freezing flour
I've recently changed from using Bob's Red Mill's organic bread flour to a locally milled unbleached hard wheat flour, and found that the hydration level are different between the two brands. The local flour definitely has more moisture in them. The local brand also recommends putting the flour in the freezer if not used up with in 30 days. Because I got good deals from buying 4 bags, I put 3 bags in the freezer.
So, here goes my questions. Can freezing change the moisture level in the flour? I have put the original paper package in a freezer ziplock bag before I put it in the freezer, and take the measured flour out the night before to slowly come back to room temperature. But when I'm trying to do a 65% hydration dough, it feels more like the 75% hydration dough I've done before. Maybe a tiny bit even more sticky and difficult to handle, even with the mixing to develop more gluten structure. Should I just reduce the amount of hydration next time when I use this flour? Or is it something else that might contribute to the stickiness? please help.
I can't answer the hydration questions, sorry, but I'm very puzzled by their 30-day suggestion. The flour I buy has a best-before date of 6 months if it's wholemeal (due to the oils going rancid) and usually about a year for white. I've never considered freezing it.
You may be able to work out how much water it has in it by taking a measured amount - say 500g then drying it in a low oven (say 60°C) for a day then re-weighing it...
-Gordon
yes, I thought it's weird too, because 30 days is a very short shelf life. But I realized that after I bought it, so I figure I should do what I was told just in case.
So, drying the flour in a low oven for a day would remove all the water that is in the flour? Would 200 F work, that is the lowest temp my oven has.
I don't have a definitive answer, but I would love it if anyone had more to offer. I do store some of my flour in the freezer and refrigerator. Modern frost-free freezers remove moisture from the air in the freezer, so there *must* be some effect on the flour, especially if it's in the original paper container. When my ice cream is in there for a couple months, the moisture loss is really noticeable. I try to bundle up my flour really well. I have never noticed a difference in the feel of the flour in the dough, but I do wonder about it.
I suppose there is some costly instrument to measure moisture in flour...?
It's worth mentioning that I store plenty of whole flours at room temperature, including my main bin of whole wheat. I go through maybe 10 pounds of WW in six months. I know there have been times when I have stored flour longer than six months at room temperature. And I can report that I have never had a problem with rancidity.
jaywillie
Would you be able to smell or taste rancidity? I have tasted rancid nuts but never detected rancid flour.
Yes - you can smell it. At least I can. I was once given some wholemeal ground at some little mill and promptly forgot it at the back of the cupboard... A year or more later I found it and though I'd make something off it, but it did smell rancid so I dumped it.
White lasts longer as the oil (in the germ) is almost entirely removed which is why it has a longer shelf-life.
Nuts (especially brazil nuts) are the one thing that sometimes gets forgotten about in out house too - there is a definite rancid smell about them when they've gone too far.
-Gordon
Quinny,
Here is my input…. When we were living in Baja Sur California (Mexico) and not having easy obtainable good flours here is what we did:
Ship 50lb bags of flour to a friend in the States to bring down to us.
Using our scale we would pack 5lb of the flour in 1 gallon ziploc freezer bags.
Pack them in our Sears freezer.
The flour would keep for months still viable and seemed fresh, but the flour certainly made fine dough, at least we thought.
We used the below moister meter to check the MC of the flour stored in the ziploc bags we would get out to use. The flour was always at or under 11%. But the daily humidity in our home was generally 60% ~ 70% and ambient air was around 90f (at 3pm). So we would keep the flour we were using in our fridge.
We were happy to find that freezing our stored flour did not seem to create any noticable problems with moister. It certainly did stop the, almost instant, protein hatching……Uck!!
I must add that we used approximately 10lbs of flour a week. Our bakes are around 500g of flour.
Hope this provides some insight…….
Happy baking……..
This is the meter. When using slightly compress your flour to get a good reading. I'm a woodworker and this meter is industry standard.
From what you described, my flour should be fine. Would it be the moisture in the air then? The past 2 days has been humid, led to raining today. I kept the dough in the fridge for a few hours and then let it slowly come back to room temperature on the kitchen counter. That might have affected the moisture level then. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Could it be affected that much?
quinny,
In Baja we primarily kept our flours in the freezer to slow down the birthing of Weevils that are in flours just waiting for the right conditions to 'hatch'….. Lots of years ago the hatchlings were just baked in the loafs, or so I've read….. Double Uck!!
