Giustos Flours
Hello, I did a search on the Giusto flours on TFL and came up with a little info, but am seeing others input as well. I am new to artisan bread but not to baking. I had been baking sourdoughs for awhile using KA Bread Flour, but I now have access to every Giusto Flour. I bought a bag of Keith's Best Unbleached and a bag of 00 Unbleached for pizzas. I have been baking all my breads with the Keith's Best now and made the best bagels I have ever done with it. With the 00 flour I have so far only made Maritozzi con la Panna. Have not had the time to have a pizza night yet :-)
My question is, being that I do have to get them in 25-50lb sacks, what flour would you use if you could pick any of them. The Unbleached Malted Bread Flour ? High Performer ? I would like to have multiple flours to change my crumb, but I wont be able to use 300lbs of flour fast enough. Just looking for some input from others than use Giustos or similar flours.
Thanks everyone,
The Skillet
I haven't used Giusto flour, but I would note that most flour you buy in the U.S., including KA Bread Flour, does have a small amount of diastatic malt added. If you decide on a flour without the added malt, you may find you need to add some yourself for best results with your bread. Diastatic malt has enzymes that break down starches into sugars, which the yeast feed on, and also contribute to crust color and flavor in bread. And in general, I would personally stick with a protein content in flour of around 11-11.5% for lean artisan breads. If you're baking mostly chewy breads like bagels, pretzels, etc., then 12%+ might be a better choice.
It's been a while since I last used it, but I liked the Organic Baker's Choice Unbleached for all around use -mostly sourdoughs. I was ordering 25lb bags also, but didn't have access to all the varieties so I can't say how it compares to their other, similar flours.
I tried one of the high gluten flours (Ultimate Performer, I think it was) but it wasn't very versatile. Even blended with other grains or in pizza dough it came out too chewy for my liking.
Marcus
I currently use Central Milling's flours (Keith's current company), but when I was using Giusto's I would buy the "Artisan Unbleached Malted Bread Flour" Winter Wheat patent flour, the protein level is about 11.5% which i find perfect for the type of bread I make (mostly mixed flour naturally levained french breads).
If I remember right Central Milling was bought by Keith Giusto who then left the family business (Giusto's Vita Grain) in South San Francisco to head up his new company in Logan, Utah. Acme Bread has a good piece on the subject here.
So the indirect answer is that if you are using Central Milling flour from Logan it's got a Giusto connection.
Costco has been carrying 25# bags for about 8 months now (same as that in baybakin's post above). I use it exclusively for sourdough bread. I am one very happy customer of their product and highly recommend it...,
Wild-Yeast
have made the switch to CM Bakers' Craft but when I used Giusto's I used The unbleached malted Artisan Flour with great results. We used for naturally levained and yeasted. We also used the high protein flour which is best for bagel dough as it produces an overly chewy loaf for my taste. I've tried a few of the others but not often enough to be a judge. The All Family Organic AP was a solid flour we used for cookies and the such.
Josh