All posts tagged flour

When flour is your main ingredient for at least half your products, you get a little interested in its pricing.  When your vendors talk about price forecasts, you listen, and ask questions.  From that, a couple of our vendors produce pricing sheets and forecasts, and it really shows the interconnectedness of our world- especially in light of the fact that the US is a net exporter of wheat (most bulk food, really, if I recall correctly). 

Wheat and therefore flour prices can fluctuate quite a bit, and end up being dependant not just on US conditions, but also global happenings as well.  For instance, drought and other conditions in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe are effecting demand for US wheat, especially as Russia has a ban on exports currently (or as of early August).  The overall global supply is quite healthy though, which has moderated fluctuations a bit. 

Falling under the category of “learn something new every day,” mild weather apparently can decrease the protein content of wheat, and that content is what makes hard-wheat (as opposed to soft) usable for yeasted and naturally leavened breads- the more gluten there is, the more a dough can trap the gasses produced by fermentation, causing the bread to rise properly. The last couple of growing seasons in the US have been mild and produced less really high-quality high protein wheat, which has slightly driven up prices for high-protein wheat.

Further along that line- changes in the quality of the wheat supply affect the final flour, which can therefore affect the final product of a baker.  One can adjust for changes, and that’s where mixing dough becomes something of a developed craft, and not just a formulaic process.  One has to be able to feel the dough (literally) and adjust accordingly (mixing times, hydration, etc).  The maturity of the flour, the protein content of the wheat, the hummidity of the location and latent moisture content of the flour, it all affects the actual mixing process. 

I’ve sat in on mixing with Chef, Audrey and Jorge a couple of times, and each has a different approach and feel for the dough which can lead to slightly different results.  The actual, physical feel to a given dough does feel different depending on who is mixing (density, how sticky it is or isn’t, how pliable or relaxed it is, etc.). 

So, we have global, national, and down to the local bakery level all in one discussion about flour. Again, just kind of shows how interconnected things can be, especially when you start considering major crops.

Have a great Wednesday everyone! 

Just a brief post on the continuing topic of flour types.  We had a couple of rounds of croissant go through using pretty much 100% of the type-65 flour.  With regular, high quality un-bleached bread flour, the crumb of the croissant is kind of a light ivory color, and the flavor is, well, what you’d expect- buttery, a little sweet, a touch of yeast a slight tang from the levain (the vast majority of our product uses levain or poolish as the primary leavening, and for several, it’s the only leavening).  All-in-all, buttery deliciousness (I just made myself hungry). 

With the type-65, which I had one of, there is an extra flavor in there.  Since there is more of the germ and bran (again, not as much as the 85), there was more depth to it.  The buttery goodness was still there, but it had different overtones, slightly nutty, with a different balance to the levain.  This isn’t the most precise description, but hopefully it’s piqued your curiosity about how product might change, and also helped a bit to tell why flavors may change in a given bread or pastry product.  Chef will probably continue to play with the flour blends off and on, looking to get the most flavor and the best classic croissant characteristics. 

So, a short post just to keep up with the flour.  It looks like the sun is finally out, so get out there and enjoy it!  Again, have a good weekend everyone!

Bread week is continuing, and I’m working on getting some interesting photos to share, from some of the dough formation and the types of preferments, to shaping and other hand work.  Of interest to me, I’ve also been learning some about the preferments. 

At the basic level, a poolish is equal weights flour and water with a very tiny amount of yeast (less than 1% of the total mass) , which we leave to develop over night.  A levain is equal parts flour and water, with a varying amount of starter (one of our breads is 20% of the flour weight, I haven’t looked at the others), where the starter is our continually fed ‘baby’ or sour (flour and water mixed firm, and allowed to ferment and develop, portions being used in the breads, and the remainder fed more flour and water each day- it provides consistency in flavor and yeast activity, and can be developed to different levels of sourness, ours is mildly sour). 

A sponge is like a poolish, except there is less water added (maybe 60% of the flour mass, depending on the formula), and a soaker is seeds, grains, etc., left to soak in water and/or other liquids overnight or a specific amount of time.  Each type of preferment affects the final dough differently, including the yeast activity, texture, flavors, etc.  What their specific effects are will be the subject of another post.

We’ve been playing with some new types of breads too.  There is an olive-rosemary sourdough round, a whole-wheat with flax and sunflower-seed meal with 4 different preferments (poolish, levain, whole-wheat sponge and a flax seed soaker), and last week we introduced a whole grain bread with minced carrots in it.  The whole-wheat with flax is possibly my new favorite as it reminds me heavily of some breads I had in Germany. 

The new breads are also letting us try out new flours and ingredients.  For example, the olive sourdough includes an organic heirloom rye flour produced by Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop, WA.  It’s an excellent flour, and we have other sample flours of theirs that we’ll be trying out as Chef develops new formulas.  If you want to try Bluebird Grain Farms’ products, you can find them in such local stores as PCC and Whole Foods (I could swear I saw them at the Ballard Farmers’ Market one time too).  You can also buy direct from their website: http://www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com/index.html

In non-bread news, Chefs William and Jane visited the warehouse of Rosella’s Produce yesterday.  They were on the hunt for local or regional fruits for our upcoming jam and preserves projects, and were quite successful.  We have apples from the Skagit Valley, blueberries from Oregon, Strawberries from Coke Farms, concord grapes  also from Washington, and possibly others (those are the ones I saw), much of it organically grown.  We’ll be testing the brix (a measure of sugar concentration) in the upcoming days, and working out the formulas for the jams and preserves from there.  Be looking for a new selection of jams and preserves in late October to early November. 

Also, in case you are wondering, we ARE OPEN normal hours on Labor Day.  Long lines are possible, so if you know you will want a dessert or bread, etc, please feel free to call ahead.  Please remember that paid orders are only taken 48 hours in advance and in order to minimize product loss, we cannot make same-day holds, paid or not (in our busy lives, we occasionally forget the baguettes we’ve asked to be set-aside- it happens to us all).  In general, you can assume we’ll be open every day of the year except for Christmas day and New Year’s, and a few days in January for a ’spring-cleaning, painting, maintenance, and back of the house needs to catch-up on holiday sleep’ break.  We do close early for some holidays (although not this one). 

Looks like it’s sunny out there today, so get out and enjoy the long weekend and try out some of the new breads!