March 31, 2024 - 5:54pm
Howdy from Texas!
Been making my own bread for so many years I don't remember when I started! I strictly eat organic, and over the past 15 years "organic" has become industrialized so now I'm making all breads (and most other things) myself. Starting to seek out heirloom varieties of anything I can find, and I support family farms and ranches whenever possible.
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Welcome. Since you are interested in organic and heritage grains, have you checked out Barton Springs Mill in Dripping Springs?
https://bartonspringsmill.com/
Oooohh, they have organic rye flour !! I have not come across them, thank you VERY much. :)
I bake a weekly seeded 100% Rye using their Danko Rye, which I mill myself.
I've also been trying out their various wheats, hoping to settle on one or two to buy in bulk, since they offer mill pickup to avoid shipping charges. It's a difficult choice. I've been happy with everything I've tried.
I ordered 2.5 lbs of the Danko Rye berries and shipping was more than the rye!! I can see why you would want to pick up from the mill. In a few months when I'm not so busy I'll try their Oaxacan Green cornmeal. It's probably been 30 years since I made a rye bread, do you recommend their Rye Sandwich Loaf? I would use bread flour instead of all purpose, and leave out the butter...
Before you go buy bulk wheat you have to try this one, their shipping is expensive too, but they aren't within walking distance:
https://qualityorganic.net/organic-hard-red-winter-turkey-red-wheat.html
AMAZING flavor. They don't recommend making a 100% loaf, but my first loaf I did and I think it has plenty of gluten. It's got a high moisture content, start with half the water you would normally use and go from there. Since then I use 50-50 turkey wheat and white bread flour and that takes 30% less water than using store-bought whole wheat flour.
Also, they don't treat their grains with any chemicals so be ready for your own method of insect prevention when you store it. I don't have a freezer and so far vacuum bagging has worked well, but I got some food-grade diatomaceous earth and I'm going to try storing whole grains with that and see how it goes.
Barton Springs Mill has flat rate shipping within Texas. It's $12 for up to 25 pounds, so I always buy 4.5 bags at a time which makes the per bag shipping charge more reasonable (as shipping goes).
FYI, here are their shipping charges. Given this schedule, if I wanted more than 24.9 pounds by mail, i would place separate orders at the first tier. Bulk orders are shipped at cost.
0lb–24.9lb $12.00
25lb–29.9lb $26.00 USD
30lb–45.9lb $30.00 USD
46lb–49.9lb $35.00 USD
50lb–55.9lb $45.00 USD
I actually have a bag of Turkey Red, which I haven't used yet. I bought it from Breadtopia, as I recall.
I haven't tried the Rye recipe you mention. I make a Danish rye that is 450g coarse ground rye, 150g flaked rye and 50g Flaked Spelt. Roughly 35% of the flour is in the starter. It also includes Pumpkin, Flax, Sunflower, Sesame and Chia Seeds. Quite a hearty loaf.
My wheat bread is a hybrid sourdough loaf bread for sandwiches, usually 70-80% Whole Grain and 30-20% AP Flour. It's also moderately enriched with 1T Milk Powder, 30g EVO, and 20g Agave Nectar. I usually include 50g Oat Flour as part of the Whole Grain (or Rye or Bob's Red Mill multigrain cereal). 15% of the flour is in the starter. I also add a small amount of instant yeast, about ¼ tsp, because I like the effect it has on the crumb.
My pantry is the size of a postage stamp so bulk quantities of anything is out of the question. Your recipes sound delicious, but I’ll try them later. For a first recipe I always make something simple to learn about the flavor, behavior, moisture content … then go from there. Checked out the Breadtopia link (interesting site) and went down a rabbit hole and found a better source for organic rolled barley!
Let me know what you think of the Danko Rye. I may try my Turkey Red in tomorrow's loaf.
I noticed that the link you provided was to an 80% extraction flour. Is that what you used? I will be milling groats, so that means 100% extraction for me, so I suspect that I will need more hydration than you did with the whiter flour. I usually go with 70%. Maybe I'll start with 65% instead.
Sorry, can't help you with any percentages, I'm a chef, not a cook - I follow ingredients, not numbers and recipes. If there was more than one option for the same flour then I would have purchased the most complete one. I'm thrilled with the flavor and next purchase will be whole berries - but even grain grown in the same soil will be from a different year with different weather, water and sunshine, plus I recently bought a new grinder, so I'll start over "getting to know" the flour and go from there. Additionally I will get some berries from Breadtopia to compare the flours and flavors!
I *highly* recommend making your first loaf with 100% Turkey Red so the flavor isn't diluted or obscured, there is plenty of gluten for a decent loaf. (If you don't like it then make breadcrumbs or feed the birds. lol) For three cups of flour, one teaspoon of salt is good, one addition I do recommend is 1/4 c honey. Lemme know! :-)