Eyeing the Warthog
It's a challenge here to getting flour in my local markets right now. I was out for a while, then got lucky with a couple bags, and now I've started the first of two bags of "Good and Gather" regular AP flour from Target. It's very cheap, and it gave me good oven spring, but I wasn't such a fan of the flavor of the loaf I made with it.
I've seen people post about getting local flours from local farmers and local mills, so I thought I'd have a look around. I'm in Massachusetts, and found Four Star Farms in Northbridge, MA.
They're out of stock on what is probably their most popular flour. But they have Warthog with both whole wheat and bolted (sifted) options. I've only bought flour at the grocery store before and have no experience with buying it from a mill. I had to look up what bolted (sifted) meant (that much of the bran is sifted out). Here's the description from the site:
- Warthog (hard red winter) a hard red winter wheat with an intense wheat flavor that is appropriate for artisan or sourdough breads. As-Is Protein: 11%; Falling Number 391.
I looked up falling number, but I don't think I really understand what 391 would mean for my bread-making. I'm mostly looking to bake basic breads -- flour, water, salt -- at least for now. I've been using a 22% WW, 78% AP recipe. I recently got a lodge combo cooker and my quirky 1980 gas oven goes well above 500F. I'm trying to understand this flour better and figure out whether it would be a good purchase for me. And could I treat the bolted sifted like AP flour?
Any info/tips for a first-time mill consumer?
You're gonna love the recently milled whole wheat flour direct from the mill ! Night and day compared to whole wheat flour that has sat in warehouses, distribution centers, and retail shelves for months on end.
As to whether their sifted flour is comparable to AP flour, you will have to ask the mill. Because.... it... all... depends.... on.... HOW MUCH bran and germ was removed.
Maybe they removed enough to make it like AP flour, maybe they removed less. Only they know! You can also sort of tell by the "ash %". If the ash% is in the .50 to .56% range, that is the normal range for bread and AP types of flours. If it gets close to .65% or more, then it's getting more bran-y. (That's still ok, you'd just reduce your percentage of whole wheat flour in your formula a bit. How much is your guess.)
The 11% protein level is good... IF.... that is the sifted flour. If that is the whole wheat, then not so good.
That's a NICE looking loaf in the photo! And welcome to TFL.
Thanks for the information and encouragement. I have been a bit excited about the idea of getting fresh flour from a mill.
I read a little more about ash measurement, sounds like a useful gauge for the bolted/sifted flour.
I'll try to get in touch with the mill and see if they can tell me more about this flour.
I’m pretty new to fresh milled flour as well so take what I say with a grain of salt but since falling number tends to be higher in whole grain flours compared to white flours, fermentation should be approached differently and/or the flour should be supplemented with diastatic malt powder. Peter Reinhart in his book on whole grain breads achieves the former by making an unleavened dough with part of the flour, a stiff leavened preferment with the other part of the flour, and letting them both ferment for >12 hours. This ensures that alpha amylase enzyme activity is maximized in the flour.
Here's one of my most-used bookmarks that describes various flour specifications: protein %, ash %, P, L, P/L, W, falling number, American/French/Italian/German flour classification.
http://www.theartisan.net/Flours_One.htm
Table XI describes Falling Number.
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That web page takes a lot of study, but if you go in looking for just one thing at a time, it makes it easier.
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ST is right.... the high Falling Number indicates a little diastatic malt powder would make it perform more like commercial flour. (Good catch ST! I didn't pick up on that.) How much... I dunno. But ask the folks at the mill what they recommend.
(In other words, it's not going to ferment well without some additive.)
Commercial refined flour (bread flour and AP flour), at least normal retail level stuff, almost always has "malted barley flour" or "amylase" added. This mill is apparently not adding any, or the FN would be lower. The high FN also indicates this is a very refined (sifted) flour, so it is the AP flour, not the whole wheat version of Warthog.
(And a hat-tip to suave, who mentioned somewhere on another thread that some "boutique mills" don't add malt/amylase to their flour.)