British Flour

Ideally I'd like to make bread with flour that's 100% organic stoneground wholemeal and British. There are a number of small mills producing flour that fits the bill but when I tried Gilchester Organics I didn't have much success. I've become more experienced since then and I have now tried a more local flour - Sunflours from near Ripon in North Yorkshire. I've tried the organic stoneground wholemeal - this isn't described as strong but on the packet it does says it is suitable for bread making. It gives the protein as 12g which is the same as Gilchester but lower than other strong wholemeal flours. To give it a good chance I made a loaf with 50% white flour.

350g Sunflours organic stoneground wholemeal flour
350g Marriages organic strong white flour
3g dried yeast
10g salt
11g butter
11g brown sugar
440g water (at about 30C)

I mixed the ingredients, kneaded for 10 minutes and put the dough in a 10 litre plastic box with lid. I left this at room temperature until the following evening (about 20 hours). I then tipped it out onto a floured worktop, pressed it down into a rectangle and rolled it up tightly to go in my large 2lb loaf tin. Covered with oiled cling film it went into the oven at 30C for 2 hours to prove. It crested the top of the tin so I took it out of the oven which I then set to its highest setting of 300C top and bottom heat (without fan). Once it was up to temperature (I check this with an oven thermometer now as I don't think the oven is fully hot when it says it is) I sprayed the top of the loaf with water and sprinkled with rye flour. Into the oven and the temperature down to 240C. It was in for a total of 30 minutes with the last 5 or 10 out of the tin.

This gave a nice amount of oven spring which I wasn't expecting - it seems this only happens when I'm not trying. I think the really hot oven helps this - trying to introduce steam seems to be a waste of time.

After the loaf had cooled I tried a slice - I was very impressed. Lovely flavour and nice texture. The only other flour that has tasted this good is the Marriages organic wholemeal although I need to do a comparison with the Waitrose organic using the exact same recipe. Despite the high white content the taste was superb.

So, a British flour that has worked well for me. The real test will be if I replace the Marriages white with the Sunflour white and if I increase the percentage of wholemeal. I shall also try the Gilchester again as I think the overnight bulk fermentation helps develop the gluten. In fact, I suspect there is no need to knead so much. As always there are lots of things to try.