January 6, 2015 - 12:29pm
Moulin d'Auguste T65 flour for baking?
Anyone have experience with this flour for bread baking? Someone offer me a few bags to buy but I have no knowledge with it. T55 and T65 from France.
Anyone have experience with this flour for bread baking? Someone offer me a few bags to buy but I have no knowledge with it. T55 and T65 from France.
But I do use Campaille des champs and moulins des Paris, t65 and t55 respectively. French and German flours are milled differently from the continental stuff. Instead of removing bran and processing the flour to the desired degree, they process it to several different degrees, then mix it together to obtain the desired ash and gluten content.
French flours are a bit weaker than flours made from North American grain. Because of the milling process, French flours also contain a higher proportion of active enzymes and wild yeasts. There is also a smaller proportion of broken starch granules (usually). This has three effects. One, the flour smells fucking incredible once you hydrate it. Two, it takes a lot more kneading to hydrate the dough fully, and three, it breaks down much more quickly than American flours.
Some French millers also include a small portion of unaged flour, which means that the flour continues to mature when you open the bag.
Generally, when using French flours, I've found that intensive mixing is useless and can cause gluten breakdown if you use a spiral mixer. Modern french flours are particularly suited for autolyse and s+f techniques. If you make a bread using 100% french flour, you'll probably have to lower the hydration by about 5-10% to get the consistency that you are used to. I would stay away from using french flours in sourdough until you get used to it. The dough will break down very quickly and become a sticky mess unless you manage temperature and fermentation precisely.
If the price is reasonable, go for it. Here I get a 25 kg bag of french flour for about 40-50 USD, including shipping. Beware of expiry dates though. Don't let them pass off old flour to you.
Anyways, good luck!