Bread - What are you baking today…..
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Just FYI, I've had success adding Vital Wheat Gluten to all purpose flour to boost the protein content. There's a good calculator around somewhere online that was a tremendous help in determining how much to add. I mostly went this route to simplify how many types of flour I had piled up in the pantry. It was getting out of control, ha ha!
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@goosehd I use 13g as a rule as it is the best I can get cheaply. Strong bread flour is a foreign concept to Norwegians as they use so much coarsely ground whole grains and save white flour for buns.
Caputo Manitoba flour (15g), is now available here but costs three time the amount as domestic (about 6USD per kilo), so I only buy it on special occasions.
“Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses”- Virginia Woolf
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For high hydration breads (say anything above 85%) I'd probably want a minimum of 12% gluten. I'm most used to working with ~13-14% in this range and find it works well for me. Most whole wheat/grain flours will have a higher gluten percentage than the average white, ap, or bread flour. These whole wheat flours will/can also take a bit more hydration and I've found make it a little more forgiving and easier to handle at the same hydration. E.g. 90% with a 100% white flour at 14% gluten will be MUCH harder to handle than the exact same hydration level even with ~10% of whole wheat flour in the blend.
Vital wheat gluten also works well, know that it isnt 100% gluten when you're doing calculations. Personally, I'd want a minimum of 12% gluten flour for the breads I like to make, and not worry too much beyond that number. Go by taste from there and have fun mixing/blending flours and, if you can swing it, grinding your own from whole grains.
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@neph93 said in Bread - What are you baking today…..:
Caputo Manitoba flour (15g), is now available here
I got this yesterday. 14.9% and reasonably priced (I think).
On an unrelated note, I had a very senior moment yesterday and grabbed the wrong white flour. A general purpose 9%er. The Pan de Crystal I made with it would not have won any competitions....
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Deep down, the process is what I enjoy (besides eating it). I like the mistakes so that it pushes me to figure out where it went wrong and hopefully do better next time.
Up to the third fold everything felt the same as my first attempt. The fourth didn’t feel right and after my 80 minute rest I could tell something wasn’t right.
I can’t put my finger on what that was, but that for me is the enjoyment. Replaying the steps in my head to get a little better each time.
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Giles sent me a video the other day concerning salt's role in bread which made me wonder if that was one of the issues I had with my last batch of bread. This morning, I pulled out the scale to see how much salt I was actually using in my recipe by measuring it volumetrically and by weight. Since I have been using sea salt flakes there was a discrepancy of anywhere between 2 and 3 grams between the two measurements.
One error caught in the process and working on another batch to test my findings.
