The Fresh Loaf

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dark rye flour in australia

gol's picture
gol

dark rye flour in australia

Hi everyone,

 

Just wondering whether any of you know where you can get dark rye flour from in Australia? I am in canberra and I have pretty much searched everywhere.

 

thanks

jj1109's picture
jj1109

if you find out, let me know!

Bee18's picture
Bee18

I began to use Rye flour about 2 years ago, which I bought from organic health food and never saw Rye dark flour, only

Rye flour or Rye Meal Flour.

and I baked mainly something that was close to the French Pain de seigle but was never too good.

Now I change my way of baking following Ananda and Davidsnyder for this matter, and I have been lucky to find Rye berries ( or rye grains) that I'm crushing in my coffee grinder, because I don't have a miller at home and were I bought the last bulk of 6 kgs in Manly they could not help me to grind it to the craked rye use for pumpernickel.

I really don't know what is the meaning of dark rye flour. Do you know ?   I sent a message to the the sourdough baker suggested by MrFrost, and I'm waiting for the answer.

If you know better tell me. Bea

SydneyGirl's picture
SydneyGirl

My impressions is that "dark rye" referred to in some US recipes really just means flour from the whole rye grain, incl bran. This also seems to be the only type of rye flour we get in Sydney whole food shops like Macro, About Life etc. I've tried a couple of brands, and though they may vary slightly in fine-ness, they basically all seem to be wholemeal rye flours. I've never seen "Light Rye" but I figure you can just sift out the bran to get that. I make bread from rye and even with 50% wholegrain rye, it's really dark.  

You can order various types of grains and flours in bulk from a food co-op like Alfalfa House in Sydney and Katoomba. I found a reference to a food co-op at ANU, maybe you should investigate that - they have a wiki page:http://anu.foodco-op.com/wiki/Members'_guide. You pay a small fee to join, but then you get discounts on purchases.

I love Alfalfa House at Enmore. They have whole wheat and oats as standard bulk items but also a load of different flours. You can buy as little as you like (good if you like to experiment) but must take own containers. You can order bulk grain from 1kg up through them, too. I just ordered 5kg of organic rye grain last week. 

 

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

Hi gol,

I use Eden Valley biodynamic stoneground organic flours, including whole-grain rye. It's readily available in Perth, where I am, since it's farmed and processed in WA, but I think the EV flours are also distributed in the eastern states. I can attest to the quality - absolute top grade. If interested, you could enquire about their retail outlets via their website (link here).

Cheers
Ross

gol's picture
gol

Thank you all very much for your help.  

Bee18's picture
Bee18

a pumpernickel with 3 enormous tablespoons of molasses...

The photo should have been down my message but something messed up and it's on the beginning !

The sourdough baker site think that Rye  Dark  Flour is Rye mixed with malt powder. malt comes from Barley. as a young child my mother was making for me, a brewage of malt which had the color of the coffee, instead of the coffee that the family was drinking.

Using the rye as grains and adding malt syrop extract and molasses I get a very dark bread. Not using the malt extract just molasses I get a bread the color of amber or dark blonde.

This special mix of rye and malt as a flour don't seem to be produced in Australia.

Thanks for the addresses to find the rye in grains or flour as this product is very difficult to find here. Although lately I saw Organic Rye flour on the shelves of Coles and Woolworth ! Big changes are taking place in the bread production here and in the range of organic products that you can find now in these big chains.

A new artisan bakery has open a shop next to Woolworth in the big Macquarie Shopping Centre in North Ryde. I tried the baguette which was not what I expected: the crumb was not airy and the crust too white under baked I would say. But their Pain de Seigle was very good especially after I brushed it with water and put it for about 6 minutes in a very hot oven (250 deg). The crust was then perfect and then I discovered the crumb inside airy and lightly chewy.

this is my last pumpernickel, the colour of the photo is very close to the reality. I reduce the molasses which had given a too sweet flavor to my first pumpernickel.

Bea

 

 

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Bea,

The loaf at the bottom of your post looks fantastic!

Best wishes

Andy

Bee18's picture
Bee18

and this is the crumb of the last loaf. I baked it last Tuesday and we finished it today, Sunday, a very good shelf keeping..., just cover with a tea towel.

Thanks Andy for your compliments, I didn't know you have been reading this thread.

I love this recipe -greenstein/dmsnyder- it's easy and quick and so far the results have given me a lot of satisfaction. I made few loafs since the first about 1 month ago. I tried different quantities of molasses-malt syrop- salt. The last was the best in my opinion and I got a full consensus including my daughter and my granddaughters for the first time in more than one year of my different attemps.

Right now I will keep the molasses and the malt syrop to 40 gr each, and the salt 6gr. I added 100gr of barley bran which give a very good crustiness to the crust. The one that I'm preparing for tomorrow is going to have the following quantities:

250gr.SD - 130 gr cracked rye ( it's the left over I have, next week I'll open a new pack 6kg!) 100 gr of barley bran, 400 gr of bread flour - 40 gr molasses- 40 gr. malt syrop- 6 gr salt - 10 gr dry yeast- and 410gr of water ( I adjusted the ratio of it to 71% -SD water included- instead of the 57% in dmsnyder, to get a lighter crumb and because of the changes in weight of flours ) Will see the result in 2 days.

I bake in a tin that look like a pullman (just look like....) which I fill up to the 3/4 and cover with the twin tin. 40 minutes in a cold oven at 245 deg. after a last proofing of about 90 minutes or less depend of the temp. inside the kitchen.

The last loafs were good, but not all photogenic enough to be on the web...and I was having problems with my computer, now I have a new one and my photos loading problems are resolved! 

Bea

 

 

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Bea,

I see you've got your own photo up in the top right hand corner now as well!

Combined syrup at 80g for the quantity you are making seems perfect to me.   Your salt is very low at less than 1%---is that deliberate on your part?

Best wishes

Andy

 

Bee18's picture
Bee18

Hi Andy,

Yes the reduction of the salt is deliberate from my side. I found as well as the ones who ate my precedent loafs that 8gr of salt was too much. now I put 6gr of flakes salt, and it's as good as possible on the side of the salt.

I did the last loaf as preview and the result is as good as the precedent with 15gr more of Rye berries and more water. The crumb don't seem to be lighter though.

I'm now doing another one but I used the Rye flour I have at home. I also had finished the Barley bran and used wheat bran that I have too many of instead, but it's reacted very differentely absorbing the water like mad and I had to add 190gr of water otherwise the dough was as stiff as a rock ! to mix water after mixing the dough is not a easy task but it eventually worked by mixing at very low speed at the begining and increasing the speed until I reach the number 1. Altogether it took about 2 minutes to mix the water into the dough.

I wonder what will be the result ! Bea 

oscon's picture
oscon

I know it's late, but people may still look for suppliers.

Well, I suggest AussieWell. They sell you 850g for AUD 80+. Best rip-off so far and will sure be difficult to beat.

If there is One good thing in Australia, this folk knows best how to suck the money out of people. True Blue Aussie!