August 18, 2024 - 6:25am
Euro-style "T110" flour and bread flour differences
I'm currently in a country outside the US/Europe where I typically rely on a lot of imported flours which can be quite expensive. I recently found a place that sells a local stone milled flour from a really reputable mill, and the flour is considered a "70% whole wheat" (30% of the bran is removed) and close to the European "T110" flour.
Now, I'm used to cooking with bread flour from the US, so around 12-13% protein, and this flour claims just over 14% protein. Are people familiar with T110 and could I substitute it 1x1 for bread flour recipes, or is it really just whole wheat that will make dense and heavy breads? Thanks for any insight.
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Try and see what happens - just keep an eye on it. Enjoy!
but I’d love to share the 100% whole wheat bread I made with you. Hopefully, it will change your impression that whole wheat flour makes heavy and dense bread, so you can confidently work with any local flour and make amazing bread.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71297/20221020-simple-100-wholewheat-bread-clas
Yippee
I don't know T110 specifically but with 30% of the bran, etc. removed it should be pretty easy to bake with and make for a tasty loaf. You can take the exact protein content with a little skepticism because it may have been referring to dry flour weight which would make the number a little different (probably less) from US practice.
What those specs don't tell you are how much water the dough can handle, and how well it stands up to the fermentation times you want to use. The flour will probably absorb water differently from various US bread flours, for example. You will have to discover these details and maybe adjust hydration, fermentation times, etc. Also remember that some flours take time to absorb all the water they are mixed with. The dough might be stickier than you expected. That's fine, just mist your hands lightly with water when you handle it.
So it's helpful to start out using less water than your recipe asks for and then add more during kneading and stretch-and-folds. You might try adding water 5 - 10g at a time. More than 10g and you will probably have some trouble working it in (of course, that depends on how much flour you are using).
If it were me I would start out making a smallish loaf, 300g of flour, and see how that works out. Tune up your recipe and skills with those loaves and then go larger if you want.
With any luck you will end up happy you found this flour.
TomP
I forgot that another difference might be that some US bread flours have a little diastatic malt or a similar enzyme to help bread down the starches. Your T110-like flour almost certainly will not. That could take the fermentation longer to take place, unless you can find a source of diastatic malt. Not to worry, plenty of great loaves are made every day without malted flour.
These type of intermediate flours are usually excellent for bread making. Much easier to use than full on whole grain, with a lot of protein, and can take on a bit more water than white flour.
It will be between white and whole wheat, so don't expect either result per se, but it can produce nicely open crumb, but with a clear whole wheat-y flavour.
Thank you all for your insight!
I would normally just 'try and buy' but the mill only sells in 10kg minimums, which is a lot to roll the dice on a flour that may or may not suit my needs - not to mention basically fill my freezer as I dont really want to keep the rest at room temperature!
When I do bake in the US I often add spelt, rye (my starter is 30% rye) and whole wheat, so I do enjoy denser more nutritional flours, but I enjoy the open crumb and lightness of "regular" bread flour.
Decisions, decisions.. Do I buy the 10kg or let it go haha.
As Ilya said, it sounds like it might be a good flour to bake with. So maybe ask them as a favor to sell you a sample of, say, 500g or 750g so you can try it before buying it.
Rob
I agree, buying 10 kg without even trying the flour is a big risk for a home baker!
In the past in the peak baking time during COVID I bought a 16 kg bag of bread flour once, but it was the same brand as I was using all the time, so that was definitely worth it.
Could be a bit heavy, especially being stoneground. "Semi-complète", as the French call it.
https://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr/astuces-termes-et-tournemains/1571853-comment-utiliser-les-differentes-farines/
OK now and then, but maybe not for 10kg, unless that type of bread is your thing. Possibility of mixing 50/50 with BF to lighten the crumb, but maybe that is not an option for you.
Or you could buy a #50 sieve to make something lighter, approximating T80, but of course there would be some wastage...
Lance
A #30 sieve would be enough to get much of the bran out, probably.. But wherever this is, they probably use different size designations.
TomP