There are seven difference types or layers of flour on each grain of wheat. The ones called 1st and 2nd Clear Flour have the highest ash content. High ash content = Big Flavor! Clear flours are typically not found in your neighborhood grocery store, but, is typically available in commercial bakery supply houses. Many times it is sold with the 1st and 2nd Clear flours combined and can be called such names as powerful clear and other proprietary names. The drawback is you may have to purchase it in a 50 pound bag. You can freeze flour, but, you need to defrost it in your refrigerator, not on a countertop.
High ash content makes for much better tasting and flavorful bread! You can thank me later.
Shout - out to the Hairy Clipper
16 year member with 16 posts and an expert on flour. Must've been a grind just waiting.
Morewood-I got a good chuckle out of your comment! I am a patient soul and enjoy a good laugh. I read much more than I post as you may have guessed.
We had a local baker that went to school with my mother a century ago that made Vienna Bread and was the best tasting bread I have ever eaten. His bakery was half a block away from my barber shop and there were frequent morning stops there to tend to my sweet tooth over the years. I tried for twenty years to duplicate Don's recipe and was able to get close, but, never quite had the flavor and texture that Preuss' Bakery produced. Before he retired, when he was in for a haircut we would talk bread baking and over the course of 18 months he revealed two secrets to making his Vienna Bread. The Clear Flour was the first. The second is to scald the milk or use dried milk. According to Don, there is an enzyme found naturally in milk that will make the crumb tough and by scalding the milk that enzyme's effect on the crumb is stopped and a tender crumb is the result.
As for being a flour expert, I knew nothing about flour until receiving my proper instruction from Master Baker Don Preuss who grew up in Waterville, Minnesota. And yes Don was a cousin of the famous wildlife artist and winner of the first Duck Stamp competition Roger Preuss. Don's brother Glenn ran a bakery in Waterville, Minnesota and lived there his entire life while Don moved to Waseca, Minnesota to run his bakery here. The first lesson was on the layers within each grain of wheat. I have proof read a number of optically scanned books on bread baking, wheat growing and it's development, the history of bread and milling for The Gutenberg Project. Expert? Observer and gleaner of the knowledge of others perhaps.
Before moving on and awaiting another year before adding my 2¢ to this wonderful outdoor forum I feel obliged to add one more thing. If you truly want to bake that old world type of bread with thick chewy crust and crumb with delightful flavor seek out by purchasing or your local library any of the bread baking books by Peter Reinhart where he teaches about extended rise times and the effect it has on protein chain development. If you like great bread it is worth your time to read and learn. Or you cut & paste the link below in your browser for a PDF of Peter's book, THE BREAD BAKE'S APPRENTICE.
https://www.academia.edu/27493778/Peter_Reinhart_The_bread_baker_s_apprenticeUntil next time I will be joining my old friend Punxsutawney Phil in the burrow until we emerge in 2023 for my annual dissertation on the obscure things of life in the ensuing installment of Fun Facts To Know And Tell!
