Stone Milling

English Durum Wheat Loaf

July 15, 2012
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I’ve been told by three different reliable sources that various attempts have been tried in the past in this country to grow durum wheat for making British pasta but one attempt after another have seen these experiments fail, the bottom line being, ‘you can’t grow good enough quality durum wheat in this country, it doesn’t […]

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A handmade loaf the perfect Thank You present

July 14, 2012
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It’s the end of the school year and instead of the usual box of chocolate, pot plant, or my preferred gift of a bottle of wine to my kid’s school teachers it seemed fitting I gave them a handmade sourdough.  And in my case not forgetting the receptionist who’s had  to listen to my constant […]

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Tybalt Loaves for the Prince of Wales at Felin Ganol

July 12, 2012
Tybalt Loaves for the Prince of Wales

On Tuesday I posted to Anne and Andy Parry at Felin Ganol watermill these 4 sourdough loaves made with Tybalt flour, a Welsh flour, for the royal visit to the mill by the Prince of Wales.  Anne had a display of various baked goods using her flour and apparently Prince Charles made a bee-line for my […]

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Felin Ganol Watermill in Wales, beautiful place with excellent flour

June 22, 2012
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Two weeks ago I spent the weekend with Anne and Andy Parry and their lovely large family, at Felin Ganol.  If you look over my Stone Milling category on this site you’ll see I’ve mentioned their flour often, Anne has been my miller since we met virtually last year.  The Parrys are the loveliest down […]

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Killing a Loaf by 30 minutes

June 3, 2012
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Last week in the dizzy temperature heights of 27˚C (80F) the dough was out of control.  Normally there are a few days, weeks even of adjustment in handling the doughs from cool to hot temperatures but this crazy weather went from the cool 19˚C to the high twenties overnight. Suddenly you realise what a fine […]

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The 36 hour Pouliche (Poolish, Sponge) and the Correct Spelling

May 23, 2012
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After the last post here, on this old method of making pouliche (poolish), I experimented further creating more of an acidic crumb, mimicking somewhat a sourdough loaf.  The reason for the experiment was to see if the pouliche would maintain enough yeast cells over this period of time (in the fridge) to make a good […]

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A Forgotten Type of Poolish, Pouliche (Sponge) Loaf

May 16, 2012
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In the last post here, I said since the experiment with the poolish showed signs of activity it had inspired for more experiments, only this time not exhausting the yeast to see whether I could produce a good loaf. A poolish is equal amounts of water to flour, how much yeast you add and the […]

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A Levain and a Poolish hung out together

May 13, 2012
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I carried out this experiment with the full intention of predicting a failure with the poolish.  What I wasn’t prepared for was that the result wasn’t the complete failure I had anticipated, this led to further experiments with the poolish, very successful ones in fact. It’s established a sourdough dough will give you plenty of […]

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Oxidising Fresh Flour, Over-Oxidising & Over-Mixing Dough

April 3, 2012
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The subject of the need to oxidise fresh flour and also the need to introduce oxygen when mixing dough and the consequences of over doing it, which produces an inferior loaf both in appearance and flavour is a huge subject with nerdy-type of details.  These details cover the effect of the gluten-forming proteins as well […]

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Heritage Wholemeal Buns & Gloria’s Rhubarb Ketchup

March 19, 2012
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I made these wholemeal buns yesterday, made 12 with the intent of using them this week for oldest kid’s pack lunch for school but today I have three left.  Father-in-law and Bikerboy had a couple still warm out of the oven, one with just butter melting and the other with bacon, father-in-law took some home. […]

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John Letts Heritage Wheat Loaf

March 14, 2012
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These two loaves are made with John Letts 85% stoneground flour (85% extraction), a mixed variety of Heritage wheat.  John doesn’t know exactly how many varieties there are in this mix but he thinks something in the region of hundred and fifty.  These wheat kernels are special, they’re from varieties you can no longer buy, […]

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Amaretto 2011 Using Amaretto Levain

February 27, 2012
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After the last post here, at the very end of that post I had said how the amaretto flour harvest 2011 had suffered a little from not being aged enough and I also said I was about to post photos of the successful dough having worked on it, and here it is.  No tearing before […]

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Difference Between Good & Bad Stoneground Flour

February 27, 2012
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I wanted to demonstrate the difference between good and bad stoneground flour.  I’m hoping that over the last few months I’ve shown how stoneground flour can produce beautiful looking loaves on par with any roller mill flour loaves.  I’ve also shown even freshly milled low protein 10.5% flour like this amaretto harvested 2010 with everything […]

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White Spelt Stoneground Foster’s Mill – Alkor

February 21, 2012
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I have little to say about this loaf other than, wow I never thought I would make a loaf with English Spelt using my free-form rising method and result in a rise like this.  Last year I attempted sourdough using English white spelt I had bought in my local supermarket and had disastrous results with […]

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In-Between Flour, Straight Flour, High Extraction Flour

February 13, 2012
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This flour is the perfect answer to those who think wholemeal flour is too heavy but still want the good parts of the wheatberry because along with having particles from the whole endosperm it will also have a fair amount of the bran and the germ. Stone Milling With stone milling the process is very […]

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