yozzause's blog

I made a dough using some of the home milled Red Wheat @ 50% along with a good bakers flour and a bottle of Porter when i was having a baking day with my daughter and her friend Lilly. They came out rather well and i was very impressed with my daughter's oven that gave a nice crusty bake!

As you may be aware i have been having some fun with Red wheat here in Australia of late and have been keen to know the gluten strength of the flour. i was sent info on a test by Lance (Albacore) from Lancashire and its referred to as a hand washing test. The test info is in   https://bakerpedia.com/processes/gluten-washing-tests/ i took 50 grams of the milled Red Wheat flour andthe test calls for 25g of water to make a dough, but l found at that rate i wasnt able to form a good dough so i added about 10g more so that i could make a well developed dough ball. The resulting dough ball is then placed under water from 20 to 60minutes i opted for 30, its then just a matter of washing the starch and in this case the bran and germ particles away from the dough ball. i did this in a large bowl and sieved the water from the bran flakes and small bits of gluten. I collected as much of the gluten shreds that i could see and continued rolling the gluten ball around in the palms of my hand where the flakes of bran could be felt coming away. at the end when i was satisfied that i had removed as much as was possible i weighed the Wet Gluten and recorded 10.2 g this equates to 20.4 for Wet gluten value. in the test The Cereals and Grains Association (AACC International) has a value of 30 - 45 as the highest and good bread making functionality. There is also a dry gluten value also so i dried the gluten out in the oven and recorded 5.34g from the 50g of flour used which would equate to 10.68% gluten. Another very learned friend said that she felt that the very best test is the resulting bread, and we have already seen that it has made a very good loaf. it might be interesting to repeat this exercise but sieve off the bran and germ in the dry stage and use 50 grams of the resulting flour!  dough ball formed almost matches the bench top   dough ball submerged for 30 minutes    washing out starch in a bowl  sieving out and collecting bran germ and gluten strands,  The bran with is Vibrant colour and some small shards of gluten   The final gluten ball that resulted from the 50gram 100% home milled flour sample of Australian grown Red Wheat.

Australian Beaufort Red Spring Wheat was ground this morning after being kept in the fridge to counter the heat that the milling has on the fresh flour. The flour was hydrated with the water and left to stand for for 30 minutes this was then placed in my noodle mixer and another 20 g of water was added as it seemed quite thirsty. The compressed yeast was added and after incorporation the butter was added and lastly the salt was added. the mixer was set for 15 minutes, resulting in a nice soft pliable dough, it was removed from the noodle maker even though it does have a heater set for  27 degrees for proofing.

I placed the dough into my old tupperware container and snapped on the lid for Bulk Fermentation.

his dough was fast moving even when i had reduced the amount of yeast and was ready in 1 hour 40 minutes. it was degassed and given a 10 minute bench rest and then shaped and placed into the sandwich tin giving me the option to use the sliding lid or not i chose to lid the tin. Our American friends refer these as Pulman tins. here in Australia we used to call the loaves Devons with the lids on and uprights if the lids were left off. Anyway the tin was filled nicely with the dough being weighed off at 750g the pictures will show the height achieved in the final fermentation.

Yesterday i baked what i will call a generosity loaf , i call it that as the flour was from the red wheat and Tim's generosity and then that was milled with the Flour mill that Margaret very generously gifted me, and i put it to good use straight away. This is the first ever loaf that i have made using 100% fresh home milled wheat and i have to say i am not disappointed. i also included red wheat sprouts that were blitzed.The bread has that wonderful dark brown that was in evidence from the bread we made at big loaf, i baked it in the Romantoph for 15 minutes lid on and then the rest of the time off. i extended the baking time and the heat. When i sliced it this morning it had the great aroma and a nice open texture, there was some evidence that it was sticking to the serrated knife and was very moist. It reminded me a bit like malt loaf in that respect, and i think that is in fact where that characteristic is coming from, i added 2% Saunders malt to the mix and the addition of the sprouted red wheat berries 20% that were sprouted earlier and had been slowed in the fridge were definately very sweet when tasted had probably converted a good deal of the starch into Malt for its growth. Taste wise the bread was excellent and it has almost a cake like mouth feel. i guess i will need to make a bog standard 100% Wholemeal without the sprouts to comfirm my thoughts. Thanks again to Tim and Margaret The fun continues.     

