The Fresh Loaf

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20% Bran flour

jkandell's picture
jkandell

20% Bran flour

Since I presume "20% bran flour" has all the germ and 20% of the bran as whole wheat, to recreate 1000g 20% bran flour can you just mix 200 g whole wheat (assuming 3% germ and 15% bran) with 776g white flour and add 24g wheat germ?

mariana's picture
mariana

You proportions would work, of course.

Leader himself means these, just a tiny bit different from yours:

250g whole wheat flour

725g all purpose flour

25 g wheat germ

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1000g of 20% bran flour. 

Leader recommends the following approximation

"To make your own 20 percent bran wheat flour with germ, combine 3 parts unbleached white flour (preferably with germ) with 1 part stone-ground whole wheat flour, preferably medium or fine grind. "

3 parts of unbleached white flour with germ would be 750g APF, 3% of which is germ, i.e. 23g, round it up to 25g.  

jkandell's picture
jkandell

It's funny you mention Leader because it's his raisin sesame breakfast loaf (in the oven as we speak) that prompted my question. I didn't realize all-purpose flour had any germ or bran left in it; if so my calculations are off.  And doesn't his 3:1 ratio of whole wheat leave 25% of the bran not 20%?

 The only other author I know who uses this flour is Rose Beranbaum. i like it because it tastes like a milder whole wheat, similar to what I'm imaging high-extraction flour tastes like. 

mariana's picture
mariana

- And doesn't his 3:1 ratio of whole wheat leave 25% of the bran not 20%?

- You assume that all purpose flour is bran free, which is not the case. It is not t h e whitest wheat flour, actually. Its ash content is about 0.55%, compared to the pastry or type 400 flour - 0.4%, type 500 flour - 0.5%, etc. Some bran is also found on the flakes of wheat germ. 

That said, it is not possible to reproduce 20% flour that Leader and Beranbaum use, since their flour varies. It might be always 20% bran, but the wheat itself varies in bran content of the entire kernel from season to season and from farmer to farmer. So their flour is always a little different from batch to batch. That is why your proportion would work just as well as Leader's to mimic miller's 20% bran flour. 

jkandell's picture
jkandell

Good point. Too bad I didn't much like this loaf. :)