May 26, 2020 - 5:36am
Buying local flour
I'll be receiving a mockmill here shortly, and so Ive been reaching out to find a local source of wheatberries. I found a farm 20m from me that is selling berries for a 1.50 a pound. When I asked about protein content, the response I received was:
> It is a soft wheat with a protein content of 13 1/2% - 15%. It is an all purpose flour that works great in breads, especially sour dough breads.
13 to 15 seems a bit higher to me than all purpose, though I will be using this almost entirely for bread. Is there something to the home milling process that shifts these protein numbers? If I sift out the bran, will the protein content drop?
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What country are you in? That determines what people mean by terms such as "soft wheat".
In the US "soft wheat" means low protein pastry wheat. But 13.5 to 15% protein means it is not pastry wheat, so there is a bit of confusion in what you were told.
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If the protein % is indeed 13.5 to 15%, that is good enough for bread.
Whole wheat generally has a higher percentage of protein than the white flour made from it because of protein in the germ. But... the protein in the germ does not make gluten, as does the protein in the endosperm.
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Re sifting: There is little/no protein in bran. Protein that makes gluten is in the endosperm, the white part. Protein that does not make gluten is in the germ.
I do not know if sifting home-milled flour removes the germ.
Welcome to the world of home-millimg.
Im in the US. Im primarily concerned with:
How do I take these wheat berries and mill what ends up being all purpose flour? From my research, if I wanted 900 grams of all purpose flour and 100g of whole wheat flour, using my purchased wheat berries I would:
Take 100 grams of the berries and mill it, set aside
Take an amount over 900 grams of the berries and mill it, sifting out the bran to get my all purpose flour.
Then I would proceed with the recipe normally?
"Take an amount over 900 grams of the berries and mill it, sifting out the bran to get my all purpose flour. Then I would proceed with the recipe normally?"
Many people who home mill do sift their flour. But at home, you can never get all the bran and germ out. What you end up with has less bran than whole wheat, but it won't be all purpose flour. It would still be brownish with some bran and some/most of the germ.
All purpose flour, like you buy in stores today, can only be made with roller mills and complex rolling/sifting systems. Home-use stone or impact mills will never duplicate it.
Many users here at TFL, myself included, do home-milling. Some sift, most don't. I don't.
Here's a general rule: (The sifters can correct me on the detail) If you sift with a #40 screen, then what passes through the screen will still have the bran content equivalent to a mixture of 50% whole wheat and 50% store-bought white (bread or AP) flour.
My favorite loaves are 90% home-milled whole wheat (no sifting), and 10% store-bought AP or bread flour.
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There are other ways to get white AP flour and white Bread flour during the pandemic. If you are near a major city, willing to drive a little, and can store a 50 pound bag of flour, I'll give you some hints. They cost about $22-25, plus your travel expense.
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Also, $1.50/pound for wheat berries, at the farm, (no shipping included) is very expensive. The last time I bought a bag of 50 pounds of berries, from a distributor, it was $23. Even expensive organic Kamut was only $26 for 25 pounds.
Ok, maybe, at a trendy urban/suburban farmers market, where farmers rip off the city-slickers, a 3 pound bag of berries might sell for $4.50. But no way would I pay $15 for a 10 pound bag of berries. That's a rip-off.
50 pounds at $1.50/pound is $75. For $75, you can buy a 50 pound bag of premium hard wheat berries from almost anywhere in the US, including shipping.
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I have no way of knowing what your nearby farmer is selling. But among US artisan bakers, in the terminology we use, "soft wheat" is not used for bread, nor does it have 13.5% protein. So there was some kind of mis-communciation, or mis-understanding, or perhaps some variety of wheat that I have never encountered or read about before. (I've been home milling about 3 or 4 years.)
So I would suggest you keep shopping and doing research into the matter.
$75 for 50 pounds of berries at the farm? Fahgeddaboutit.
Ive had trouble with loaves that are over 50% whole wheat before. I've been told the bran cuts the gluten, though I have no idea if that is just psuedo science. Are these home milled loaves harder to work with than standard all purpose dough?
Well, yes, there is more to learn and do with loaves that are 50% or more whole wheat,
Whole-wheat flour is very much different than white flour. it must be handled differently.
Home-milled whole wheat is very much different than store-bought whole wheat, and must be handled differently.
We have had several threads in the past few months about the special handling that home-milled whole wheat takes. You have to re-learn almost everything you knew about bread.
That said, you can see pictures of beautiful fluffy-puffy springy full-of-holes bread on TFL that are 50% or more whole wheat.
I think whole wheat makes wonderful bread. To me, bread isn't bread unless it has at least 2/3rds whole wheat.
Good luck on your home-milling journey. There is much to explore and learn, but it is exciting and rewarding, and very much worth it. A hobby where you can eat your mistakes as well as your successes! (and even if you can't eat it, bake it up and toast it, and the birds will get rid of the evidence for you. ;-)
thank you!