Baking with weak flour

 

 

Covid19 is roaming the world, making a mess wherever it goes.
It affects all of us, one way or another.
Some people lose their jobs.
Others have to work even harder under harsh circumstances, trying to save all those people who become seriously ill from the virus.
Many of them fight for their life.
Some of them lose.

Some people don’t find their favorite type of flour.
I belong to that category.
Flour, together with toilet paper and yeast, seems to be the most popular item to hoard here in Sweden.
I have been ranting a lot about that.

But then I realized how pathetic that was. I mean, if you compare it to what others have to go through, it’s a very trivial problem.

So I decided to change my focus.

I decided to buy whatever flour I could find and make the best out of it.

So I bought this.

Now, most of you don’t live in Sweden and don’t know anything about this flour.
But I can tell you it’s not the no. 1 choice among bread bakers.
Actually, I suspect that some bakers would rather die than baking with this flour.

But it’s cheap.

And there was plenty of it.

It has a protein content of 10% so you can compare it with an All-purpose flour or plain flour if you are living in UK or Australia.

Now, I should mention that I have, of course, been baking with weak flour before. I have written a post about it too. But I have never deliberately used the cheapest flour I could find.

 

BAKING WITH WEAK FLOUR, 1st TRY

I realized that I had to cut down on hydration with this flour. So instead of 75-80%, I tried 72%.
After one hour autolyze, the dough felt ok.
Smooth and not overly sticky. But I realized that I had to add some strength to it as there vas no elasticity at all.

So I started to slap and fold it for 5 minutes.
No signs of improvement.
Instead, it started to become more sticky.

I decided to let the dough rest for 30 minutes before I started working with it again.
This time I stretch and fold in the kitchen bowl instead.
I repeated 3 times with 15-20 minutes rest between each session.
After that, I let it ferment untouched for 4 hours.
The temperature was about 80°F/27°C.

 

After I had preshaped the dough and let it relax for 20 minutes, I shaped it into a boule that I placed into a lightly floured banneton.
The dough was allowed to proof for 1 hour at room temperature, about 72-73°F/22-23°C.

 

When I let the dough slide down into my combo cooker I realized that this wouldn’t be anything to write home about.
The dough spread to the sides quickly.
There was not enough dough strength.

I was not that surprised.

I had had some bad feelings from the beginning, and my fears seemed to come true.
Sometimes you can get a decent loaf anyway, so I closed the combo cooker and placed it in the oven.

But the result was just as mediocre as I thought.

A flat loaf with poor oven spring.

 

But the crumb was not totally hopeless, and the taste was not bad at all,
so I decided to start all over again.

 

BAKING WITH WEAK FLOUR, 2nd try.

This time I reduced the hydration a lot. I decided to go for 65% and see what happened.
My intention was to follow the same routine as in my previous try.
But that was out of the question.

The dough was far to stiff.
So I only kneaded the dough until it was smooth, nothing more.

The time and temperature for bulk fermentation were the same as with my first try.
But when it came to shaping, I only made one.
It felt like there was more than enough structure in the dough anyway.

This time I tried to let the dough proof overnight in the refrigerator.
I had already given up my intention to follow any routines, so it felt like it didn’t matter.

The difference when I lifted the dough over from the banneton to my combo cooker was noticeable.
There was almost no spreading at all. The dough was standing tall.
And the end result was quite spectacular.

 

Any baker would have been proud of this bread.
Except for one thing

The crumb could have been better.

I’m not a fanatic about open crumb, and I’m not that fond about big holes in my bread (if it’s not a Ciabatta).
But this crumb was too tight even for me. You could compare it with Brioche bread but without that delicious buttery taste, if that makes sense.

Not fun.

I decided to give it one more try.

 

BAKING WITH WEAK FLOUR, 3rd try

I’ve read somewhere that it’s a good idea to give stiffer doughs a prolonged autolyze. I think it was Trevor Wilson who wrote that somewhere, but I’m not sure.

Normally, an autolyze spans over 15 minutes to 2 hours. One hour is used quite often.
My plan was to let the dough autolyze overnight. That means about 8 hours.

But why do I want to do that?

Well, in my first try, I struggled to get some dough strength or elasticity.
Dough strength is good, but only to a certain degree.
It can become too strong as wee saw in my second try. There is simply not enough extensibility in the dough. It can’t expand enough.
I suspect that’s why I got such a tight crumb.

So what I want is a balance between elasticity and extensibility.

 

A longer autolyze gives more extensibility.
I didn’t want to lose too much elasticity, so I kept the hydration quite low.
I only turned it up a notch to 68%.

Apart from the autolyze, I used the same routine as in my second try, so I won’t bore you with details.
So let’s go straight to the result.

 

And I do think the result was quite good.
Not as spectacular as my second try, but still a good oven spring.
And most important of all. The crumb was much better.
Not overly open, but not reminding of a dish sponge either.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TASTE

Well, to my surprise, it tasted better than I thought. It probably says a lot about me and my prejudices, but I suppose I had low expectations because of the low price.
But it tasted like bread baked on wheat flour should taste.

Will I bake with it again?
Perhaps. But not for a while.
The supply of flour is becoming better and better here in Sweden, so now I can find what I want on the shelves again.

But I do think this was a useful experience. I tend to become a bit obsessed with flour quality sometimes, and I don’t think I’m alone.
Flour quality matters, no doubt about that, but other factors are just as important.

Your baking skills, for example.

If you should try to do something similar, you will probably encounter different challenges than I did. So I don’t think you can use this post as a blueprint.

My intention with this post was to encourage you to make the best with what you can find.
Especially in times like this

It requires more of you as a baker to get a good result with this kind of flour. It may need some tweaking along the way, and you need to be more focused on the process to get a good result.

You have to be a little bit more on your toes.

But it is possible to bake great bread with a low price flour.
I hope I have proved that in this post.

Stay safe
Tomas