A new microbaker. Advice on flour

Hello. My name is Nour and I've been following this lovely community for years, but this is my first time posting.

I'm training to be a baker and I am facing some problems with the type of flour I'm using. Its locally milled (I live in the netherlands and the wheat flour here is generally not very strong) and has a lot of complexity, but is also very slack and doesn't seem to withstand longer fermentation. Is there any advice on how I can test the different qualities of the flour? And advice would be helpful 🙂

I know of one the hydration ratio test but I would like more

I had a bag of French T80 and I found it couldn't tolerate a moderate hydration (65%). The dough simply disintegrated over time. Then I tried a range of lower hydrations:

58% yeasted: good handling, normal loaf, no outstanding qualities in finished loaf;
62% yeasted: marginal dough and acted wetter as time went by. Ended like a wet ciabatta. Baked in a Pullman pan, it produced a loaf with an open crumb and excellent flavor;
57% sourdough: produced an acceptable hearth loaf but gluten strength was marginal and it didn't brown well.

I can well believe that your flour is similarly touchy. Since then I have made good loaves by mixing the flour with more robust flours, but even then I had to be careful with hydration levels. (I live in the US and it's easy for me to get stronger flours. I think this T80 has a more complex flavor than some standard US flours, when it can be persuaded to produce a good loaf).

TomP

One useful test is the wet gluten test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wakjvGXqhm4

This will give you a good idea of the strength of the flours you are testing compared to each other. It gives a better idea of baking quality than just knowing the protein content.

Here's another version of the same test, without pictures, but with more wet gluten values for comparison.

Lance

The easiest method would be to ask the miller. He should know his flour. Gluten (W and P/L) is one aspect. The other important aspect when it comes to long fermentation is the enzymatic activity (falling number, unfortunately very seldom measured and published)

I was about to post exactly the same advice as sparkfan. Agree completely.

For sourdough you should be looking for a flour with a W value above 200.

Every four producer should have these rheologic values for their produce, even if it's not on the packaging.

I can believe your flour is just as sensitive. I have since made good loaves by mixing wheat flour with harder flours, but even then I have to be careful with the hydration level. spanish dictionary