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Stoneground White Flour

26th April 2019 by Paul Merry 1 Comment

Milling with stones

Milling with stones, which was, until 150 years ago, the only way flour was made, is today a tiny niche in the vast field of flour milling which is dominated by the modern roller mill.

Although an anachronistic niche, its place in the market is assured because enough people are aware that what is special about stoneground flour is that it is truly nutritious. The same could not be said about roller-milled flour which is emaciated, being devoid of the grain’s minerals and vitamins when compared with the stonegound product. Widespread recognition of this state of affairs led to government enacting with Regulations to the Flour Act some seventy years ago that the roller-milled white flour had to be fortified with synthetic vitamins, as well as calcium and iron.

The revival of interest in craft baking has led to a healthy surge in bakers who want to work with stoneground flour. I decided to write about it for this Baker’s Topic after hearing people in the milling trade say that it is “in vogue”. In fact I can truthfully say that both the mills of which I am a customer are unable to keep up with demand and are turning bakery customers away!

The milling process

A grain of wheat showing the endosperm and germ — A cross section of a grain of wheat.

I shall briefly explain the stone milling process. The stones grind the grain to the class of flour known as “wholemeal”, regarded as 100% of the grain. Then the miller will sieve the wholemeal flour to be able to offer a range of products. The first sieve removes 19-20% of the coarse bran, rendering flour with an Extraction Rate of 80-81%. While this flour is liked by some bakers (I buy a lot of 81% wheat flour from Stoate’s, my landlord mill, to use it as the dark flour for daily feeding of my wheat sourdough and making the Production Leaven before big baking days) generally this first-sieved flour goes to feed the fine sieves to produce so-called “white” flour which is the most popular product and the generator of most income for the miller. The material that cannot pass through the fine sieves is semolina, also a saleable product, but mostly animal feed, while at a few mills it is re-ground to produce more white flour. Regarding the white flour I say “so-called white” because actually it is beige-grey in colour since the stonegrinder’s sieves are not as fine as the industrial miller’s sieves, and the smallest particles of bran are allowed through. With its tiny specks of bran it has both flavour and substance, making a loaf that is slightly greyish in colour, far from white. Its Extraction Rate will be somewhere around 70-72%.

Germ oil

What is most significant about the process is that the stones crush the precious germ at a gently warming temperature, releasing its nutritious oil that spills into the flour. The germ oil contains vitamins B and E (the entire B complex except the important B12), high-quality protein, unsaturated fats, minerals and carbohydrates. Since the flour is suffused with the oil even the most sieved category, the stoneground white, is still highly nutritious. In the industrial roller-milling process the valuable germ is gently rolled flat into a disc that is easily sieved away, and the process does not rupture it, so no oil is spilled. Hence nutrition is sacrificed because the mills do not want rancidity occurring in their products. Rancidity is of course a natural process bound to occur as the oil oxidises and deteriorates. The outcome of rancidity leads the stone miller to date stamp the bags of flour with six to seven months shelf life as the recommended “Best before….” date.

Further nutrition in stoneground flour comes from the inclusion in it of many of the components of the aleurone layer. This sits at the outer edge of the inner (white) endosperm, nestling below the six bran layers. In the aleurone are acids which are powerful anti-oxidants, proteins, and oils and lipids that contain minerals, and water- and fat-soluble vitamins, sterols and lignans. Like the germ, the aleurone layer is indeed a power-house of nutrition.

Working with stoneground flour

Now for the bakerly advice. When you make dough with stoneground white flour you need to be alert to several features of it that are different from roller-milled white flour. Containing its fine bran and more components of the aleurone layer, it has more enzymes. This makes fermentation more brisk, with the contingent risk of over-proof. Further, these natural components lead to an increased stickiness as fermentation is breaking down the starches and proteins, making the dough harder to handle when you are shaping it. Hence it is wise to aim for cooler and slightly stiffer dough, and during the processing, give it shorter rests.

