100% Local Flour Sourdough Experiments - Farmer Ground Flour
Hi Everyone,
First post from a long time lurker. This site has been such a wonderful resource for years and I thought that I should finally contribute something to the community.
Here in NY State we are very lucky to have several local, organic, stone-milled sources of flour, my current favorite being Farmer Ground Flour from Trumansburg. I've seen a few posts about people using this flour but I'd like to share some recent experiments because the flavor of these flours is fantastic and I hope more people will make the switch and support local agriculture (wherever that may be).
The breads pictured here are made with 100% Farmer Ground Flour (formula below).
Ingredients (scaled down to 2 small loaves)
Rye Levain Build (after 3-stage Detmolder method)
| % flour of levain | grams | |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer Ground Rye Starter (100% hydration) | 25% | 5 |
| Water | 100% | 20 |
| Farmer Ground Dark Rye Flour | 100% | 20 |
Whole Wheat Levain Build (after 2-stage Detmolder method)
| % flour of levain | grams | |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer Ground WW Starter (100% hydration) | 25% | 10 |
| Water | 100% | 40 |
| Farmer Ground High Extraction "T85" Whole Wheat Flour | 100% | 40 |
Final Dough
| % flour final dough | grams | |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer Ground All Purpose Flour | 50% | 254.5 |
| Farmer Ground High Extraction "T85" Flour | 50% | 254.5 |
| Farmer Ground Dark Rye Flour | 7.5% | 40 |
| Flour subtotal | 100% | 549 |
| Water @ 80 degrees (varies depending on weather, flour temp, levain temp) | 72% | 395.5 |
| Kosher salt | 2.25% | 13.5 |
| Rye levain | 4% | 25 |
| WW levain | 15% | 90 |
Process
This process is pretty typical of what you will find elsewhere on this site. I am repeating it here more for my own reference.
All mixing is done by hand. The flour and water are combined without the levain or salt and allowed to autolyse for 1 hour. The levain and salt are incorporated using Ken Forkish's 'pincer' method (https://youtu.be/HoY7CPw0E1s).
Then stretch+folds are done (without flouring the board) every half hour for the first 2 hours of bulk fermentation.
[One note about the dough tension when stretching+folding. This flour is very weak when compared to even a typical all-purpose flour, and will tear easily if stretched too far, especially during the first 2 stretch+folds. I find it easiest to begin stretching the dough from underneath and as close to the center as I can, then stretching outward, and repeating in a radial pattern. This leaves an untorn, uniformly thick, square-ish shape which can easily be folded.]
Then an additional bulk fermentation of 1.5-2 hours, followed by an optional pre-shaping and then final shaping into round loaves, proofed in bowls or bannetons for 1.5-2 hours.
Then the loaves are baked at 470 degrees in a Dutch Oven or on a baking stone with an inverted ceramic bowl for 18-20 min. The lids/covers are removed to release steam, and the bread is moved to the oven rack for another 20-25 min.
Comments
I've been using their spelt and dark rye flours for a while now, but every time I try to get their T85 the Whole Foods that carries it has sold out. Your bake is hardening my resolve.
When using their rye flour, have you tried sifting it at all? They pack in a good deal of bran and small bits of rye chops, which make the dough a little hard to handle sometimes. I've taken to sifting them once over and keeping the course bits for soakers and porridge treatments.
Has to be tasty with such fine local flour being used. Well done and
Happy baking
Great first post. I love the crumb, and I appreciated the photos of the folding process. Looking forward to seeing more of your experiments with local flour!