Tartine bread - which flour to use? (Tipo 00 or Wheat Type 1050)
Hello everybody!
I have been following this site for a looooong time but I don't remember ever participating in the forums section. What brings me to speak out is an emergency. I am embarking on a Tartine bread tomorrow and I have a great dilemma... Most of the US recipes mention "all purpose" or "bread" flour while in Europe we do not have this dichotomy. What is available to us, out of wheat flours is types:
- 400 "weak" flour, milled near the core of the grain, used in cakes and shortcrust pastry;
- 550 "regular", for yeasted doughs (milled a bit away from the core of the wheat kernel);
- 800, 1000, 1050 dark flours, whole grain milled;
I currently have these three on my hands:
- type 550 "regular", non-organic;
- type 1050, organic, 12% protein by weight, more about it at this link;
- tipo 00, italian very finely milled pizza flour, 11% protein by weight, at this link);
My starter is good and strong, made with organic rye flour and orange juice (as per instructions from this site).
Question: which flour would you go with, out of the three mentioned above?
Many thanks!
Alex from far and distant Croatia
I am coming from the same part of the world and I am used to bake with the same flours that you mention.
Depends on which bread exactly you want to make, but I would go with something like this:
1.) more white version: 30% tipo 00, 50% type 550, 20% type 1050
2.) more dark version: 60% type 550, 40% type 1050 or 50% type 550 and 50% type 1050
The original recipe calls for 10% whole-grain flour but this can be substituted with higher percentage of type 1050.
Good luck with your attempt. If you will see that the dough is too wet after 30 minutes then skip adding water, just add salt. The EU flours are quite different, so a precaution is in place. You can easily add water later if the dough will be too stiff.
Happy baking,
Joze
12.6% protein. That is a bread flour in the UK. I'd also drop the hydration by 5% for better results.
Best of luck.
P.s. I can only comment on protein percentage as the UK doesn't do a number system.
When I moved from Germany to the US, I faced the same issue, so I came up with a European/American flour "translation": http://hanseata.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-pantry-flour-type-translation.html
US flours have more gluten/protein than European flours, therefore the result can be quite different if you don't use the right equivalent.
I bake Tartine breads often - meanwhile from Tartine No. 3.
Good luck,
Karin
@hanseata - Dear Karin,
thanks for the great explanation and a comparison between flours! From what I have learned, during the past couple of days, I am interested in making a more nutricious bread types (so I guess I will be using flours with more bran milled into them).
What I can get readily available in Croatia is organic wheat flour from German producers and Spelt flour as well. Both of these I can get in 1050 milling and as whole-grain so I guess I should be fine, right? In the end, I think I'm just gonna give it a few shots and see how it turns out.
The sourdough starter is going strong so I might make an overnight fermentation tonight.
Many thanks once again!
A.