Well, dear Panarians, is it any wonder that, despite being a niche, stoneground flour is here to stay?

Good baking, Paul

Temperatures, leaven & sponge, and our recent German visitor – Tommy Weinz

14th July 2018 by Paul Merry Leave a Comment

Recently we had a photographer at PANARY. His name was Tommy Weinz, and he is creating a German bakery magazine for craft bakers. He is keen to nurture the craft revival there, and explained that to date

Balance scales used at Panary

Germany has not had a zealous body like our Real Bread Campaign. As a young man he trained to be a baker in Germany, undertaking their long apprenticeship system. As he scuttled around snapping lots of photos of work performed by me and apprentice Martin on a typical Thursday commercial baking day, I noticed how he liked to dwell on some of my crafty and traditional equipment, such as the balance scales here.

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Vines in the springtime, looking across vineyards to Mont Ventoux on the horizon.

PANARY in PROVENCE, 2019

Six days in a vineyard on the Rhone valley north of Avignon. Four days baking, two days fun including excursions. Baking done in both a courtyard wood-fired oven and domestic electric ovens in the gîtes. Accommodation is splendid, and the local area unforgettable, with vines, olives and lavender, and beautiful hilltop villages. Book Panary in Provence today!

BAKER’S TOPIC

The 20 degree threshold

In my years as a baker, and more particularly as a sourdough man, I have found that there is a great significance to 20◦ C, when regarding the ambient temperature of your bakery or kitchen. Below 20 C there is a steady development of sponges and leavens and you can plan how much yeast to use for the given number of hours that you want sponges and leavens to sit maturing.

Winter temperatures

In winter, of course, it is a constant battle to keep ambient temperatures up, and my teaching bakery is always hanging around a cool 14 C until it is a full-on baking day when I can bump it up to 18 C. In the depths of winter the flour comes over from the mill at below 10 C, and the ground water is coming out of the tap at only 7 C. It is easy to make the dough too cold in those conditions. Away from winter it is more pleasant as temperatures rise, and with ambient and flour temperature in the 16-18 region work in the bakery fits comfortably to plans and schedules.

Summer temperatures

Dough thermometer

However, come summer, and see the overnight ambient at 21 C and you know things are suddenly to go haywire. The groundwater is coming in at 17, and the flour on the stand (or your pantry) will also be 21 degrees. The thermometer shows that the finished dough temperature is 21-22C, which shows that the friction of the big arms of the mixing machine diving through the dough has added a couple of degrees, hence the coolness of the water is nullified. Now you can see why in summer, when professional bakery temp sits on 25 deg or more, bakers must use refrigerated water.

I am happy enough with 22 degrees for large doughs, that is what we look for with the amount of yeast planned. But I could only succeed to get it by running the dough water straight from the cold tap.

White sponge

However, it is more tricky to control the white sponge and the sourdough wheat leaven sitting out at 21 degrees for 11 – 12 hours overnight. The sponge was so developed that a big whiff of alcohol rose when its lid was taken off. This picture shows its open texture, and you can see that it has started to deteriorate. At overnight 21 degrees it was probably ready at a mere 7 or 8 hours, not the 11 to 12. Yet its yeast was only 0.3 of 1%. It should have been 0.1%, which would only cover your thumbnail.

Sourdough leaven

Now to look at the sourdough leavens. This wheat one has behaved alright. Such openness and array of decent bubbles it is telling us that it is perfectly ready, but not over-wrought or damaged.

Sourdough wheat leaven made with brown flour (81% extraction)

To sit maturing for the 11 hours overnight, the wheaten leaven was seeded with a blob of common leaven that was less than 1 % of its bulk. (80 grams for a 10 kg Production leaven). When I arrived at 6:00 am and looked at it I would have preferred that it needed another hour to continue maturing because then I would have time to make a large autolyse dough to sit for an hour. But when it is developed and ripe like this photo shows, no time to be doing other jobs first.

