Monday, January 11, 2016

My bags of flour.


If you'll look into my bag of flour you'll find a Iot of colours and aromas. But surely you'll not find the dazzling white of the flour too "refined" to my liking. Some of my flours will can certainly deceive and appear white. Be wary, looking closely you will see several dots and small pieces of fiber. Maybe it was the skill of the miller to make so thin these whole grain flours.
Just like that, after swetching the yeast to sourdough, I decided to try some stone ground flour. Initially I focused on some common wheat flour for easier bread-making , type 1 and type 2. Then with increasing my interest in flour markedly rustic and original, I switched to whole grains flours.

So little by little I've steered clear of flours too refined or too rich in gluten.
 
Taking this path I found some aspects of the bread and doughs overall, I had not considered previously. Leading me to consider what I wanted to accomplish in the future with my doughs.
I was asked several times because the loaves coming out  from my oven are not  super-soft  and hyper-leavened, so beautiful as those of some posts of the most famous bloggers among the people of the irreducible fans of sourdough. 
Let me be clear, maybe in the beginning I also aspired to results of this kind. But then I realized that hyper-leavened loaves with holes in the crumb as big as those of cannelloni did not satisfy me. They were not what I preferred to chew on. I felt the need to get more substance and taste. 
In the end, after trying a few dozen mixtures. Consisting of two, three and sometimes even five different flours. I knew I had to focus my work on whole grain flours or slightly sifted flours, as well as on those of some cereals remarkably peculiar.
So the three main criteria by which I select the flours I use are:
  •      Stone grinding.

  •      Degree of sifting as close as possible to that of the wheat flour.

  •      Remarkable organoleptic properties of cereals.

So I started looking for a different kind of flours, less refined more genuine, not necessarily organic, but with a good story to tell.

Through this research, I met farmers, millers, traders, professional bakers and even enthusiasts like me, and many others I will have yet to meet.
Because the road is long and challenging, and I am not yet tired of learning new things. If you like, join me, also just ideally and maybe help me to tell the stories of your favorite flours by contacting me through this blog.
 

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