I started three days ago with tempering the hard red spring wheat to 15% moisture. Grinding and sifting last night to get a 86% extraction. Making and baking today. It was very wet. I might have misweighed or miscalculated. I worked in a little flour and it ended up the best tasting bread I have made in a long time. Made with flour, water, salt, and starter. It was sweat, a little sour, and had a wonderful wheat flavor. I got the red color crust I like. The family thought it was good also.
A 80% home ground HRS wheat and 20% KA AP flour loaf.
This is the pizza I made for my wife this week.
Some of my son Jack's baking this spring break week.
It was a good week.
Greg R
WOW! is all i say
Nice Miche, Loaf, and Pizza, oh and desserts.. pretty successful open crumb on that loaf too..
BTW, do you bake under cover? or steam your oven?
What exactly does tampering do to a grain, and how does it enhance the milling?
Thanks for the pics..
I was baking under cover until my stone broke right along the line of the bowl I had on it. I steamed this time with water in an old cast iron pan. Lots of steam but I need a safer way.
Tempering consists of adding water to dry grain and allowing the grain to rest for a period of time before it is milled. The purpose of tempering is to toughen the bran and thus make it resist being broken into small particles during milling and to soften or "mellow" the endosperm and make it easier to grind. It also helps obtain bran with lowest possible starch content and flour that has ideal quality and higher extraction.
Just out of curiosity( I don't think I can justify buying a grain mill just yet):
when tempering the grain is it allowed to start sprouting? Or is the rest periond just very short and does not lead to sprouting?
Your breads, pizza and desserts look awesome!
Christina
Your breads, pizza and the desserts look so good. Great job.
weavershouse
Everything looks gorgeous! I can just imagine the lovely flavor with your fresh flours. I love when the color of the crust blends into the crumb..lovely crumb and crusts and two of my very favorites, pizza and sweets. Fantastic baking!
Sylvia
David
Christina, not enough water is added to break dormancy of the wheat.
Thanks all for the kind words.
Greg R
Greg,
the bread looks totally wonderful.
The tempering you refer to is called conditioning by the millers in theUK. The purpose is to remove the outer bran layer in one piece. This allows for a higher extraction from rate from the grain when it is milled to flour.
Great stuff
Andy
Here is a link to a post I added on tempering
Greg R