High Extraction Hard Red Wheat
During my experimentation on grinding durum into semola rimacinata, I found out that the 50 mesh sieve I bought got me about 85% extraction on hard red wheat (not sure if it's spring or winter) after a single pass through my stone mill, so I decided to try a bake with it.
The dough was wonderful to work with. Very sticky when I first mixed it (75% hydration), but it got much better after resting 30 minutes. It probably could've used a little more water.
The crumb isn't quite as open as I usually get with white flour, but much taller and more open than when I do whole wheat, even I sift out the largest bran pieces (about 95% extraction). The flavor is robust and wheaty, and the crumb is very soft. Overall I'm very pleased with this loaf, though I think I need to go back and see why my scores aren't as consistent as they used to be.
Comments
That looks really great to me, nice bake. You should try scalding the bran that you sifted with about double its weight in boiling water. Add this back to your dough and you have a nice whole wheat loaf. The scald softens the bran and adding it later, allows you to develop the gluten very well before adding the bran.
Benny
Thanks, Benny!
I've been doing something similar with several of my recent bakes (with the 40 mesh sieve, before I got this 50 mesh), but "scalding" the bran by mixing it with oats or a mix of other grains and making a porridge. The resulting bread is very tasty and great for the gut, but hitting the right hydration to get a good rise is still tricky.