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Sourdough taste test - 25% flour variation

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Sourdough taste test - 25% flour variation

Last Sunday I held my third annual Bread Tasting Open House. This year I focused on a couple of areas - 100% rye flour breads, and a series of sourdoughs using different flours. For the latter the formula / recipe / technique was the same for all six of the breads; the only variation was that 25% of the flour was different. The six were:

  1. Amaranth flour
  2. Corn flour (whole corn flour, not the UK version or North American corn starch)
  3. Durum flour (re-milled from semolina)
  4. Kamut flour (stone ground whole Kamut)
  5. Rye flour (whole, stone ground)
  6. Teff flour

The general formula was:

  • Bread flour - 75%
  • Other flour - 25%
  • Water - 72%
  • Starter (100 hydration) - 19%
  • Salt - 2%

With the starter, the overall hydration was 74%. Technique was to mix flours, water and starter and let sit for an hour, then mix in the salt (by hand and with very little mixing). All doughs fermented at room temperature for around 5 hours with 3 or 4 stretch and folds over the first couple of hours. The windowpanes on all of them were excellent - very strong and stretchy. Of all of them, the teff dough was the softest and the corn dough the silkiest. All doughs were then put in the fridge overnight and shaped / proofed in the morning.

The test batch I made first was proofed in floured oval bannetons, then transferred to peels and into the oven on the hot stones (pre-heated to 475F). The teff loaf was almost impossible - it was so soft and sticky that as soon as it was turned out onto the peel it spread into a puddle and stuck. Transferring it to the stones was very difficult and resulted in a bizarre shape!

All had good oven spring, but the corn flour loaf was the winner in this category - it nearly exploded in the oven! The rye loaf had much less spring than the others and the scores didn't open much (although when I made a second batch it had much better spring and burst).

Crumb on all of them was soft and moist, and quite open. The corn flour loaf had large holes and very moist crumb. The rye had a much closer crumb. The amaranth and teff had the most interesting aroma, with a sort of chocolatey sweetness from the teff and a lovely 'fresh hay' scent from the amaranth.

The results of the tasting were a bit surprising, actually. The corn flour loaf was the clear winner with the teff in second place and Kamut in third. The loaf made with 25% durum flour came in last! I asked people to vote for their favourite and their second favourite. Conversations indicated that people felt most strongly about both the amaranth and teff (they either really liked one or the other, or really didn't like it).

It was an interesting experiment! Here are some of the pictures:

25% Amaranth flour:

25% Corn Flour:

25% Durum flour:

25% Kamut flour:

Somehow I missed getting pictures of the Kamut loaf!

25% Rye flour:

25% Teff flour:

The Teff flour loaf was the mis-shapen one, so no picture of the whole loaf. :) When I made these breads for the actual bread tasting I baked the softest ones in the perforated Italian bread pans which made life a lot easier. These loaves not only looked lovely (crust and slashing was nice on all of them) but were easier to make more uniform slices. This photo shows (from top left to bottom right) two each of the Durum, Kamut, Rye and Teff loaves.

I just made a batch of the 25% Corn Sourdough for customers who ordered it after the bread tasting, and it turned out quite lovely!

 

Comments

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

We did something similar in the Artisan Bread Class that I took recently with my brother. Instead of loaves, we made pitas and compared fresh milled flour with flour from a commercial source (Out of a bag). All pitas were made from 100% of whatever grain we were using. So the grains we used were Kamut, Spelt, and Hard Wheat. The difference between the pita made from Fresh milled flour and the ones made from commercial flour was incredible. I never would have thought that there would have been such a difference! The fresh milled grains tasted soooo much better!

I learned a lot from your post and it is going to encourage me to add corn to my loaves. Can you tell me more about your corn flour? Did you get dried corn and mill it yourself?

I also found it interesting that rye seemed to have a negative effect on the crumb. 

Thank you so much for sharing!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Hi Danni, and thanks! No, I didn't mill the corn flour, but bought it in a bag from Bulk Barn. They have so many of the specialty flours, including the gluten-free ones. I couldn't possibly mill all the different things I use because I'm very curious and like to try all kinds of flours and grains! I do have sacks of organic grains of different kinds that I buy from a small local distributor - a guy who drives his truck around Western Canada picking up grain from organic farmers then selling it here on Vancouver Island. I get rye, Kamut, spelt, Red Fife, and hulless barley and mill my own with a little hand operated stone mill. A bit labour intensive when you do a lot of baking! I also re-mill semolina from Bulk Barn because I can't find durum flour anywhere.

I want to try scalding the corn flour as someone else suggested and see if that makes a difference (positive or negative) on the dough and bread as well.

Wendy

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

It is too bad I didn't see your post first before going there. I will take a look next time I am there. 

I almost picked up some durum semolina when I was checking the flours out. Good to know it isn't used as is and that you remill it. 

tb654719's picture
tb654719

lovely, thanks for the tips mate

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

It was fun. :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

as bread making or bread eating:-)  It is a great way for people to choose what they want you to make for them and a way for you to have everything pre-sold - Yeah!

They all look grand too!  What's not to like.  Well done and'Happy baking 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Yes, and it's a good way to test out some new breads that I haven't really made much, like all the 100% rye breads. I'm not a big fan myself so tend to not make them, but some people really liked them and ended up buying all the extras that I had made too!

bread1965's picture
bread1965

..bread tasting..  I should get my act together and organize something like that this summer among part time bread hacks like myself in Toronto! Great looking loaves! Bake happy.. 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

I'd like to try another one soon, and do a series of sourdoughs with the same flour combination (probably just 15% whole wheat and 85% bread flour) but using different mixing techniques, hydrations, timings, inoculation rates, starter hydrations, etc.

Arjon's picture
Arjon

that has worked nicely for an informal tasting is to bake a few breads myself and invite people to bring some of their favorite cold cuts / charcuterie and/or cheese. 

Ru007's picture
Ru007

I like the idea of a bread tasting event. Sounds like a lot of (delicious) fun. 

Well done LL! 

Happy baking

Ru

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

"Pretty" is important, isn't it? :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

again!