Stone Milling

A Forgotten Type of Poolish, Pouliche (Sponge) Loaf

May 16, 2012
Thumbnail image for A Forgotten Type of Poolish, Pouliche (Sponge) Loaf

In the last post here, I said since the experiment with the poolish showed signs of activity it had inspired for more experiments, only this time not exhausting the yeast to see whether I could produce a good loaf. A poolish is equal amounts of water to flour, how much yeast you add and the [...]

Read the full article →

A Levain and a Poolish hung out together

May 13, 2012
Thumbnail image for A Levain and a Poolish hung out together

I carried out this experiment with the full intention of predicting a failure with the poolish.  What I wasn’t prepared for was that the result wasn’t the complete failure I had anticipated, this led to further experiments with the poolish, very successful ones in fact. It’s established a sourdough dough will give you plenty of [...]

Read the full article →

Oxidising Fresh Flour, Over-Oxidising & Over-Mixing Dough

April 3, 2012
Thumbnail image for Oxidising Fresh Flour, Over-Oxidising & Over-Mixing Dough

The subject of the need to oxidise fresh flour and also the need to introduce oxygen when mixing dough and the consequences of over doing it, which produces an inferior loaf both in appearance and flavour is a huge subject with nerdy-type of details.  These details cover the effect of the gluten-forming proteins as well [...]

Read the full article →

Heritage Wholemeal Buns & Gloria’s Rhubarb Ketchup

March 19, 2012
Thumbnail image for Heritage Wholemeal Buns & Gloria’s Rhubarb Ketchup

I made these wholemeal buns yesterday, made 12 with the intent of using them this week for oldest kid’s pack lunch for school but today I have three left.  Father-in-law and Bikerboy had a couple still warm out of the oven, one with just butter melting and the other with bacon, father-in-law took some home. [...]

Read the full article →

John Letts Heritage Wheat Loaf

March 14, 2012
Thumbnail image for John Letts Heritage Wheat Loaf

These two loaves are made with John Letts 85% stoneground flour (85% extraction), a mixed variety of Heritage wheat.  John doesn’t know exactly how many varieties there are in this mix but he thinks something in the region of hundred and fifty.  These wheat kernels are special, they’re from varieties you can no longer buy, [...]

Read the full article →

Amaretto 2011 Using Amaretto Levain

February 27, 2012
Thumbnail image for Amaretto 2011 Using Amaretto Levain

After the last post here, at the very end of that post I had said how the amaretto flour harvest 2011 had suffered a little from not being aged enough and I also said I was about to post photos of the successful dough having worked on it, and here it is.  No tearing before [...]

Read the full article →

Difference Between Good & Bad Stoneground Flour

February 27, 2012
Thumbnail image for Difference Between Good & Bad Stoneground Flour

I wanted to demonstrate the difference between good and bad stoneground flour.  I’m hoping that over the last few months I’ve shown how stoneground flour can produce beautiful looking loaves on par with any roller mill flour loaves.  I’ve also shown even freshly milled low protein 10.5% flour like this amaretto harvested 2010 with everything [...]

Read the full article →

White Spelt Stoneground Foster’s Mill – Alkor

February 21, 2012
Thumbnail image for White Spelt Stoneground Foster’s Mill – Alkor

I have little to say about this loaf other than, wow I never thought I would make a loaf with English Spelt using my free-form rising method and result in a rise like this.  Last year I attempted sourdough using English white spelt I had bought in my local supermarket and had disastrous results with [...]

Read the full article →

In-Between Flour, Straight Flour, High Extraction Flour

February 13, 2012
Thumbnail image for In-Between Flour, Straight Flour, High Extraction Flour

This flour is the perfect answer to those who think wholemeal flour is too heavy but still want the good parts of the wheatberry because along with having particles from the whole endosperm it will also have a fair amount of the bran and the germ. Stone Milling With stone milling the process is very [...]

Read the full article →

White Amaretto 10.5% 3 Months On & Power of Oxidisation

February 9, 2012
Thumbnail image for White Amaretto 10.5% 3 Months On & Power of Oxidisation

I’ve been posting recently about white stoneground flour I’ve bought from Anne in Felin Ganol watermill in Wales and the first flour I tried was this amaretto from a 2010 harvest which yielded a low protein flour of 10.5%, too low for making bread on its own it was believed, but I proved in this [...]

Read the full article →

Tybalt & Paragon Wheat Varieties – Stoneground White Flours

January 31, 2012
Thumbnail image for Tybalt & Paragon Wheat Varieties – Stoneground White Flours

I bought both of these flours from Anne at Felin Ganol Watermill in Wales, just like I did with the Amaretto flour here.  It’s very unusual to buy flour by single wheat variety, most mills will mix a combination of different wheats to produce their bread flours.  I feel I’m in a privilege position with [...]

Read the full article →

Stoneground Amaretto Semolina Wheat Sourdough

January 11, 2012
Thumbnail image for Stoneground Amaretto Semolina Wheat Sourdough

I made this loaf using some of Felin Ganol’s amaretto semolina for the first time yesterday.  I was expecting a slightly textured crumb, perhaps similar to the Khorasan loaf  but instead was pleased to find a soft mouth-feel crumb as you do with wholemeal, only this is lighter. To give you some idea of the [...]

Read the full article →

Amaretto Wheat Variety 10.5% from Felin Ganol Watermill

November 29, 2011
Thumbnail image for Amaretto Wheat Variety 10.5% from Felin Ganol Watermill

After writing my last post on Low Protein Flours Make Great Bread, It’s All About the Flour I said I would write in detail how I made my loaves using Anne Parry’s Amaretto white flour from her watermill in Wales.  A flour currently being sold as All Purpose because of its low protein content, 10.5%. [...]

Read the full article →

Stoate’s Flour at Cann Mills, Dorset

November 5, 2011
Thumbnail image for Stoate’s Flour at Cann Mills, Dorset

If you remember I attended a couple of workshops with the baker  Paul Merry  back in the summer, and Paul runs them from  Cann’s watermill in Dorset.  Michael Stoate own’s the mill and while I was there one of Michael’s employees Kevin, showed me around. Michael’s family have been in the flour milling business since [...]

Read the full article →

Roland Feuillas, Les Maîtres de mon Moulin

October 26, 2011
Thumbnail image for Roland Feuillas, Les Maîtres de mon Moulin

Roland Feuillas runs courses on his ancient grains through his mill in Cucugnan, contact him, contact@farinesdemeule.com, 00 33 4 68 33 55 03 or via his website  here.  If passing that part of the world visit his bakery and taste the bread baked in his special wood-fire oven. Words I associate with Roland are; passion, mission, generosity, kind, [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries