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.
The bag had a rip in it as well. When I did the first testing, I mentioned how the flour felt funny, it had a chalky feel and was clumpy. The flour tested terribly and I wasn’t sure why at the time. You can see it all in this post : http://northwestsourdough.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/king-arthurs-organic-bread-flour/
The King Arthur Company’s media relations manager, Allison, offered to send me a new bag of their organic bread flour, gratis, for retesting.
This she kindly did – thankyou Allison and King Arthur Co. I was anxious to retest it because I felt something had gone wrong with the first bag of flour. I used the whole bag during testing, and every batch came out bad.
Well, the new bag of flour totally vindicated the bad performance of the original bag of flour. I think the original bag of King Arthur Organic Bread flour, may have been infected with a mold which was picked up because the bag was ripped and stored improperly(oops!).
The new flour had a nice feel to it, was not chalky or clumpy this time. When I mixed up the preferment, it handled well and did not fall apart like the first one did. Then the final dough was vigorous, smooth, felt wonderful and was full of life. No slacking on the performace this time.
The dough proofed quickly (it was very warm here, in the upper 80’s in my kitchen) and baked up with a very nice oven spring.
The crust was crispy and crackled as it cooled. The crumb was the custardy kind of feel, soft, moist and full of holes. I would have to say this test more than vindicated the older failed test and I would like to make it up to King Arthur Company and highly recommend this flour now (I would have been afraid to even buy it again after the first test, so I am glad they sent a new bag of flour).
However, do keep in mind if you are in a humid area, to keep your bag of flour enclosed in a plastic bag to avoid the problems I had with the first test.
Thanks again Allison, I hope these results have made up for the first test! Teresa