Maslin and Golden Flour Breads
Recently Andy posted about some breads [1] he baked with flours that his neighbors had brought him the Watermill on Little Salkeld. One of the flours was Maslin described as a mix of wheat middlings and rye. The Watermill used a bolting process which screened wheat into fine flour, middlings (described as a gray coarse flour) semolina, and bran. My interest was piqued as I have just become fascinating with milling and sifting flour, so I decided to see if I could generate middlings from wheat berries and use it to create a Maslin flour loaf. Andy posted very clear instructions which I followed as closely as possible altering only for differences in the flours and a retard to accommodate schedule. I have not baked with flax seeds since I first started baking, and then just threw them into the bread without knowing that they benefited from a good soak. Andy's formula included them (or linseed which I think is the British term) and thus so did mine. My loaf had a great spring in the oven, and came out with a complex but subtle flavor that I think is a feature of combined rye and wheat breads, enhanced greatly by the flax seeds. I may come to wish that I had easier access to this flour than hours of milling and sifting, as I would love to bake this loaf many times.
It seems to me that this picture makes the bread look pretty dense but it really isn't. I wouldn't even call it hearty. The flavors are just too subtle.
Of course middlings are supposed to be a byproduct of the milling process rather than the main event. So as a result of screening out the middlings, I had a lot more of what I'll call Golden Flour. This is the most refined flour I've been able to create with the technology at my disposal, and it is far from white, having a fair amount of very fine bran in it. So I made a couple of loaves from that. It has a lot of flavor, and is much more rustic than a white loaf despite the fineness of the flour. I am guessing that this flour would be similar to the high extraction flour many people post about here. Since I haven't tasted that, though, I can't be sure.
Here are formulas and directions.
MASLIN LOAF
12/16/2012 | |||||
Starter | |||||
Seed hydration | 63% | ||||
KAAP | 94% | ||||
Whole Rye | 6% | ||||
5:00 PM | 9:30 PM | ||||
Seed | 40 | ||||
KAAP | 23 | 47 | 200 | 270 | 95% |
Whole Rye | 1 | 3 | 11 | 15 | 5% |
Water | 15 | 35 | 140 | 190 | 67% |
476 | 11.6 | ||||
Soaker 1 | Soaker 2 | ||||
Middlings | 137 | Flax seeds | 30 | ||
Water | 137 | Water | 90 | ||
Salt | 4 | ||||
12/17/2012 | |||||
Final | Starter | Soaker | Total | Percent | |
KAAP | 0 | 119 | 119 | 27% | |
Whole Rye | 0 | 7 | 7 | 2% | |
Medium Rye | 186 | 186 | 41% | ||
Middlings | 137 | 137 | 31% | ||
Water | 0 | 84 | 227 | 311 | 69% |
Salt | 4 | 4 | 8 | 1.8% | |
Flax seeds | 30 | 30 | 7% | ||
Starter | 210 | 28% | |||
798 | 178% | ||||
Starter factor | 0.4 | ||||
Make soakers at 5pm 12/16/2012 | |||||
Water is cool from tap | |||||
Mix all at 8:30am (150g medium rye) - 5 minutes to incorporate | |||||
Then 10 minutes - speed 1 and 2 | |||||
Add more Medium Rye to make dough cohere (36g) | |||||
Mix 8 more minutes | |||||
BF for two hours | |||||
Shape into fat batard, place in basket | |||||
with parchment sprinkled with bran across length (not sides) | |||||
and loaf floured | |||||
Place in refrigerator at 11:15 | |||||
Remove at 3:30 | |||||
Proof for 90 minutes | |||||
Place on peel, spritz, and slash | |||||
Bake at 450 for 20 minutes with steam | |||||
13 minutes without |
GOLDEN LOAVES
Final | Starter | Total | Percent | |
KAAP | 130 | 130 | 22% | |
Whole Rye | 7 | 7 | 1% | |
Golden | 460 | 460 | 77% | |
Water | 315 | 92 | 407 | 68% |
Salt | 10 | 10 | 1.7% | |
Starter | 230 | 23% | ||
1015 | 170% | |||
Starter factor | 0.5 | |||
Starter from previous | ||||
Mix all ingredients for around 15 minutes speed 1 and 2 | ||||
BF for 2.5 hours with 2 S&F on counter | ||||
Cut and preshape | ||||
Rest 15 minutes | ||||
Shape into batards | ||||
Place in refrigerator at 12:10 | ||||
Remove at 3:40 | ||||
Proof for 2 hours 20 minutes | ||||
Place on peel, spritz, and slash | ||||
Bake at 450 for 20 minutes with steam | ||||
14 minutes without |
I decided to soak the middlings overnight, as they had been quite coarse in another bread. This seemed to soften them up a bit. I was going to do half and half middings and medium rye, but my milling and sifting process didn't cooperate so I used slightly more medium rye. When I started mixing the dough came together immediately, but them fell apart completely and just stuck to the edges of the bowl. After trying to pull it together, I finally added some more medium rye, which did the trick.
Here are my milling and sifting notes:
Mill coarse, Sift in #24 | ||
Mill leavings coarse, sift in #24 | ||
Mill leavings medium, sift in #24 | ||
Mill leavings fine, sift in #24 | ||
Remove leavings which are bran | ||
Sift flour in #30 | ||
Remove leavings which are bran | ||
Sift flour in #55 | ||
Mill leavings at medium | ||
Sift in #55 | ||
Mill leavings at medium fine | ||
Sift in #55 | ||
Mill leavings at fine | ||
Sift in #55 | ||
Leavings are Middlings | ||
Sifted flour is Golden | ||
Berries | 670 | |
Golden | 460 | 69% |
Middlings | 137 | 20% |
Bran | 51 | 8% |
Loss | 22 | 3% |
I am guessing that my middlings are probably quite different than Watermill middlings. I am unable to separate middlings and semolina and don't think I want to because then my quantities would be too small. The term middlings, however, doesn't seem to be terribly precise: see here [2]. So I am thinking I'm within my rights to call it such. I was quite surprised to see that middlings are looked down on as a food source even though that's where the nutrients are. The article says that they are being considered as a source of bio-fuels, because of course it's better to put the nutrients in our cars than our bodies.