The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Trouble adjusting to Hayden flour

SkipII's picture
SkipII

Trouble adjusting to Hayden flour

I have used Central Milling flours successfully for several years and this time decided to try Hayden Mills. I appreciate that any flour has its own characteristics, but I am baffled as to what is wrong with my first two bakes. 

The loaves lack much oven spring, no ear, no crust blisters, and have a pallid color. I use what is generally a Tartine method and recipe. Nothing else changed in my oven temp either. 

I cannot figure out how to attach more than one photo, so I'm attaching one of the Haydens here and hope to add others in a reply. In one loaf, the crumb has some telltale signs of under-proofing (some tunneling near top and density at bottom) but also ragged holes normally associated with over-proofing. The second loaf looked no better on the crust but had an even crumb. 

Any good advice is welcome. 

 

 

 

 

 

SkipII's picture
SkipII
SkipII's picture
SkipII
phaz's picture
phaz

Watch it - especially with a new flour. Expect adjustments - minor to major. Enjoy!

SkipII's picture
SkipII

I already acknowledged in my post that flours can differ and I might need to adapt. The photos were there ot invite some ideas. I'll await some helpful replies. 

3 Olives's picture
3 Olives

Which flour did you use? Did you use recipes supplied by Hayden Flour Mills?

SkipII's picture
SkipII

Thanks. I used their Artisan Bread Flour. My general method is pretty much along the lines of that by Maurizio Leo, which Hayden offers on their site. 

 

What I'm hoping for here are some diagnostics based upon my description of results and photos. 

3 Olives's picture
3 Olives

Does the the Artisan Flour have any malted flour?The Proof Bread flour does but the Perfect Loaf does not. I don’t know about the Artisan flour. If not, you may want to add some diastatic malt.