I have had another crack at the Red Wheat adjusting the yeast and also the water using part of the allocation to assist in the liquidisation of the sprouted Red Wheat. as it turned out i added 40g more water during the mix! The yeast came down to just 3g which is 0.77% of the formula and was more than adequate and the dough had a BF of 2.5 hours. i did do an Autolyse where the flour and water was brought together and then allowed to sit for 45 minutes prior to the remaining ingredients being added and the dough was mixed for 15 minutes in my Noddle dough machine. Red wheat fresh milled wholemeal flour 286g ; Millers single origin white flour 104g ; salt 8g ; Saunders liquid malt 8g ; butter 8g ; dried yeast 3g ; Red wheat sprouts liquidised 78g ; water 253g + added 40g during the mix :Bulk fermentation time 2.5 hours Bench rest 20 minutes Final proof 30minutesBaking time 15 minutes in the Romantoph lid on @ 250C 35 minutes lid off at 220C I get the impression that this dough will handle a hotter baking temperature and or a sign that the natural sugars have been consumed during fermentation. something to incorporate in my net bake of this bread. i shall take it to a small family gathering tomorrow to celebrate my 71 st birthday, hopefully get a couple of pictures of the inside then!Couldn't wait HAPPY BAKER! 

Rolled out of the Banetton into the clay baker

The baked loaf

 a picture of the interior

More baking with the red wheat this time i milled the wheat with my kenwood and the intention was to make it 50% with millers single origin white flour which is rated at 12% protein. i had already soaked and sprouted some of the red wheat a couple of days earlier to the Chit stage and it was my intention to add this to the mix too that was a 20% addition. i put the sprouts through the liquidiser, i did need to add a bit of water to ensure the sprouts kept falling to the blades as initially they were getting hung up on the sides of the container. i mixed the dough in the noodle mixer for 15 minutes and a nice moist dough was attained i proofed it in my usual tupperware container. Well this dough kicked like a mule it raced through its bulk fermentation in an hour flat, definately reduce the yeast next time. i do believe though that the live grain mash contributes to the accelerated fermentation. the dough was meant to be 750 g but with the extra water that was required for the liquidising and a little extra flour i ended up with 800g. No matter The dough felt great and after handing up was allowed 15 minutes bench rest, i then shaped the dough to go into a Banneton that i floured with some of the bran that i sieved off of the milled red wheat. the dough was placed into a plastic bag and deposited into the fridge to slow it down a bit and to firm it up a little more . The dough was ready after an hour and was tipped out into a casserole pan that i had as it was bigger than my clay baker. it was scored and into a very hot oven with the cover on for the first 15 minutes and then the cover removed. the loaf was baked for 45 minutes. i was again pleased with the performance of the flours and the resulting loaf. freshly milled red winter wheat (ACCROC) 195g 50% ; Millers single origin white flour 195g 50% ; salt 8g 2%; malt extract 8g 2%; butter 8g 2% ; dried yeast 8g 2% ; sprouted red wheat liquidised 78g 20%; water 253g 65% ; dough weight should have been 753g but was actually 800 with the samll addition of water and subsequent flour. The loaf was very aromatic the crumb was excellent and nice and soft and the crust was chrisp and enhanced with the rolling in the red wheat bran and flour. i shall do another bake using only the red milled wheat flour, but my grinder is much coarser than Lachies so it should be interesting. I still have enough sprouts in the fridge to incorporate 20% again. yeast will be halved or even quartered i think

dough after mixing

rapid bulk fermentation

out on the bench resting

slightly to much dough (50g) for Bannetton but good rise

dough rolled into roaster

loaf out and cooling

Bread being evaluated  with a nice Margret River Rose and some pate

 This last weekend i  did a little trip into the countryside to an area known as the North Eastern Wheat belt here in Western Australia. It was a very good  harvest this year exceeding 20 million tonnes. The purpose of my trip wasn't to admire all the wide open empty spaces but to do a bit of bread baking tuition, Its fairly remote 236 km inland from Perth. I drove up one afternoon stayed at a great old Hotel and had a full days baking and stayed that  2nd night travelling home the following morning. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun for both parties but respecting privacy i wont be  reporting the events but i do have some pictures that i took  of the Hotel which will be celebrating its centenary in 2025 and also the grain silos across the road with the rail loading facilities

Just as the sun sank slowly in the west

and across the road is the grain terminal   

Anyway upon my return to civilisation, the following morning i was off early to the Big Loaf Bakery where the production Manager Peter and i were going to Mill some of the Red Wheat which we were kindly given to have a play with. we chose the winter variety ACCROC as it seemed harder than the spring variety BEAUFORT. the bigger mill did a great job with 4 chutes giving us a flour at one end and  bran at the other with intermediates in the middle. we were impressed with the aroma and the colour both of the bran and the flour. we milled enough to give us a dough for 9 loaves for our trial.

the bran end of the milling chutes

the flour end of the mill

Hydrating the flour

the s/d culture has been added

out of the oven

at home cooled and sliced

Quite amazed at the colour of the crumb  the taste was very good and the bread felt nice in the mouth and not at all chewy in fact it seemed to breakdown quite easily without much chewing effort required! 

