King Arthur’s Organic Bread Flour
I was sent a five pound bag of King Arthur’s Organic White Bread Flour from the mainland (Thankyou Andrea!). I tried using the standard flour test which you can find at:
http://northwestsourdough.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/comparing-flours-and-warm-weather-baking/
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However, I had so much trouble with the dough breaking down, that I threw the batch away. The preferment was wet and sticky, the dough felt way too wet for the 65% hydration. It felt like 70% hydration or more. Then the dough turned sticky, ragged and felt rubbery. The flour itself had a chalky feel and was very clumpy, which may have been the humidity here in my home.
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I only had enough flour for one more test. So I mixed up another batch but I added an extra ounce of flour because even this batch didn’t feel right. The dough felt like it was a higher hydration….again. It also had that rubbery feel.
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The gluten didn’t break down badly like the first batch, although it was slack, so I went ahead and proofed the shaped loaves and baked them. The loaves were really disappointing, plus the crumb had a greyish cast to it. I know the dough didn’t get too warm, because the temperatures were a little cooler in the house when I prepared the dough. Here are the results:
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The dough spread in the oven and had a very poor oven spring. The crust was good though, it was crunchy, crispy. The flavor was pretty good, although the crumb was tacky and had a greyish cast to it.
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I am going to go ahead and test the Stone Buhr Bread flour I have using the same starter/water/salt and see how it performs. It is possible that my catchment rainwater caused this trouble with this flour (rainwater is so soft). I didn’t have this trouble with any of the other flour I tested though.
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I tested the regular Bread Flour from King Arthur (it is in an earlier post) and found it baked up some terrific loaves. Unfortunately, I can’t get any more King Arthur Organic Bread flour to retest it to give it another chance. I can’t find any on the big island here in Hawaii. It is possible that this testing was a fluke and perhaps this flour usually fares better. I would be happy to see some comments by anyone who has used King Arthur’s Organic Bread Flour using wild yeast to bake up some bread.
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Check back to see if the next batch, tested with Stone Buhr Bread Flour, fares any better….
Please see here to see the final outcome of the King Arthur’s Organic Bread flour testing: http://northwestsourdough.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/king-arthur-organic-bread-flour-vindicated/
