Flour Test for Stone Buhr Bread Flour

In my previous post I said I would be testing Stone Buhr flour next as a follow up to the disappointing results from King Arthur’s Organic Bread flour. I followed the same testing recipe found in the first tests, but added an extra ounce of flour because

I added an exra ounce of flour in the King Arthur’s Organice Flour test and I said I would follow the same test to see if it was my water that might have been the culprit. It doesn’t seem to have been my water. Stone Buhr flour has a nice hand feel to it and it immediately made up a preferment that had a nice volume and stiffness to it for how high in hydration it was.

After adding the final ingredients, the dough felt resilient, soft and bouncy. It made a great dough. The dough baked up great except that it took some extra baking to get a good color. The crust and taste was exceptional. The oven spring was perfect but I did notice some tearing of the crust around the slash which means I made an error in how proofed the dough was and underproofed it a little.

If you notice that there are not many blisters to the crust, it is because this is a preferment with next day dough forming, not an overnight dough retardation. So it will be expected to have a milder taste and not many blisters or visual depth to the crust. These tests were done with a formula for warm temperature climates, which I am living in right now here in Hawaii.

I would definitely buy Stone Buhr Bread flour again, it makes some great bread. The feel of the dough and the crispy crust with the tender crumb was terrific. I give high marks to this flour.

I am planning on making up a formula for regular temperature dough handling. I will post it when I am done and maybe I will start doing some of the regular temperature dough testing if I can get enough room in my refrigerator for an overnight bulk ferment or second proofing. I can’t depend upon Hawaii to stay cool, so I will have to jump in when it has it’s rare cool spells.

Aloha everyone! Happy Baking!