American flour for making sourdough bread
I am visiting Texas from Canada for a month. One of my friends here and the other one coming from Australia are asking me to do a demo on making sourdough bread. Easy peasy I thought. I even got a starter going but my first loaf turned out to be heavy and gummy. I thought the starter needed more time so I waited before a second attempt. This time the starter was very active but the loaf turned out just a bit better, still had similar chewy texture. I am beginning to think... it's the flour. I notice average Canada all purpose flour has 4g of protein per 1/4 cup therefore 16 g in a cup. The two small bags (different brands) of all purpose flour I bought here were both 3 g of protein per 1/4 cup = 12 g of protein per cup (online info indicated around 11g). There must be certain brand(s) that are closer to Canadian flour. Any suggestions on what to try? King Arthur bread flour has a bit more protein, what's your experience? Some suggested Robin Hood but others seemed to disagree. Bob's Red Mill Artisan bread flour claims to have 5 g protein per 1/4 cup, even higher than Canadian flour. Anyone has experience with it? I don't have much time to wait for shipping so would like to be able to just pick up in a regular grocery store in Texas. Any other suggestions? Thank you in advance.
You don't need protein that high to get good bread without gumminess. I suggest looking for standard large nationwide brands in the supermarket. Don't use store brands. They might be fine or might not, you never know. I use Gold Medal and Pillsbury unbleached all-purpose flour. They seem to perform the same as KA All-purpose, despite an apparently lower protein level on the package label. All-purpose won't absorb as much water as a higher-protein variety, so use several percent lower hydration. There is no reason why an all-purpose bread should be gummy. Let it ferment more, that might take care of it.
If your store has Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur, so much the better. As I said, it's not necessary to go to great lengths to get very high protein flour. Gold Medal All-Purpose is capable of making fine sourdough bread.
If your bread is coming out gummy, aside from fermentation I would think it needs to be baked longer. As long as the crust isn't burning up you can bake longer, and even if it is you can cover the loaf with foil and cook longer. Or turn off the heat and leave the loaf in the oven for another ten minutes or longer.
Thank you very much for your suggestions. The two brands I have tried so far never have the beautiful gluten development like the unbleached flour I use at home. No matter how much I work the dough, the gluten stretched just a bit before breaking. I could tell even then the loaf was not going to be fluffy due to poor gluten development. I did go for lower hydration and longer fermentation but it helped only very little.
If I had more time I would definitely play with various types and brands just to satisfy my curiosity. I only have one more week before the demo so I need something pronto. I checked Walmart website where it indicated they carried Bob's Red Mill and King Authur flour though I went there last week and found none. I will stop by the store again today, if they still don't have them I will go with Gold Medal or Phillsbury if they have these two. The last time I went there I saw many names that I didn't recognize. My friend's friend said she had to add vital wheat gluten for her loaves to rise properly. I may have to consider that too.
Thanks again for taking time to reply.
As an example what can happen when you use brands that are not large nation-wide ones, I once got a sack of "Hungarian High-altitude" flour at a Walmart. It made great bread. I thought that I might switch to using the flour as my standard flour. A few months later I got another sack, and the bread was a failure. It never developed much gluten and never rose. I'm sure that basic wheat blend was fine, but somehow the quality wasn't consistent. Gold Medal and Pillsbury can't afford failures like that so they - as best I know - work hard to make sure their flours will always perform the same. At least, they always have for me. KA and Bob's seem to fall into that category too.
Thank you for your insights. You very well be correct, the first bag I bought was the HEB brand. I only know this is a large grocery chain name other than that I don't know anything about their quality control. I did go to Walmart and found a bag of 5lb King Arthor bread flour last night. Started a sponge, as soon as I began to stir I could tell the difference. The gluten was definitely much stronger than the previous two bags, no mix and break while stretching. I formed a dough this morning, it was just as beautiful as I remembered, smooth amd stretchy. Only four hours later, it rose exactly like how it should. I just divided into two small boules so once baked they could be shared with my next door neighbors. I am so happy that I finally found something that I could work with. Too bad Walmart only carries 5lb bags. In Canada, I could pay just a bit more for 10K of No Name unbleached flour enough to feed the entire village. LOL
Glad you stuck with it and found some KA!