January 17, 2016 - 5:22pm
Great River Organic All Purpose flour
Has anyone worked with this AP organic white flour? It's not whole wheat but looks to have lots of the bran included.
Im having some issues with this flour. I made a sourdough using my long time living culture the bread well but completely deflated when I peeled this into my oven. I e never seen anything like this. The loaves were flat and dense. For my recipe I made a poolish the night before using all this flour; then on make day I used 4 c of this flour and water using my normal baking methodologies.
any thoughts here? I purchased a 10# bag from Costco. Honestly the flour has only been good for pizza or the occasional pancakes. Thanks.
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I had similar problems with a 10# bag I bought at the KC, MO Costco so I emailed the company. They promptly replied and told me that it wasn't an AP flour at all but more of a light white whole wheat flour with a fair amount of the bran removed. There was supposed to be a "New" version in the pipeline that would include a lower protein white flour mixed in. If I was still unhappy, they suggested that I take advantage of Costco's refund policy but I'd long since thrown out the bag. The flour is available through Amazon.com so you might consider reading how other bakers like the product.
I've tried going up to 72% hydration in my loaves but that didn't work out for me at all. I've since gone back to Dakota Maid Bread Flour and KAF AP for my breads and pizza dough. I take the Great River and put it in a dredge or shaker for use in dusting my kneading surface and dusting my brotform. It certainly does take the tackiness out of dough but with ten pounds, it will be around for a while. Maybe I'll try a 78% hydration loaf just for grins and see what I can make out of it..
http://www.greatrivermilling.com/organic-bread-flours/
In general, I have found whole wheat does not handle long fermentation or prefermentation in high percentages very well. This hybrid flour may need to be handled more like whole wheat than the misnomer of AP flour. I only used flour from this company once several years ago but I don't remember any problems. I most likely used the WW variety,though.
Ok so I wasn't loosing my mind. Yeah I made a few loaves whith his using 50% KAF bread flour and they were more dense than I thought so I made a test loaf yesterday. They fermented very quickly which I hadn't seen with my starter. I used more water than normal. I used almost all I have so Im good for now but man this flour was odd.
I did happen to purchase a 10# bag of the GR WW at a Costco before buying the white flour. I thought their WW was very good and cost competitive. That's why I took a chance with the white flour.
If you handle it like a WW, it may make a delicious loaf for you. WW needs to be handled in a very different manner to have a delicious outcome. Essentially, it needs some soak time to allow the bran bits to absorb water thoroughly. This can mean simply mixing the flour and water and letting it sit for 30 minutes before adding all the other ingredients. Have fun!
I use it like a white whole wheat and have had great results.