For the Soft White Wheat |
First we'll talk about grinding the flour: On my Whispermill, I chose a setting one notch finer than what I use for bread flour.
For Hard White Wheat (bread) |
Soft Wheat, more clingy |
Hard Wheat, more grainy |
The hard wheat also makes a browner flour because of, I think, having darker bran.
Browner Hard Wheat |
The whiter, softer Soft Wheat |
Now onto using it: I used my favorite biscuit recipe, Biscuits Supreme, from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (1968). For me it's a never fail recipe, and usually produces tall, flaky biscuits, nicely brown and crispy on the top and lusciously soft on the inside.
When I mixed up the biscuit dough, using the freshly milled flour, I had a much wetter dough. I would've thought the finer flour would soak up more of the milk, not less. According to "Grainlady," helpful contributor on the Gardenweb Cooking Forum, protein content, again, is the reason...The lesser protein levels in this, compared to all-purpose or hard wheat flour, makes a difference in moisture absorption. She said I should decrease the liquid or increase the flour until the result is more 'normal' for biscuit dough.
I kneaded in some flour to that initial attempt, but just enough to barely be able to handle the dough. It wasn't enough, because the biscuits didn't rise very tall and they weren't as light and crispy as usual. I should have trusted my gut, and the 'feel' I was after. I will know better next time.
You're such a scientist with the baking! They didn't have the texture that you were going for, but how'd they taste?
ReplyDeleteThey tasted all right, I guess, but so thin they were difficult to cut in half, and if the texture is off, it's all off. ;-)
ReplyDelete