improvers and Bakery Ingredients
Bühler Uzwil, Switzerland
Interesting, but also a little disheartening that there is a downside to freshly milled and that some of the th8ngs that degrade nutrients improve other factors. Have you tried dough conditioners? It just occurred to me that I have seen something that might be relevant in my pantry (shared with my partner who is also a cook and buys huge amounts of “stuff”). Lo and behold, I am the proud owner of an unopened bag of KA “whole grain bread improver” and one of the ingredients is as as ascorbic acid. Might be worth giving it a try.
I am impressed by the flavor of today’s bake, even with just 20% fresh milled. Crumb was okay but not great, but I had a mishap with someone turning off my oven while it was preheating. Didn’t realize until after I loaded the bread so it was an odd bake. It was still hot but not up to what it should be. Happily turned out delicious anyway.
malt powder helps to brown and helps feed the yeasties. I tried conditioners years ago- vitamin C, commercial blends and such, including gluten. Gave all that up and rely on malt powder or syrup, a tsp per loaf. and long cool fermentation. I primarily use sourdough, the long ferment times add flavor and better digestibility. try the same recipe different ways and see how thy compare. Also, the search box has tons of info on any subject you can imagine. a useful tool. There are many more experienced than I, just sharing what worked best for me.
Thanks to everyone who shared their insights and experience. I suspect that I will vary whether I sift and add back. Today’s bake was delicious. My second loaf is nearly 100% whole grain spelt and winter red. I left all the bran in. It also has dried tart cherries and walnuts so I am okay with a dense loaf. Won’t know how it is until I bake it tomorrow.
I also used a little bit of freshly milled rye to feed my starter (she gets fed a mixture of 10% rye and white). She was pretty ecstatic about that little bit of fresh milled goodness.