Next week, if bakery temp is again 21-odd, it will be inoculated with a mere 0.6% of leaven. ( When the ambient temperature is a calm 17-18 degrees, the amount of seeding yeast for its overnight 11 hours is more like 2.5%).

Rye production leaven

Wet leaven shining in the middle

And now to look at the rye Production leaven, after 3 days at 21C. Lately, it has to spend so long before use because we have to overcome the current problems of over-abundant enzymes from last summer’s difficult harvest conditions here in the south of England. It must be grossly acidic to counter the over-abundant amylase enzymes that will produce too much dextrin in the pure rye loaf as it bakes, causing it to have a soggy, sugary middle, and usually a horrible hole too. Often, after three days at 21 degrees, the rye leaven will have grown mould on its surface carpet. For this photo I have gently scraped the carpet aside and you can see the wet leaven shining in the middle.

In other years during hot spells I have noticed that the mould arrives when ambient temperatures are steadily over 20, so for the rest of this hot summer I shall hold my breath and hope that I remain lucky about the mould issue.

BAKERS’ TOPIC – volume

23rd May 2018 by Paul Merry Leave a Comment

The volume of any loaf has great impact because it is the first thing to be noticed by an appraising eye. Nobody is attracted to a small or heavy loaf. On the other hand, a discerning customer or guest will be put off by an overblown and blousy loaf that has a structure that is too open. That overblown loaf will soon dry out, and for most people its open structure will not be a satisfactory vehicle for butter, toppings, or fillings.

An exception would be a bread like ciabatta, seen in the next picture. Its open structure is the very nature of the bread, and a tight crumb would be a failed version of it.

Imagine that ciabatta structure, with its open random bubble, being a sandwich loaf. A travesty, with honey all over the plate, or mayonnaise on your shoe. Hence the sandwich loaf maker must not only drive gas pockets from the dough, but also keep a tight rein on final proof to keep the uniform and consistent bubble suitable for toast or sandwich.

Any discussion of volume has to begin with the dough. To make good bread the bulk dough itself must achieve a satisfactory volume, it must be left to gas and rise. See the picture here where the soggy surface of the fully-proved dough leaves a distinct hole when the floury finger is inserted deep into it. Like the test shown at the top of this post, a poke with an outstretched finger is not to quickly close up, which happens when the gluten is still unripe.

To summarise, there must be proper volume in both the bulk dough, and the resting dough before it is shaped. Then the baker must judge the final proof so that the loaf springs in the oven and gives satisfactory volume to the final product. See the loaf in the next picture, a stoneground white high tin. Notice that when the volume is right, everything else looks right: lovely crust colour, handsome rip along the loaf’s length where the oven spring has torn it, overall proportions look right.

Oven spring can be viewed as the final accolade for the baker. When proof is right, volume is right, and you pop it into the oven when it has sufficient life to give a little spurt that results in handsome oven spring. For breads that get slashed, the oven spring opens out the cuts.

Now see a loaf that went into the oven a bit early. It was a sourdough loaf made with heritage wheat and thus had feeble and delicate gluten when compared with modern flour. Fearing it may collapse with the impact of sliding it off the peel onto the oven tiles, I made my misjudgment that led to an oven spring that was gross. A few slashes would have helped release that spring.

Now you have the full picture. There will not be satisfactory volume in a finished loaf unless there was satisfactory volume along the way – in bulk dough after its first rise, in resting dough pieces, and in final proof. To achieve correct volume of any loaf the gluten has been fully developed (ripened, “conditioned”), with good judgment of final proof, and with adequate gassing power at the time it is placed in an oven holding the right temperature.

Good baking, Paul

Bakers’ Topic

17th April 2018 by Paul Merry Leave a Comment

Here is an excerpt from my note about poolish that is handed out to PANARY students when they attend a course which has used this type of sponge in one or two of the breads on the programme.

POOLISH

This is the French term for a type of pre-fermentation that forms a portion of the dough into which it is incorporated many hours later or, possibly, the next day. It belongs in the category of the large family of what we call in English “sponges” and “ferments”, and some would call it a “starter ”.

