Two different flours same recipe

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gillpugh on

im uk based, and I'm always striving for the lovely loaves I see posted.  I decided to make the same recipe but using two different white flours to see what results I would get.  I used 30% whole meal spelt in both (doves farm)

the whites were

doves farm strong white at 12.6 protein

shipton mill no 4 which I believe is 12%

30%spelt

70% white

70% water

15% levan 80% hydration

2.5%salt

because of an emergency the dough only had 4 hours of bulk at 24c and then had to put the bulk in the fridge at 10pm. next morning shaped and put into banneton and left for 8 hours in a cold room 10c. Wasn't expecting much as I had totally neglected these breads,  came home at 4 pm and heated the oven - almost 24 hours after I began the autolise.  

The nice ear is on the shipton mill flour which was baked first and this loaf was made in the smaller banneton.Do you think the nice ear on the shipton mill loaf is because of the  flour or the smaller banneton?  I'm at a loss.  

 

Both great loaves ! Seems like the two flours are quite similar and the loaves also very similar. How did the dough feel for the two different flours. I am wondering since on occasion I will do similar experiments often comparing american flours to french and usually the differences become evident at kneading time - granted the last comparison was with 9.4% and 11% flours. Because I usually do baguettes, scoring and bloom is really sensitive and sort of exaggerates differences. Generally what I have observed is that stronger flours tend to stretch more readily and weaker flours are more prone to burst. That seems in line with your loaves as the 12% one has a nicer gringe so it may very well be due to the flour or maybe just slight variations in the way they were cut. Just wondering though whether you noticed any differences in the workability of the dough ?

Dove's Farm strong white has ascorbic acid in it (I don't know why they keep putting it in - I asked them once, but never got a reply), so might behave differently to Shippos. Personally, I don't think it's a particularly good bread flour.

As an aside, and please don't take offense, I would say that your salt content is rather high. Current health guidelines suggest 1.8%. I am at 1.75% and don't think flavour is adversely affected.

Lance

The shipam flour -  better ear - was less  advanced in bulk, less jiggerly, so I thought the dove dough would produce the better rise.  i tried to slash therm both the same, but it's not my strong point .

the dove loaf deffinety pancaked more when I put it in the lodge. 

Toast

bikeprof on Fri, 12/15/2017 - 14:03

It is pretty hard to draw conclusions with just 1 loaf of each, especially when the results are so similar.  There are just too many variables involved.

Keep baking...and nice looking loaves!