The dough was made entirely from the Red Wheat with only salt and the S/D culture added I will need to get back to Peter to confirm the exact composition of the flour that we used as it came from the Mill as i did have to leave and pick up a bus for my Nephews work shop. we didnt do any measurements to get an extraction rate but did get a good indication of its character and behavior. Looking forward to finding out what Peter and Lachie think when they get to taste their loaves.

"Can you make those mock cream buns like we used too get at the school canteen" Yes i can: SO i did: And they were, only better: i had hoped the requesters (twins) were going to turn up in their school uniforms for the occasion. they said they would have if they could have squeezed into them. Anyway the whole Fit for Life group enjoyed them with their coffees today. The mock cream was made with 100g of caster sugar 78 grams of water bought to the boil and simmered for 5 minutes stirring the whole time. Then cooled. 225g i used 250g (whole pkt) of unsalted butter whipped till quite white then half a tea spoon of vanilla essence and drizzle in the cold syrup whilst still whipping. i was surprised to find that the old Ras Plum jam is still available from Bakels in 15kg tins, i opted for just a jar of plum jam. The ladies thought that was a mistake, i said i'd never use it all, they assured me they would do their bit and help each week! So there we have OLD SCHOOL CREAM BUNS revisited 50 years on.

 I recently posted about a trip that Lachie and i did to check out the red wheat and meet the man growing it . Tim very kindly gave us some samples to play with and yesterday i collected some from the Big Loaf Factory where it is stored. i located the Kenwood attachment i purchased many years ago Judy says i paid $10 i thought it was $5 but thats no matter. i was actually going to put it to use, it came with a booklet that you read only if you cant get it to work, i did try installing up side down and was wondering how the hopper was going to attach! All systems go turn it on and they recommend the high speed on the Kenwood. i was surprised how quickly it was doing its job, it was on its coarsest setting so i thought i would process again on the mid setting and got a very nice result. Due to the lateness of the hour i decided that i would have a go with the fresh milled flour the next morning.   I formulated a dough to make a single 750g loaf it was to be a 50% W/M FRESHLY MILLED RED WHEAT and it is "BEAUFORT" the Spring variety and 50% Bakers flour: 2% salt: 2% fresh compressed yeast: 2% Canola oil this was to assist countering the wholemeal abrasive effect on the gluten strands: i started with 65% water but added more during the mix , at least 20ml possibly more. i wanted to keep the dough simple to evaluate the taste of the w/m fresh flour. i started off by soaking all the fresh w/m flour 220g in all the water 285g and letting it sit for 2 hours, i didnt want to wake my wife with kitchen noise and i thought it would benefit the dough to soak the w/m. i usually do this when im using w/m especially if im adding my stout! i was giving the Noodle machine its 2nd dough making task, i was impressed with the way the dough was forming and developing with the gentle action of the paddle arm , it has the same action as the bread makers but a much larger squat mixing bowl and it doesnt bake the loaf like the bread machines but does have a proving warmer and timer function but i have yet to use that its been pretty warm here in Perth of late with a record summer heat averaging 33 degrees for summer. The Salt 9g the oil 9g and the fresh yeast 9g were all added. The mixer was set for 15 minutes and it became obvious that it would take more water so i added 20ml or possibly more than that, the dough developed nicely and was taken from the mixer a little cooler than i expected it was placed in a bowl covered and placed into the micro wave out of the way to prove. Judy and i then headed off for our Fit for Life class. upon our return the dough had risen higher than i had anticipated and was taken immediately i was anticipation 3 hr bulk fermentation but it was ready in 2hr 50minutes.  The dough was degassed and handed up for a short bench rest it felt very good in the hand. After 15 minutes it was shaped and placed in the Banneton in a plastic bag for a final proof of 1 hour. I was using the clay baker and i decided to soak the lid and had the oven up full at 250 on the gas knob. the dough was rolled out onto my small hand peel slashed with my new $5.00 lame slid into the cold Romantoph the lid placed on and it the hot oven.    The plan was to leave at the high temp for the first 15 minutes reduce the temperature and remove the lid all executed to plan. the bake continued and the aroma being generated was intoxicating. the bake went well and i did increase the temperature a bit toward the end to promote the colour, normally my doughs would also contain malt sometimes milk but i wanted to assess this loaf purely on the w/m ability. tasting still a little way off as the loaf cools  

I recently engaged with  Lance (albacore) about his lovely dough machines and mentioned that i had purchased a new machine so here is a little bit  about it and its maiden effort..

 A second present that i treated myself to arrived yesterday afternoon, it was a week earlier than i was expecting . It is a Chinese noodle dough machine, This one is from Sydney rather than the long wait from China, and significantly cheaper @ $129. The postage from China was more that the advertised price of the machine direct from China.