Last weekend, I ordered some flour from Camas Country Mill, a family-owned stone mill in Eugene, Oregon, whose millers are also farmers of the wheat they mill. Among the flour I ordered was 12 pounds of Edison, a hard white spring variety developed by the WSU Bread Lab. Soon after I got the flour, I mixed a batch of 100g flour 95g water to test its absorptive capacity. At first it was really sloppy, but after retardation it felt nice. I thought, maybe 105% is its hydration capacity? Wrong. I tried making wholewheat levain, using the recipe in apieceofbread's dropbox (Ian Lowe, a baker I have huge respect for, has an instagram, @apieceofbread, that should be required reading for any baker). I used 105% water. Long story short, I had a really hard time developing any strength, even after folds. I ended up proofing in a pan loaf, for structure. It was really dense.
Fast forward a few hours, the bread is out of the oven and rested, and my mother requests to try a little. I grab the loaf excitedly and slice it open, and the aroma blew me away. It was sweet and lactic, without any wholewheat tannic flavor. What really blew me away was the butteriness of it. The bread was very soft, almost custardlike, without much chew (although I did overhydrate it, I believe this softness will be there even with 7-10% less water). And the color was beautiful, a rich golden hew. The overall effect reminded me of Kamut, although it handled better than Kamut.
So I still have a good 10 pounds of this stuff left, and I will keep pushing!
Happy Baking,
Walker
PS: I have no photos- I got so excited about the loaf that I sliced it all before taking a pic!