Quanah Wheat from BSM

I’ve been ordering berries from Barton Springs Mill for several years and have enjoyed every single product I’ve ordered from them. The flavor profiles they provide have been pretty accurate from my perspective, which is very helpful. Some nine or ten months ago, their Quanah wheat caught my eye. It is described as a hard red winter wheat and its flavor profile – buttery, creamy, malty – is right up my alley. A bag was duly ordered and, regrettably, it has been in storage ever since, waiting for me to bake my way through all the berries ahead of it in queue. Now that I've used it a few times, I thought I'd share my impressions. For reference, I followed the basic formula and process detailed in my Easy Peasy Pan Bread post, using a mix of 2/3 Quanah and 1/3 AP (KAF).

The spoiler is that we really, really like this wheat for sandwich breads. BSM reports the protein content for the berries at 11.5%, but the flour at 9.5%. Not sure why that is, maybe just a typo, but in my experience thus far, it makes a soft, slack dough hinting that 9.5% might be correct. After some time and a fold or two, it developed some extensibility, but elasticity required some more folds. It ended up being a nice dough. The first time I used this flour, the hydration was probably in the 90% range but that seemed to be too much so it was dialed back to 85% for the next bake. That worked fine. The rise is good, very acceptable. The bread is lighter in color than some other red wheats and the flavor is outstanding. It is mild tasting with no bitterness, but it is not bland by any stretch. To the contrary, it has a nice richness. I don’t think any sweeteners would be required with this flour, even at 100%. I baked it to about 205℉ and it keeps for about a week. I've ordered a few more bags because we like it so much.

I don’t usually leaven high percentage WW with sourdough because we don’t care for the flavor; however, I am curious how the mild flavor of Quanah will partner with my mild new(ish) low hydration white starter, so that bake will be next.