Wheat Montana Natural White
Does anyone happen to know what the protein content of Wheat Montana Natural White flour is.
I've have really good luck with it the past two bakes of pain au levain. It does not seem to be as strong as KA Bread flour though.
Yesterday though, my order of Giusto's Artisan was delivered and my bread today does not have near as much rise and strength. I did make dough yesterday, did a 3-hour bulk ferment and then retarded. This morning I formed the boules and proofed in bannetons. The forms proofed for 3 hours. I was having a hard time determining whether they were ready to bake using the poke method. Maybe I should have only allowed them to proof for 2 hours.
I don't know if the dough just overproofed, or if there is a significant difference between the protein/gluten in the two flours. When I used the Montana wheat, there was no retarding though. I bullk ferment for 3 hours and then proof the forms for somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 hours.
but Wheat Montana lists their whole wheat flours as 14.5% protein content. That makes me think that the Natural White is in the same ballpark. I remember that the bag said "High protein", but don't recall exactly what the analysis was. It seems like it was listed as 4 grams of protein in a 30 gram sample.
King Arthur shows their Bread flour as having a 12.7% protein content.
Giustos lists their Artisan flour as 11-11.5% protein, which should work just fine even though it is less than the Wheat Montana.
Without knowing the characteristics of your levain or your temperatures during proofing, it's pretty difficult to say which factor may have had the greatest influence. Giustos is the lowest protein content of the three flours you mention, but there are a lot of people making really good bread with weaker flours than that.
The difference may simply be a matter of comparing apples to oranges, figuratively speaking. I would expect that doughs made with the different flours to behave differently, even at the same hydrations. The Wheat Montana would probably absorb measurably more water to achieve a dough with the same texture as doughs made with either the Giustos or King Arthur flours.
Paul
They have a spec sheet on their site (wheatmontana.com) and it lists percentages for everything but the natural white.
I do know though that is I take use equal amounts of water and equal weights of flour, the KA Bread definitely comes out much drier which would make me think that the natural white is maybe less protein than the KA bread.