Hello all. Meet my second attempt (fail) at converting a tried and true cinnamon streusel quick bread recipe to fresh milled soft white wheat. I measured my fresh milled flour by weight. The recipe calls for 2 cups, I used 240 grams. It fell to pieces as soon as I touched it. Although, the taste is perfect and the cake is moist.
What am I doing wrong?
The only thing I can think of is that perhaps your flour was milled coarsely? But quick breads really don’t require gluten so I don’t think that’s it.
Was the batter a lot drier than usual? Whole grain flours are more thirsty… you could throw in another egg next time for more binding.
A recipe would help.
As Abe says it’s hard to say without knowing the recipe, and it’s hard to tell anything from the picture. Is it possible whatever is going on that created the appearance of the top compromised the structure (does something get poured or swirled into the top)?
I make quick breads fairly often with fresh milled flour, without a problem, but the wheat I use is generally a hard bread wheat. Soft wheat will produce a weaker, tenderer crumb. Generally you want to avoid too much mixing to avoid too much gluten development, and I know soft wheats are prized for tender biscuits, but maybe a little more gluten could actually be helpful in this case, especially if the particular recipe tends toward a weak crumb.