Hard red winter wheat flour
Hi all,
Am going to jump into the amazing TFL with a question.
I have used Eden brand ORganic Hard Red Winter Wheat to bake and found that it can really vary. I understand it's a high-gluten, strong "bread" flour, although i don't remember what the difference between Spring and Winter Wheat is. Just read somewhere that it's considered a wholewheat flour?? I have not used it as such but that's not surprising at all given its texture. Also i believe the protein level is 14% (the website i saw gave the protein weight as 4g for a 28g serving).
Don't know if i'm totally off-track here; just trying to understand what the product i'm baking with. Because i have found quite major variations when using it. With the second pack, my dough was extremely wet, wetter than usual, and i found myself adding a significant bit of flour and kneading it (by machine, thank goodness) a lot more to get it anywhere near what i'm used to.
Can anyone shed light on this flour? And can one pack (presumably another harvest???) vary that much? MOST IMPORTANTLY, in general, are high-gluten flours more absorbent or less? If the dough is very wet, does that mean that the flour is NOT absorbent so i should cut back on the hydration in the first place?
Thank you very much in advance to any of you bread mavens who cares to answer!