Hi!
I'm not one but have a question that, I think at this point, only a professional baker could help with so I'm reaching out on this forum.
There is some confusion about what the Ardent Mills Dark Rye flour actually is and I'd be really glad to know the answer. Although most signs seem to point to it being whole rye flour that had the lighter grades sifted out leaving a higher proportion of bran and germ in it (something that, according to Stanley Ginsberg in "The Rye Baker", would be like an Austrian type R 2500 rye flour), there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer even after doing a lot of searching. So, I thought I'd go to the source and reached out to Ardent Mills asking them for information about what exactly this flour is and what the recommended uses for it are only to receive some boiler plate type reply about them "not selling directly to consumers". Bummer. This is really frustrating and not knowing is nagging at me.
So if you are a pro baker or if you know one, could you help this frustrated home baker with getting an answer as to what this flour is and what the recommended uses are? Hopefully you'd get a better reply than I did.
Thanks!
The Baker's Authority sheet gives the ash content as 1.7%, which is pretty high, protein 9%. The Dark Rye I've used from Central Milling is at 1.6%, protein 10.9%. This amounts to a finely milled flour with the most bran and germ.
https://www.bakersauthority.com/products/ardent-mills-dark-rye-flour?srsltid=AfmBOopnOklL-XP18s0C-gpuXAi9zGr8aPt8hAKIi__kJn1c3TLBUfzh#tab1
Central Milling
https://centralmilling.com/product/organic-whole-dark-rye-flour/
Dave
It's unfortunate that Ardent Mills was unwilling to share more info with a home baker; you're a customer, too. You could contact Bakers Authority to ask whether they have a rye flour that compares with the R2500. The Ardent Mills flour ash content seems equivalent to German type 1800. The only R2500 equivalent dark rye flour that I'm aware of is Bay State Milling's, formerly sold by Ginsberg's NYBakers website. I had some of this flour and it was definitely heavy with bran.
The problem in the US is that there is no standard for ash content in rye flour so most millers don't test and report the value. Janie's Mill whole rye flour was on the high side at ≈2.0%, owing to a rye variety that was especially high in ash. Breadtopia didn't have an ash% to report.
Hi!
Ardent Mills whole rye flour is sold as pumpernickel or rye meal.
Their dark rye flour is what's left after they mill white and medium rye flours from whole rye kernels. It is very high in protein (from rye bran and outer grain layers), fat (from rye germ), and fiber (also from rye bran) compared to whole rye. You can see it if you look at it's nutritional label per 100g of flour. It is available at Bakers Authority, for example.
This is how it looks when 50g of dark rye is mixed with 40g of water (far right). White rye is to the far left, followed by two medium ryes from different millers, and a whole rye flour dough ball.
You can use it in any recipe that requires whole rye flour. It makes good 100% rye bread as well.