Rouge de Bordeaux tests
I got a bag of Rouge de Bourdeaux (85% extraction) flour from Dayspring Farms recently and have been wanting to test out the flavor of it. Here's a quick write up of my first go-rounds with it.
My first attempt was a purist attempt to get an unclouded sense of the flour:
100% Rouge de Bourdeaux flour (85%) extraction
80% hydration
standard process and timing (as much as this current heat will allow) except for a slightly longer autolyse
I was anticipating doing 85% hydration, thinking that a whole(er) wheat flour should be able to handle that. I added all but 5% of the water, with the intention of adding the remainder with the salt. But it became apparent that even at 80% I was bordering on more water than the flour could handle. While it would feel like I was developing gluten doing stretch and folds, the dough would never hold shape. I was able to somewhat shape it and do a cold proof, which made it somewhat possible to get the dough into the dutch oven with some structure. Surprisingly, it baked up ok, with a decent (very wet) crumb. Pretty good flavor, no bitterness.
Round 2 involved taking a Tartine No. 3 recipe for Wheat-Rye loaf with coriander and carraway.
Central Milling bread flour- 45%
Dayspring Rouge de Bourdeaux- 45%
Dark Rye- 10%
Wheat Germ- 7%
Water- 85%
Leaven- 5%
Salt- ~2%
Fennel Seed, Coriander Seed, toasted, rough ground- ~ 1tbsp each
Standard process. Despite higher hydration, dough was much more manageable. I expected a better crumb based on the feel of the dough as it developed, but the final bread was a little lackluster- a little dry. Crumb not especially open, nor especially chewy. Flavor pretty good. The seeds are a nice flavor without being overpowering. Weird note- partway through baking, I think sometime after I dropped the temp down to 450, I ran out of propane and had to switch out tanks. While that should have been after the critical oven-spring period and not affected it too much, it probably had some less-than-ideal impact.
All in all, I'm not super excited by this flour. Maybe I just need to feel it out more. Maybe going back to a more standard bread flour heavy loaf might provide a good comparison point.