The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Freshly Milled Flour Question

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

Freshly Milled Flour Question

Hello!

I recently bought some freshly milled flour from a local Los Angeles mill called Grist and Toll. Since this is my first time baking with freshly milled flour, I was definitely encouraged to first try substituting some of my store bought flour with a little bit of the freshly milled flour, just to get used to it. But of course I decided to go big or go home and instead made a 100% fresh milled loaf of rye, but I also made a second loaf with 100% store bought flour to compare at each stage of the process.  I already had the foresight to add a few more tablespoons of water to the mix, as per the advice given here, but when I mixed the dough it was very wet. Much more so than the store bought was with the regular amount of water. I panicked thinking I had completely over hydrated it. But after leaving it overnight to rise, the store bought bread was much more airy and the fresh flour had clearly soaked up every bit of water and was dry and dense. The water I had added was definitely not enough in the end. 

The recipe I'm using has 340g of white and 200g of rye. And has 325g of water which when I did the math, is a 60% hydration. Both the white and rye I bought from Grist and Toll is a whole grain (something that only occurred to me much later). I've read that when using whole grain fresh flour, the hydration levels should be between 85% and 110% because the whole grain really sucks up alot of water. Should I try upping my hydration that much for a rye? Or with any fresh milled whole grain flour?

Even without the hydration and a good rise, the bread was still absolutely delicious. There is no doubt that the fresh milled flour had much more flavor and character. So I'd really like to try it again, and see if I can get a less dense bread. The picture attached shows the difference. The smaller darker one on the left is the fresh flour. 

Thank you!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Wow, what a difference! I'm wondering if your store-bought flour has any additives (conditioners like lecithin or ascorbic acid) which would make a difference too. And I'm a little puzzled - you said "Both the white and rye I bought from Grist and Toll is a whole grain", but I don't understand how white flour can be whole grain?

I've got a couple of sacks of grain (spelt, rye and Red Fife) to mill, and I'm wondering how the resulting flour will behave. I generally use home-milled (stone ground) rye flour but not wheat or spelt until now.

missyork29's picture
missyork29 (not verified)

The "white" I bought is labeled "Hard Red" and says it's a "Whole Grain". On their website it says it is a bread flour (which perhaps I misinterpreted as being "white") and can be substituted for AP flour. They suggest starting by substituting 50% AP flour for this whole grain flour. I guess I"m confused about what "whole grain" means. ?

The store bought flour I used is King Arthur bread flour, which says it's a unbleached, enriched, hard spring wheat flour and the Rye is Arrowhead Mills Organic Whole Grain Rye. The additives you mentioned are not on the list.

Here's the website for Grist and Toll..the "white" flour I bought is the first one listed, and the rye is further down the list : https://www.gristandtoll.com/current-selections/

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

That's definitely not white flour! It sounds lovely - 100% extraction means it contains all the bran, germ and everything else from the whole grain with nothing removed. So what you're comparing is a recipe made for 340 grams of white flour (with all the bran and germ removed) and 200 grams of rye flour, at a fairly low hydration, with a 100% whole grain flour blend. That might require a few more changes to the recipe than just adding a bit more water.

Try finding a recipe for whole wheat and whole rye flour. It will still make a more dense loaf than your loaf with more than half AP flour, but might turn out better (and should certainly taste good with that nice stone-ground flour!).