Now, when your new bag of flour arrives home from the store, after a while it's store moisture content will 'equalize' to the the humidity in your home. That's called reaching 'equilibrium' with the location.
So, I think that in areas with dramatic humidity changes are challenging to us bakers. We have to develop the ability to see and feel when the dough is hydrated for the day's humidity. When humidity is low I have to add a few more grams of water and vice-versa. If your recipe calls for a 63% hydration depending on the day you bake you might be slightly on either side of the recipe water. That is part of the magic of baking.
Don't get yourself too tangled up in all this. Learn to identify what the dough is telling you. Hold back some of the final water and watch for the development of the dough. It will all start to become second nature.
I envy the folks that are able to bake in a stable environment. But even then it speculate that they have to 'tweak' their hydration from time to time.
Sorry if all this confuses you…… Just go with the appearance and feel of your doughs. And yes your flour should be fine…….
Have fun
Thanks for the explanation Betsy! Just one more question if you don't mind. When you say adjust the hydration of the dough by feel. Did you mean at the first stage of mixing the water & flour before autolyse? Or can I add some flour after autolyse?
quinny,
No worries about questions… just remember there are many ways to skin a cat, so what I give you is what is successful and works for me.
Remember that the 'Recipe' you use is only a guide to get you on your journey. Remember that there is 'wiggle-room' on either side of the quantities. Some doughs are very, very wet (80% hydration), like Ciabatta, and others like Bagels (50% +/-) are very dry doughs. A lot of doughs are hydrated in the range of 60%~64%.
Remember that the hydration percentage also includes the moisture of your flour on any given day. Me being a small time baker the dough's moisture isn't that big of a deal most of the time. Lets say that my Baguette formula calls for a hydration of 63%. Using 500 grams of flour I would use 315 grams of water if humidity and flour was perfect. But what if, like where we live, the humidity was above 60%?? That is when you would want to hold back maybe 20 grams of water. Then in the first few minutes of the rough mix you can see/feel what the rough dough is telling you.
My French Baguette recipe uses 652 grams of flour and 404 grams of water. But, if humidity gets above 55% I drop the final water down to about 391 grams. This compensates for the moisture content of my flour that has sopped up the day's humidity.
So, to answer your question… no, hold out a little of the water during the first stage of mixing, not flour, then rough/shaggy mix, autolyse, now add water while mixing, if needed, until the the dough starts to develop, then you start the bulk fermentation (1st rise) with a couple of stretch and folds to complete the dough is developed.
Here is a good video that provides an example of 'mixing'. Watch closely the stages of texture and notice that some water was held back and added later. There are several other video by these people that are worth watching or re-watching if you start getting off the trail. (I certainly have.)
2. Mixing & Folding - YouTube
It took me a long time to understand that good bread is an art that is achieved through understanding what the dough is telling you. And it tells different stories depending on the type of bread you are working toward.
Best advise I ever got was to start with one (1) type dough/bread and work on that until you get it correct and consistently corect…. then advance to other types armed with this knowledge. All of a sudden by some sort of intervention the light should appear…...
I guess this learning curve is what make it fun, huh??
Keep on keeping on…...
Thanks for the advice and the encouragement. I would love to see the videos you mentioned in the comment, by any chance you can post the links? I really appreciate your help.
quinny,
Thanks for the kind words.
To view the linked video just click on it in the last message I posted. (see below) It will 'fire-up' the video and on the side you will see the others that are from KA related the same theme. There are six videos from them in total that really gives us novice's a sampling of what the real pros do. Not that we can emulate them, but we can certinally get some good foundational tips.
Also, I'd suggest that in your climb up the 'vertical' learning curve to keep a notebook on each bake….. this would be the recipe quantities, hydration %, mixing or kneading times, bulk time (1st rise), autolyse time, weight of type bread, retard times (2nd rise), and baking info.
That way you can make adjustment to the next bake,,,, if necessary. But try to stick to one basic dough recipe until it is great and you are sick of it. Then get fancy…….
The goal is to gain weight thru baking guuuuuuud breads……!
Thanks Betsy! I do keep a baking journal. So far it's been helpful. And, talking to you guys on TFL helped a lot too.