Gilchester's Farmhouse Brown Flour - a generous gift from the UK
Hello everyone,
Andy (ananda) very kindly sent some Gilchester’s Farmhouse Brown flour [1] home with Franko, after Franko’s recent trip to the UK and Czech Republic [2].
Many thanks to both of these generous bakers – Andy for sharing this lovely flour, and Franko, who carefully packed the flour all the way home from the UK, then shipped some of the precious lot to me :^)
(Isn't it cool how TFL enables us to make friends with people from all parts of the world?)
delighted to see this arrive in the mail: gorgeous, soft, golden, fluffy flour...
I used the flour for two separate bakes of Andy’s Gilchester’s Miche [3] - this formula another fantastic contribution by Andy, but not the best handling of it, on my part...
The first bake (two boules) was under-proofed - to my dismay!, attempting a pretty stencilled pattern, inspired by the Gilchester's website design...
(the leading photo for this post was the "good" side)
before baking, then... under-proofing resulting in oven spring
first boule...can still sort of see the "g" for gilchester's; and the other fared even worse!
Oh, dear.
Looks gave way to flavor and aroma, though: after the baking these loaves had a toasty, almost caramel-like aroma; the crust was crisp, but the crumb soft in texture.
The taste!: tangy, wheaty, even a bit peppery – with a lingering acidity, quite delicious.
Andy encouraged me for the second bake, saying it was better to be on the under-proofed side than
over-proofed, with this flour - given high extraction, fine milling, and lots of enzymes.
Not heeding Andy's advice, the second bake (a mini-miche with the remaining flour), I managed to
over-proof (proofed for 2.5 hours instead of 2 hours as for the first bake):
baked, with very little movement in the oven ...and the crumb
crumb might look a little better close up?
...this bread was just as fragrant and flavorful as the first :^)
Thanks again, Andy and Franko - your thoughtfulness resulted in bread with amazing flavor!
I'm thinking this flour must have been recently milled, given its 'fresh' taste - quite fabulous;
causing me to start thinking about home-milling again so I can try to recreate this flavor.
I am very grateful for the chance to bake with this flour - a lovely opportunity!
Happy baking everyone,
:^) breadsong