Todays bake courtesy of central milling and bobs redmill

2 ok looking baguettes and a funky batard. FTR after running out of my favorite flour moulin d'auguste and while waiting patiently for the next shipment I raided my pantry and used 50/50 blend of central milling t70 with bobs red mill bread and came up with this. Was kind of surprised by the extra wide open crumb which is quite pleasing. Shaping was pretty much as expected with more stretching than burst however the most apparent difference is the flavor. Once you've made enough loaves with French grown and milled flour you come to expect a certain flavor profile which was completely lacking in these loaves. The best way to explain it is 'watery' in other words void of flavor. This is an 18 hour cold retard and not saying there isn't any flavor its just that when you've come to expect a certain taste and it doesn't hit your brain says 'this tastes like water'

Other notes - the usual 2-3 minute final mix took 5 minutes which is another observation of french flour - it comes together so quick and smells incredible. Mixing American flour always seems to take more energy and final dough is tougher and not as smooth. If I were to do this again I would go with 100% central milling - its the closest so far to authentic french flour and I think bobs component took away some of the potential today :(