Good Morning...

I had a pleasant surprise this morning while doing my usual Saturday morning bread baking. We were out late last night and I was a little low on sleep, got up early and started mixing up a fav no-knead recipe of mine. After putting all the ingredients in, mixing by hand, and putting the dough to bed, I realized that I forgot the salt!

Since it was only a couple of minutes later, I got the dough back out and added salt... after about 3 minutes of mixing the gluten seemed to be developing already!!!  I was totally amazed and surprised by this... so mixed for 2 more minutes and did a few stretch and folds over a period of about an hour. I have the most beautiful dough I have seen in a long time!

I am thinking it was the higher proteins in the flour that causes this... and because I am sure you will want to know which brand... it is Stone-Buhr flour that I was using.

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested... Basically it is a 1-2-3 sourdough

Method is easy... after hand mixing and kneading (or no kneading LOL), let raise until doubled... form loaves... raise for another 45min to 1 hour... bake at 450 for 30-35 min.. use steam for first 15 minutes.

I am working on learning the other more involved techniques I see on this awesome site, like bigga, poolish, soakers, stretch and folds, rest periods, etc... but this simple method makes a decent bread when you don't have a lot of time to bake.

Sooooo my question is... why did the glutens develop so easy? Is it the proteins in the flour that causes this?

Thanks in advance... Steve

Hello!  I stumbled onto this website and thought I'd introduce our new program - http://www.findthefarmer.com - and see what you all think. Stone-Buhr Flour is supporting the American family farmer by directly buying grain from multi-generational family farmers who have certified their agricultural methods as sustainable. We think it's important and want to show off the face behind your flour..... I'd love to hear what you all think!  If you have any questions or comments - please feel free to contact me directly at: farmer <at> findthefarmer.com

-josh.

I've always used Stone-Buhr unbleached bread flour in all my bread baking. Our local Albertson's started carrying King Arthur all purpose flour so out of curiosity I bought a bag and made a loaf of french bread at 65% hydration. It was very soft. I made another at 60% hydration. It rose beautifully, got great oven spring and the crumb was gorgeous, but boy is this one soft loaf - Wonder Bread soft! Is this due to the softer all purpose flour or should I use even lower hydration level? I couldn't get bread this soft when I was trying.

Larry