Paragon wheat variety – stoneground flour

Paragon wheat variety sourdough

This organic flour is a single wheat variety called paragon.  All flour bought (shops, supermarkets or direct from mills) is a blend but some small stoneground mills will mill single wheat varieties.  If you can buy single wheat varieties it’s fun to buy more than one variety and bake side by side, see how different they are in both the dough’s handling and the resulting differences in taste.  Have a read of my previous experience of single wheat varieties, paragon, tybalt and amaretto here.

The easiest way to try stoneground flour is to mix it with normal bread flour, for me it needs at least 50% of the stoneground to have proper impact of its flavour.  And if feeling daring add 80% of the single wheat variety like I have here.

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This is paragon wheat from 2012 harvest which is a huge improvement from the 2011 harvest I had previously tried.  I didn’t much care for the flavour of the 2011 harvest.

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White stoneground flour will bake a darker crumb, the older the white stoneground flour is the whiter it will bake, but with the loss of colour there will also be a loss of flavour.

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Details on folding and baking here Walnut & Raisin Sourdough

 

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Paragon wheat variety stoneground
 
If you have never used stoneground flour before, paragon wheat variety is usually strong enough to be used on its own without mixing in ordinary white bread flour and if you’re using a white wheat fed starter the starter will help with strengthening the dough. If you’re a rye starter or a fair amount of it in your starter adding white normal bread flour (rollermill) will help a great deal 70-100g.
Ingredients
  • 100g white bread flour (the normal white bread flour you see in shops)
  • 400g white stoneground paragon
  • 200g starter (levain)
  • 10g salt
  • 320-330g water (cold in the Summer and warm 27-32˚C in Winter)
Instructions
  1. Mix all the ingredients together until all the flour is hydrated.
  2. Fold the dough 3 times, resting after each time. In the summer months when temperatures are 22˚C plus the folding can be done within 1 hour. When temperatures hit below 19˚C the folding can be done within 2hrs as the dough is slow.
  3. Shape.
  4. For final rise let it rise until increased in size considerably, depending on weather/room temperature can take 2.5hrs in very warm weather to 8hrs in winter.
  5. Bake using steam in well pre-heated fan oven 200˚C for 50mins. Baking times will vary depending on the oven.