Hydration and organic flour

I don't think label "organic" means anything in particular about the properties of the flour. Just the way the wheat is grown, and if it's the same variety of wheat grown nearby, I wouldn't expect any noticeable different. I don't know about KA flour specifically.

I've used another brand of flour, and never noticed any difference between organic and non-organic kinds from the same farm/mill.

There are a few changes that MAY be noticed but that's realy depending on which 'non-organic' flour you are comparing it too.

The short version is that bleaching and/or 'improving' agents may be added to non-organic flours - at least in the US - while organic flours will not have these.

Bleached flour should, all else being equal, be a little more absorbent than unbleached flour, so if you were comparing organic flour to a non-organic flour that happened to be bleached then there would likely be a difference there.

That said, apparently KA don't bleach or bromate any of their flours so, again, it's all about the specific flours you are comparing.

There are two more ways they may differ and, again, these entirely depend on the specific flours.

First, an organic flour may end up more likely to be stone ground - as part of a wholistic 'organic', back-to-basics, how-it-was-in-the-time-before-souless-machines marketing angle. If so, particle size, starch damage and inclusion of some small bran pieces may have a noticeable effect. However, that is only when compared to a roller-milled flour. The point being that, were you to grab the first bag of 'normal' white flour off the shelf, it would most likely be roller-milled, while grabbing a bag of 'organic' flour at random, there is a higher liklihood of it being stone ground - at least in my experience of flours over in Australia.

Second, an organic flour may also be unmalted, while a standard bread flour - at least in the US - is likely to be malted.

None of our flours in Australia are malted so there is no difference here and I don't have massive experience with it. HOWEVER, the point of adding malted barley to flours is to increase amylase activity, which breaks down starches into simple sugars for the yeast. Given starches absorb a lot of liquid, on might suggest that a malted flour would hold a little less water or at least feel tackier as those broken-down starches release their water, but that's for better minds than mine to answer.

The point is that, in and of itself, being 'organic' won't really change anything but can bring differences when comparing to particular non-organic flours.

One thing I've noticed with white bread flours in the UK is that the organic ones, eg Shipton Mill no.4, Matthews Organic, don't seem as strong as non-organic flours like Marriages Strong or Carrs. I guess it's down to the availability and price of high protein organic flours added to the blend.

Possibly the slightly weaker organic flours will stand a bit less water than non-organic ones.

Not sure if this applies to flour in other locales.

Lance