King Arthur Organic Bread Flour Vindicated!!
A while back I was sent some King Arthur Organic Bread flour from the mainland to test. It was sent from a humid area where it had been stored for a while and I kept it stored here in a warm humid area for some time before testing it. Continue reading
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
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:
What we’ve been doing during Christmas week!
For Christmas week our family went camping on the leeward side of Hawaii, the Kona and Kohala coast. Gee swimming in the warm, aqua blue waters off the coast of Hawaii at the end of December, life is so difficult! 🙂 We went swimming and snorkling as well as hiking. It was fun. We also toured all the way up the coast to the end of highway 270.
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:
Bob'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
Comparing Flours…King Arthur's Bread Flour
Comparing three flours
After my last post about poor quality flour, I decided to see what other kinds of flour I could find locally. I found a 5lb bag of King Arthur Unbleached Bread flour at the local KTA market and also a Gold Medal Bread flour, which was five pounds as well. The King Arthur Flour cost me 6.99 for 5 lbs! The Gold Medal was 3.49. I also found a 5lb bag of Bob’s Red Mill Unbleached Bread flour at the local Cost U Less, and it was 3.99. Don’t forget, prices are high in Hawaii. Continue reading
