#AD For the @bakerybitsltd recipe for Christmas Chocolate Cardamom Twist, free with the newsletter when you register at the @bakerybitsltd website, I used a great stoneground flour from Redbournbury Watermill, where they’ve been milling grain for the last 1000 years (ok, they had to rebuild a few times, but you get the idea). Add it to your order from @bakerybitsltd and let me know what you bake with it.
Redbournbury’s “Unbleached White Flour” actually gets its delicate beige colour as a consequence of stone-milling rather than a lack of bleaching. Though the term “Unbleached” sounds very special, the truth is that all flour in the UK is unbleached and has been banned since 1998. Bleaching flour wasn’t to do with colour, but instead about altering the starch particles so that they could hold more fats (and sugars) in suspension without collapsing, and today has been replaced with heat-treated flours.
If you rub Redbournbury’s flour between your fingers you’ll notice it has a slightly coarse texture and very tiny brown flecks through it. This is because in stone milling all parts of the whole grain – the bran, endosperm & wheatgerm – are reduced generally to a powder, with the endosperm typically finer. Then everything is sieved and inevitably some coarser particles of bran, wheatgerm and the floury endosperm slip though, giving you a slightly beige and coarse flour. Conversely, in roller milling the bran and wheatgerm are stripped from the grain first, then the resulting white endosperm pieces are milled at high speed through stainless steel rollers reducing everything a very fine white powder. In the photo here you can just about see the difference in colour between the two.
So stone-milled flour: contains small particles of bran, that in turn will add yeast and bacteria naturally present on the surface of the wholegrain. The particles of bran (and wheatgerm) contain oils that add to the flavour of the flour, and also create/add different flavours when fermented compared with roller-milled white flour. The coarser texture also gives a gusty weight to the crumb. Simply a great way to add character to your bread.
