Whole Wheat Flours

Baking Products
1

I am experimenting with sourdoughs…and working with a basic New York Times sourdough recipe that includes 300 grams of a whole wheat flour (and 700 grams of “regular” bread flour). I have now made a batch of sourdough bread with the Yecora Rojo and another batch with the Heirloom Red Turkey as the whole wheat flours in that recipe. They’re good, but I actually found the Heirloom Red Turkey to be a bit too “grassy” in smell and taste–perhaps a bit too strong for me.

So, I am looking for a whole wheat flour that is mellow and perhaps even has a slight hint of sweetness rather than earthiness/“grassiness”. I also understand that the higher protein flours will give a bread more lift–more openness, which is something I’d love to accomplish.

Here is my question–can someone recommend a whole wheat flour (that can be purchased through breadtopia preferably) that is mellow and perhaps has a hint of sweetness and would be good for encouraging a more open crumb–with a nice lift?

Thank you in advance.

Jonathan

1 Like
2

great question and I want to know too!

3

I was going to suggest Yecora Rojo until I re-read your question and saw you already used it. I think it is one of the strongest wheats with a relatively neutral flavor. I think Breadtopia’s rouge de bordeaux is out of stock – it has a potent baking spice aroma as opposed to grassy and has relatively strong gluten potential, more than Turkey Red, a tiny bit less than Yecora Rojo.
Another possibility would be to use Sprouted Hard Red Spring Wheat. The grassy-earthy hard red spring wheat flavor is somewhat offset by the sweetness that comes through via the sprouting process. If you go this route, keep the autolyse 0-60 minutes and prepare for a faster fermentation of the dough.

4

Thank you. This is incredibly helpful. I appreciate this very much. And, perhaps I should just continue to use the Yecora Rojo, which I liked…

Thanks again.

Jonathan

5

And. might I ask–would a bolted wheat help–like a bolted hard white–or does that start to stray too far from the taste/experience of a whole wheat?

Jonathan

6

Trying bolted yecora rojo or breadtopia select bread flour (aka bolted hard red spring wheat) is a neat idea. These flours are about 85% extraction, so halfway between white flour (70%) and whole wheat flour (100%…maybe 99.9%).

You might find the various loaves, methods, hydration in this recipe interesting to check out. One is 100% yecora rojo whole grain flour, another is 50:50 YR and bread flour, and a third is 50:50 but with no active gluten development.

7

Excellent. Thank you. I think that I have some helpful next steps to try…

Thank you again.

Jonathan

1 Like