One of its distinctive features is that it is a fairly liquid fermented culture, and in modern baking is usually made with equal amounts of flour and water. It is leavened with factory-made baker’s yeast, and is prepared with part of the main dough’s flour and water. The rest of the dough’s flour, water, salt, and yeast are added at dough-making time. Its flour as a proportion of total flour ranges from 15% – 50%.

In large commercial quantities, in the ambient warmth of a bakery, if the poolish is set to mature slowly over 8-10 hours or more, the amount of yeast added is miniscule, being only 0.1%, which is one gram of yeast to each kilogram of flour. Household bakers could use a little more. When I prepare a tiny poolish at night for a small dough in the morning I describe the amount of fresh yeast used as being the size of a green pea. If conditions were cold, or it was going to sit for less than 8 hours, enlarge the green pea to a marrow-fat pea. With dried yeast, it is only a pinch, denoting an eighth or a tenth of a teaspoon.

As a preliminary fermentation its function in breadmaking is to bestow benefits on the final dough. The benefits are many: flavour, moisture retention, and the creation of the open structure with large and randomly distributed gas bubbles so peculiar to the continental style of breads. Hence it is commonly associated with the baguette. The Parisian baguette was developed as bakers copied the remarkable and innovative pastry and bread methods of Vienna. These innovations occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, probably in the late 1840’s, just before fresh baker’s yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) began to be made in factories. At that time, when bread bakers still obtained their yeast from beer brewers (also saccharomyces cerevisiae) a shortage of yeast occurred when many brewers were changing from top-fermenting tanks to bottom-fermenting. Collection of yeast froth is easy from top-fermenters, but difficult from the bottom fermenting types of beer.

The sponge method certainly makes a small amount of initial yeast go further. For a short period the style and skills of Polish bakers must have influenced the Austrians. We assume the Poles’ technique became known as the poolish. Its sparse use of yeast would have continued to be attractive to the bakers of the 1850’s when compressed yeast remained scarce and expensive, being a new product.

A poolish must be set to work at room temperature for at least 3 – 8 hours before it is added to a dough, possibly 12 – 15 hours if conditions are cool. On the other hand, if conditions are warm, after 3 – 4 hours it would be wise to put it in a refrigerator. Although it starts with only a small amount of yeast it gets surprisingly active at room temperature because after about 5 hours those yeast cells start to reproduce. They will continue to multiply while they have food. (In any type of dough or sponge yeast will begin to reproduce after some 4 to 6 hours). After its long fermentation period the poolish will be classed as mature and ready for use because by then the feeding yeast will have created acids and by-products from their fermentation activity, and these will greatly enhance the dough that receives the poolish. More yeast has to be used if it is expected to reach maturity in a shorter time, such as 4 – 5 hours. There will be more flavour in the final bread, the crumb will be porous and open while giving a satisfactory chewiness, and the bread will retain its moisture for longer – meaning it is slower to stale.

The appearance of it when ripe reveals many bubbles on its surface, with the gas bubbles looking as though they are pushing upwards to burst. It is classed as over-ripe if it has begun to sink or settle down, and is no longer appearing to be moving upward. When over-ripe it may reveal around the sides of its storage vessel a line indicating the “high-tide” level that it had reached before sinking or collapsing.

Suggested poolish:

500 gm breadmaking white flour

500 ml water

½-1 gm fresh yeast ( ⅛-¼ teaspoon dried yeast)

Mix until a loose, batter-like dough is formed, with no dry patches.

Cover the bowl you have mixed it in, and put it aside in a quiet place for it to ferment for 8 to 12 hours.

That’s it. I hope you enjoy working with sponges and tinkering with poolish in particular. Good baking, Paul

Stoneground White Flour

Milling with stones

The milling process

Germ oil

Working with stoneground flour

BAKERS’ TOPIC – volume

Bakers’ Topic

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