Slightly less than white white flour ...
So I have a few sacks of some white flour that's been stoneground and then sifted - rather than being roller milled. This is nice flour and while the bran has been sifted out it still has a good portion of the wheatgerm present.
And here's the issue - it's not white. It's a sort of beige, verging on grey. That's the downs-side. The upside is that it doesn't contain any of the statutory minerals and vitamins normally present in white flour (due in-part to the wheatgerm left in it)
So for some people where I live, this is an added bonus - wheatgerm plus no additives.... And for them, that offsets the lack of whiteness.
Now for personal use it's fine - makes good bread, but for the stuff I sell... I've had mixed feedback so-far and just wanted to canvass opinion here. What would you think if you got a loaf that was off-white when you were expecting a white loaf? (its sourdough if that makes a difference)
Let me know..
Cheers,
-Gordon
Would be interested in how off white you mean.
Market it as "stoneground" and/or "Unbleached" and I suspect people will like it.
I can certainly market it as stoneground, however it's been illegal to bleach flour in the UK since 1998, so using that in marketing is sort of frowned upon...
Cheers,
-Gordon
What an interesting question. Like Edo Bread, I'd like to see a photo, particularly with one of these loaves next to one made with white flour (monitors and hand-held devices having a tendency to produce variable results).
I have a feeling that an off-white sourdough is probably more ok than it would be in a loaf made from commercial yeast. I also think that if you sell it with an explanation of why it isn't white, it would be more appealing - people like a story about the premium products they are buying.
Sourdough bread to be off-white anyway. It wouldn't bother me. I find that my loaves raised with yeast are whiter than my sourdough ones even when using the same flour (Waitrose Leckford Estate strong white).
Have to agree re the marketing - play up the fact it's healthy ;-)
Trouble is, everything I've kneaded up so-far apart from the initial test loaves I made last week is earmarked for customers for tomorrow, anyway.
I've still got some of the old white left, so I'll try & do a side-by-side view too.
Cheers,
-Gordon
is made from high extraction wheat 80-85%. Phil from Brisbane had lots of examples of it on his blog (Pips) One of the most killer white breads ever baked by anyone on TFL and would be my personal best white bread ever if I could get his crumb - but I can't and have tried - but haven't given up.
Phil's blog is one of the ones that everyone on TFL should read from start to finish. No one would complain about that bread if you could get to close to his. I think that Josh ( golgi70 ) had a good take on Phil's high extraction white bread too.
Happy baking
I have been buying an organic unbleached all purpose flour from DayBreak Mill here in Canada. It's stoneground also with 30% bran removed. It's lovely but it is nowhere close to white. Not a problem for me but I do have to pick what I bake with it because there are some things that folks just expect to be white. On the other there are others of us that just balk at pure white products. It's just not natural.
... as what I'm using - sited to about 30% extraction which removes the bran but leaves the wheatgerm behind.
And yes - some people are expecting white bread to be white and not beige. Might have to go back to Shipton Mill's roller milled stuff - which is still good.
Cheers,
-Gordon
Gail_nk"s suggestion makes me picture a nice loaf.
For sales it's all in the name most of the time. Throw some flax in and call it flax seed bread pr something like that. People understand that and don't ask questions. Call it "Artisan" (Yikes!) bread and let them use their imagination. I guess that's the biggest problem - what to call it so people don't expect a pure white loaf.
Good luck!
How about adding just a little whole wheat or other whole grain flour to it to give it a nice color? While I like using unbleached white flour I do like a little color so I had 50 grams to 850 grams of white for 2 loaves of bread. Gives it a nice rustic look...
SG white flour with wheatgerm SD or something to that effect.
FWIW - Bacheldre white flour produces far darker crumb than my usual Shipton Mill #4.
I recently made bread using Gilchesters Organics white flour and it turned out a rather unpleasant (in my eyes) grey colour. I agree with Gail_NK - add 5% sieved wholemeal or rye to turn the grey into a hint of brown.
That white flour in the UK is not as white as the white flour in USA
Flour bleaching is still allowed in the US, although you can buy un-bleached if you look for it. We banned bleaching additives/processing in the UK in 1998.
Most white flour here is produced via roller milling - this can actively separate most of the bran and wheatgerm and from what I understand, flour that goes into bulk commercial processing (think: Warburtons, etc.) does get further sifting while the smaller mills don't (as far as I'm aware - anyone from Doves, Shipton, etc. ?)
Stonegrinding mixes in more of the wheatgerm making it harder to sift out and the flour darker.
-Gordon
The UK is stricter healthwise.
I think flours should be standardised around the world. Atleast the meanings
Had some 'white' dough left over this morning, so made up a quick stick:
It's on a piece of white paper which my useless camera has decided is blue however you get the idea - the bread is a distinct grey colour )-:
I've just bought myself some of my regular white flour to do some oven tests too (it's baking a bit weird as well as being a weird colour and want to see if its the flour of the oven)
I'm thinking that after I finish this batch I'm going back to my old flour - I might even go back before I use it up just to keep my customers (and me!) happy with the bake.
Cheers,
-Gordon
Hi Gordon, that's intereting to see the photo. It doesn't exactly look grey on my monitor, but then it definitely doesn't look white. If you aren't happy with the colour in real life then going back to a flour you are satisfied with sounds like a good idea. Happy baking, whichever you use! Colin.
Yeah, would be hard to sell that as a white flour loaf. Maybe you can use it up in your rye or whole wheat loaves where the color wouldn't be an issue.
Exactly what my flour looks like. Great flavour but some folks don't like the color. Great for muffins and quick breads, scones and anything that doesn't need to be pure white.
White bread means low quality bread to me/ Here in the states 'straight flour' is 72% extraction and all white patent flours are sifted whiter than that/ All my home milled flour, i shoot for 80-72% With 72% white and 80% high extraction. The bread made with 80% high exractio tastes a world better though.
If I was running a bakery, i would use this flour to make a special bread that I marketed as better, more nutritious, healthier and hearty and sell it for more money too.
happy baking
I'll need to ask the mill what their extraction is for their 'white' flour, but they also make an 81% extraction flour and it's very good. It's just this white I'm having issues with.
Last night I made up a couple of loaves with the stuff I used to use and this morning they're looking good - now proving and will be in the oven in under 2 hours. I think I'm going to drop their white and go back to the previous mill though - my customers aren't happy with it.
And I do run a bakery, but marketing is hard to do without proof here - I'd have to be able to prove what I say (re. healthier, etc.) and as I'm just a tiny operation, I really can't.
One reason for my changing/trying this flour is to try to save some money & delivery issues. The mill I have used for the past 5 years relies on a courier company to deliver (at the level I buy at), so they have to box the 25Kg sacks and I've had more than one arrive damaged. That mill has an entry-level of 500Kg to move into their 'trade' section where I'd save a lot of money on the flour cost and less packaging (delivered on pallet). Sadly I can't store that much flour (20 sacks) The mill I'm trialling is cheaper, uses no additional packaging, runs their own delivery vans and has a minimum order of 150Kg (6 sacks) which I do have storage space for.
Oh for the simple days when I was just making 1-2 loaves a week!
Cheers,
-Gordon
It's a bit of a simplification, but if they expect a whiter loaf, you have two basic options, deliver what they expect or modify their expectation. Since the product looks different, the latter rates to be pretty hard to do if you present it as like for like. Presenting it as similar but not fully like for like may not be enough to sway their opinion, but will probably give you a better chance.
What do you call the bread made with the older flour and have you changed the name with the new flour?