Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Graham Flour
Back in the US, and making bread here for the first time. I'm still learning about the flours available to me. For WW flour, I've been initially drawn to Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Graham flour (it has the large bran/germ that I am used to seeing from traditional stoneground flours). KA Traditional, by comparison, has a somewhat finer consistency and Bronze Chief seems ridiculously finely ground - totally alien to me, although I'm sure it performs well!
The Hodgson Mill Graham flour seems quite weak (low protein?) when water is added. It claims to be '100% whole wheat' but I'm wondering if it's actually 'whole wheat on steroids' - ie it has additional bran over and above that from the milled grain. Can anyone in the know or with experience with this flour shed any light on this?
Right now I'm using it to initialise a wheat starter, so dough performance is not important but I'd like to know whether a different whole wheat flour might be more appropriate further down the line for making whole grain/high extraction breads.
Thanks,
FP
Made graham crackers with it, too, that were quite nice.
I've never made 100% whole wheat bread with it, though. Up to 40% has done extremely well. It has great flavor.
Cool! I look forward to incorporating it in some bread!
FP, you might check out Memo's Brown Bread, (sorry I can't remember who posted it some time ago.) It called specifically for Hodgson's Graham flour and made a lovely loaf. Welcome back, A.
Looks like a great recipe. Thanks!
FP
I have had excellent luck with Golden Buffalo, which I'm pretty sure is a high extraction flour. It's high in protein and makes good bread once you figure out what it's best for.
Patricia
Hi,
I inadvertently picked up a bag of the graham flour, as it was labelled as "wheat flour" in my local stop and shop...the graham flour story was on the back. To be honest, I'd passed up the graham flour several times before due to my fears about using it.
My understanding is that graham flour differs in that the bran and germ are ground separately (and more coarsely) than the endosperm, which is ground into a fine white flour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_flour
I'm just finishing off my bag of graham flour and have been baking the 25-40% whole wheat type breads. At first, I had to get used to the "feel" when testing the gluten. Once I came to terms with the fact that it was very highly textured (and focused on some slightly higher hydration sourdough breads), it started working very well for me. The flavour is fantastic!
And, as an aside, I usually put about 1/4 - 1/3 ww flour in my everyday pancakes. My middle-sized, self-professed pancake expert RAVED about the pancakes made with this graham flour. Again, the flavour was superb, without the density one can get with your typical finely ground ww flour.
I have purchased another 'normal' ww flour now that I've finished my inadvertent bag of graham flour. While I won't buy it all the time, I am sure to build it into my repertoire now and again. Who knows? Once I try the 'standard' ww again, I may find it lacking and revert to graham flour full time!
MommaT