Flours, flours and more flours!
Hey all, pretty new to the world of artisanal bread baking but I am loving it. I made my first sourdough from a levain that I matured over a few weeks. I was very pleased with my first result (see pics). This had me wondering what a long ferment with all these various microbes would produce in terms of flavours. I have perused the internet a bit and found a little bit of knowledge on the various grains used in bread making and their profiles.
I'd love to hear what flours you enjoy using and maybe offer some bakers percentages for formulas with such grains. The following list I have on this post are some recipe percentages I found online when browsing. I'd appreciate any feedback on what you think about them as well as any further knowledge on the flavour profiles and dough characteristics the flour imparts on a bread dough. It's all so exciting to me how complex something as simple as bread is. i want to experiment and try tons of different combinations.
For the record, the bread I posted pics of is 90%white, 5% buckwheat and 5% rye, 78-80% hydration. I think it overproofed a little bit, but I am pleased with the result, being my first high hydration dough and 100% levain dough.
Spelt - Mild nut, sweetness
Buckwheat - Nutty, absorbs lots of moisture
Amaranth - Very nutty, difficult to work
Rye - Tangy, keeps longer, gummy texture
Barley - Malt, low in gluten
Oat - Gluten free, use with high gluten flours
Kamut - Buttery, nutty
Fife flour - ??
Buckwheat - cold bulk ferment
75% Water
20% Buckwheat
80% White Bread Flour
18% Levain
2% Salt
•——————•
Kamut - autolyse
72% Water
60% White Bread Flour
40% Kamut
15% Levain
2% Salt
•——————•
Spelt Artisanal
80% Water
25% Spelt
75% White Bread Flour
5% Honey
2% Salt
Red Fife wheat's true genetic source (its "parents", country of origin, etc) is apparently unknown, but what it became - a kind of classic in modern wheat - is clear. Canadian farmers were still planting descendants of Red Fife (as the majority of the country's output, not as a specialty crop) in the 1970s and 1980s, perhaps longer. So it might not really belong in "ancient grains" discussions. ? That's not to say it doesn't deserve special consideration - it is a classic and it is important - but as a part of what helped to define modern North American wheat.
I wonder if - to some extent at least - people who think they're nostalgic for the taste of Red Fife are actually nostalgic for the taste of older methods of flour milling.
Thanks David, does Canada still produce a lot of fife then? I noticed it in some loaves at an independent bakery here in Toronto.
Curious about its flavour profile and handling characteristics.
I just found this on the Healthy butcher’s website. I love me some Canadiana!
“The Red Fife hard spring wheat is a heritage variety. Red Fife was first grown by Dave Fife in 1842 at a farm in Peterborough, Ontario. It is characterized by 3 little awns at the top of the wheat head. The stone-ground flour is milled from certified-organic whole grain wheat grown on CIPM Farm. The flour contains all of the bran, wheat germ, and endospern of the wheat kernels. It contains 13.4 per cent protein, and has a falling # of 340 seconds, which is important for bread makers.”
Mr. Fife, who had moved to Canada from Scotland, wanted to grow better wheat than was available in his new country. He wrote to a friend back in Scotland requesting some good seed wheat. The friend got some wheat from a recent foreign shipment (not Scottish-grown wheat) and sent it along. Most of what Fife received didn't grow well, but one or two seeds did. That tiny sample was what became Red Fife wheat. Were those one or two seeds even what the friend had intended to send? Were they a chance mutation? Accidentally included in the shipment? Nobody knows.