Wheat berries shouldn't cost more than flour, rignt?  If that isn't right, I'd sure like an education as to why.

Today I stopped in at Cash and Carry in Seattle and checked out the prices on 50# bags of flour.  Bleached, unbleached, whole wheat (no additives either), seminola, etc.  One such bag was marked at $10.95 and the others were between $12 and $18 (although the seminola was higher than that, I think). 

I have bought bags of flour from them and have been satisfied.  But now, armed with Nutrimill and Bosch mixer, I can't find wheat berries for much less than $1 per pound.  Something seems a-miss.

The best local price I have found is through a 10% bag discount for WheatMontana Hard Red or Prairie Gold which would make it about 90 cents per pound.

A local feed store said their wheat was feed grade and not designed for human consumption. 

Any suggestions?  Thanks.

Hi,

Does anyone know the differences in taste and texture that will result from making white bread from margarine instead of butter or shortening?

The majority of recipes that I've seen uses butter or shortening as fat, but rarely margarine.

Thanks,

CW

I am trying to source a supplier of blanched almond flour in the UK, this is needed to make bread for dieters on the HCG Diet. This diet is free of starch,salt,sugar,fat, and is a protein diet for a 23 day period.

Hope you can help me out with my request....... thanks

Hello all, I'm new here so please forgive me if this one has been discussed. My question is, how much of a difference is there between very close % points? In other words, how radical is the difference between, say, 11% and 11.5%? Does it really matter if a flour is rated as 11.5% or 11.7%? That's not much at all, is it? It's not as radical as 9% to 12%. So as I learn about flours does it matter when I start seeing one at 11.5 and another at 11.7? All else being equal i.e., hard, red, winter, and as long as I'm happy with the 11% range, should I bother about a 2% difference?
Thanks

has anyone used this in a multigrain type sandwich loaf or any other for that matter?

Pre-boiled or other?

Hi,

I want to make Panettone for the BBA  Challenge. Reinhart is using Fiori di Sicilia. I could'nt find this blend here in Germany. What are the ingredients, how  can I substitute it ?

Thanks Beate

Is there a formula for switching flours with different protein percentage?

For example, I was using KA flour, and needed to get a quick supply, so I went to Sams Club,

and their bread flour is only 10% (only rose to 1/2 of what it should have); what is the best way to

compensate for this (more yeast, how much? More Vital Wheat Gluten, how much?)

Thanks in advance!

What would happen if I tried to use a soft wheat in a recipe that usually calls for A/P or bread flour? For instance, what would the results be in a Vermont Sourdough or a miche? Would they simply fail to rise due to lack of gluten strength? 

The reason I ask is that I have been interested in buying more locally-grown foods. So far, I've found that we have plenty of winter squash, sweet potatoes, onions, milk, fresh eggs, and an endless variety of high-quality bourbon whiskeys(!) available within a day's round-trip drive.

The one thing I'm having trouble with is flour. Apparently, the climate and soil in the Ohio Valley is not conducive to growing hard red wheat. However, locally-grown and locally-milled soft wheat is available.

I doubt that I would give up baking old-world breads in favor of buying locally -- after all, Kansas isn't too terribly far away, and I still need to use salt shipped in from who-knows-where. Still, I'm interested in learning more about soft wheat, and would like to see if it is capable of anything beyond muffins and cakes.

Does anyone have any experience in the area?

Eric

I'm entering a challah baking contest this weekend.  I plan to use Rose Levy Beranbaum's Challah with Sourdough recipe (on her website, not in her book) which is what I bake all of the time.  That challah has a wonderful flavor and texture. 

I don't particularly like a sweet challah and one of the things I like about this challah is that it's not overly-sweet.  But I know I will be up against many sweet challahs, as most recipes tend to be too sweet for my tastes.  My kids complain all the time that my challah is not as sweet as others' and they prefer it to be sweeter. 

 Unfortunately, I don't have time to experiment and make multiple batches.  I usually make a round braided challah, but found out yesterday that the rules require a simple three-strand braided challah.  So I can't use any of the ones I already have in my freezer and won't have enough time to get my stiff starter up to the volume needed to make more than one loaf. 

The recipe I use has 60 grams of honey to 424 grams of flour (plus 75 to 85 grams of stiff starter).  I'm thinking of increasing the honey by 50% to 90 grams,  or perhaps something in between 60 and 90 grams.  Will that be too sweet?  Will the increase in honey affect the texture of the challah at all?  Should I make any adjustments to the rest of the formula to compensate for the effects of more honey?

Hello TFL members,

I am wondering if there are only certain types of breads that benefit from stone-ground flour.  I have been baking whole-grain breads for a few months now, and recently started using stone-ground organic whole-wheat bread flour.  I noticed that since I started using it, two of my most favorite breads -- Peter Reinhardt's multigrain struan and multigrain hearth bread do not have much oven spring.  Especially the struan I baked lots of time before and have had very consistent results, including great oven spring.  I am wondering if it is the flour that might be making the difference?  I have not changed anything else,  neither in the process nor in the ingredients, except that every time I slightly change the type (but not the weight) of whole grains I put in.  Another one of Reinhardt's delicous breads, the power bread, which only has some seeds but no whole grains, had great oven spring, but I cannot compare its performance to that with regular flour because I only baked it with stone-ground.  Thank you so much for your advice.

Best wishes,

Kroha