April 1, 2010 - 11:12pm
What is Vienna flour?
I called a bakery supply store and asked if they had bread flour and they said that they have Dover Vienna flour. Dover is the milling company. Does anyone know what this Vienna four is, what it's good for, and how it performs? Comments would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Hi Uberathlete.
Vienna flour is a top grade of wheat which has been milled very finely, to a relatively low extraction rate.
In other words it is used to make the finest high volume white breads in Continental Europe, eg Vienna Breads; cobs and blommers here in the UK.
I think the original term was adopted in France, as the bakers making the highest quality breads at the time [19th Century] hailed from Vienna.
As you'll probasbly have realised, this flour was also cherished for production of the finest strudel and laminated pastries.
Best wishes
Andy
Thanks for replying Andy. So can Vienna flour be used for crusty breads and sweet breads as well? As a general use bread flour, is it safe to assume that Vienna flour is good? What effect does extraction rate have on baking?
Hi uberathlete,
I'll post on this later, as I've found some photos which may be a good means of illustration.
I need to upload through my flickr account first, but I will get back to you.
I have some new things to post about on my blog, so it may well end up there. But I will give the thread details here when I post.
In the meantime, if you have Hamelman's book, a neat intro into "Vienna" bread and flour, and "viennoiserie" can be seen on pp102
Thanks
Andy
Hi Uberathlete,
You can check out my post here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17256/vienna-flour-and-bread-types
Best wishes
Andy
Wow, awesome stuff. Thank you Andy. So, from what I have read, is it safe to assume that Vienna flour would be good for enriched breads? Because it seems like it would.