northwestsourdough
northwestsourdough
Pendleton Mills Power-High Gluten Flour
I was able to obtain a 50lb bag of Power-High Gluten Flour from Pendleton Mills. Before I came to Hawaii, one of my favorite bread flours to use was the Pendleton Mills Morbread flour. I will have to say that from my experience, Pendleton Mills mills some fantastic flour! However, when I first tried using the Power flour with my formula for testing flours- (see former flour testing posts) I couldn’t use the formula because the gluten amount was so high, it sucked up the water. Remember that the highter the gluten, the more it absorbs water. This flour is rated around 14% protein content, when many bread flours are from 10 – 12%
Natural Directions AP Flour Test
First, I want to let those of you who have been waiting for the dry starters to be available, know that there are three varieties available now and the rest will follow soon. My son in Texas is drying them and sending them to me, as it is too humid where I am to dry starters.
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They are available at: http://www.northwestsourdough.com/store.html The fresh starters are still available, although I have not found any rye flour yet to bring back the fresh dough rye starters. They will be available as dry starters soon as well.
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Now on to flour testing:
I found another new flour in the store. It is called Natural Directions and is milled by an exclusively organic flour mill. I used their All Purpose flour for testing because that is what was available, I don’t know if they produce Bread flour. I used this formula, which is the same one I have used for all of the tests:
A Great Day! And…Pi Li Li’s
Pi Li Li’s or Pee Lee Lee’s, whichever way to want to spell it,( it sounds like the second version) are little fried pillows of dough. These are a sourdough version of a fried doughnut that grandma made. Quickly made, rolled in sugar, or cinnamon/sugar, powdered sugar or dunked in a honey glaze, they are great for a Sunday breakfast.
Peter Reinhart’s new book…Artisan Breads Every Day
Peter Reinhart’s new book is out! I have two signed copies, one for myself…and one…for one of you… Continue reading
Sourdough Breads from the Store
La Brea's French Baguette
I couln’t believe it but I found some La Brea Bakery bread in a Hilo store! Not only that , but I found some San Francisco Sourdough bread as well from Raymond’s Bakery. So I bought them and brought them home to see how they compared ( In the last post there was a a contest for a free sourdough. The fourth responder, Patty, is the winner of the Hawaiian Sourdough Starter, please email me with your contact info Patty).
My Dad’s English Muffins
I have made some unusual baked items while living in Hawaii. I had a sourdough recipe for sweet potato muffins and one of the nut pickers gave me some purple sweet potatoes which are very popular here. So I baked up some purple muffins!
Purple Muffins
Sourdough Tortillas?!!
Need a fun recipe to help use up the extra sourdough starter? How about sourdough tortillas? Something fun –If you want a chance at a free sourdough starter, read to the bottom of this post.–
To make 3 lbs of dough add together in a medium mixing bowl:
Continue readingBob's Red Mill vs Gold Medal and King Arthur
Bread made from Bob's Red Mill flour
If you have been following the last few posts, you will know that this post is about testing Bob’s Red Mill bread flour. So far I have tested King Arthur and Gold Medal bread flour, which you can see in the two previous posts. I made up a formula to follow when testing each flour and it can be found in the King Arthur post here:
Comparing Flours – Gold Medal vs. King Arthur
Bread made with Gold Medal flour
In my last blog post I decided to compare the bread flours I could find locally here in Hawaii, where different brands are somewhat limited. I decided to do this because at the Costco on the island, I bought 100 lbs of a flour which was giving me grief. There don’t seem to be many places here to buy flour in bulk. So to do a comparison test, I bought 5lb bags of flour at the local markets. I found King Arthur, Gold Medal and Bob’s Red Mill bread flours.Continue reading
