So, we have another new flour, this time being an organic, type-65 flour.  I’ve mentioned type-85 before (ours has some malted barley added to it), and briefly discussed ash content.  Recently though, I came across an article in Baking Buyer magazine discussing this very topic, and I wanted to revisit it and condense the article, since it’s always good to learn a bit more about your food.  If you are near a library that has professional journals,I’d highly recommend the full article - “Understanding Flour Ash” by Dave Kovacic in Baking Buyer June, 2010, Vol. 22, Issue 5.  It goes more into mill concerns and flour grades in addition to ash content, and is pretty interesting even just in terms of knowing a bit more about that bag of flour sitting in your cupboard.

First of all, from the baker’s standpoint, the ash content and extraction rate are good to know, but in some ways less important than the working properties of a given flour.  If you have a higher ash content in a flour that gives you what you want bread-wise, then it’s a good bonus. 

So, just what is ash?  I’ve mentioned it’s the mineral content; it’s literally a measure of the ash left over from a complete combustion of a sample of flour.  All carbon content is burned off, and what’s left, the inorganic mineral content, is the ash (please note- in this context, organic strictly means ‘carbon based’, and is not related at all to the food label “organic”).  Most of this content is found in the bran of a wheat kernel, with other large amounts being found in the aleurone layer (a fine layer between the bran, or outer coat, and the endosperm, the starchy part of the kernel), and some in the germ (what would otherwise sprout into a new wheat stalk). 

So the measure of ash content is an indication of the degree of processing, or the amount of the wheat kernel being made into flour, also call the extraction rate.  The higher the extraction rate, the more of the kernel is processed into flour.  So, whole wheat flour is a rate of 100% conversion (total ash content of about 1.5 to 2%).  The types, 85 or 65, relate to the percentage ash content (0.85%, and 0.65% respectively), and is an indication of the extraction rate.  A lower extraction rate does mean that there is less bran and therefore less ash.  Again, a lower ash content can enhance the characteristics of the final product as it also means a lower enzymatic and protein activity.  White flours are typically in the .5% range.  Since it’s not a blog without a photo or two, below is a comparison of flours:

From left to right are the whole wheat flour, type-85 and type-65.  The bran is obvious in the whole wheat flour, as is the reduced bran content in the type-85.  Type-65 has more of an appearance of a white flour, although in natural light (the colors didn’t come off well- I’m still learning about taking these photos!), it’s a very creamy color, and darker than just unbleached bread flour.

We also took a photo of the baguette dough:

This dough is made totally of type-65 flour (Chef is experimenting again).  It’s quite a bit darker in comparison to what the dough looks like with strictly bread flour.  It will be interesting to see how the crust and crumb compares to that of baguettes produced with a blend of type-85 and bread flour (in baking terms, crumb refers to the interior structure of a bread). 

Some mills, such as the one that produces the type-85 we use, will occasionally add other things into the flour, such as malted barley (barley flour made from barley that is allowed to germinate before processing).  Others will blend their various streams of flours to create the desired composition. 

One other note about flour- you’ll notice most flours in the store (and available to us) are labelled ‘enriched’.  According to wheatfoods.org, this means that the nutritional profile of the flour is adjusted to be similar to that of raw, unprocessed wheat.  If you see a flour labelled fortified, that means it’s nutritional profile has been adjust to be higher than that of the raw wheat. 

As I come across more information, I’ll pass it on.  Again, we like to share what we learn here.  As artisans, we know our materials in terms what they’re like to work with, but there’s so much more to know in terms of chemistry, processing, and where the materials come from.  The more we know, the better choices we can make, and we feel that’s important to share. 

Happy Wednesday everyone!