Finally Country Loaf Success! Fresher Flour Makes a Big Difference

• Flour
  • 540g Red Rose Electra Light
  • 67g Whole Wheat Stone Ground
  • 67g Levain Flour
  • 14g Sea Salt
  • 7g Diastic Malt Powder
• Water 75% Hydration
  • 438g Water
  • 67g Levain Water
• Yield: 1.2 Kg dough
• Open Bake 450F on steel with water bath in oven

What a difference fresher flour makes! Prior to this I was using KABF, but when I would order it from Amazon or Walmart, it would arrive with a best by date 3-4 months away. I didn't give it much thought until I took the plunge on a 50# bag of Red Rose Electra Light flour from Central Milling (local). This flour only has a little more protein and ash than KABF, but I think the biggest difference was how fresh it was. Milled only 3 weeks prior to when I got it. Working with this 75% hydration dough was similar to working with 65% hydration KABF. I'm not knocking KABF at all, I think KABF is probably great on the east coast where I'm guessing it's not typically 8-9 months old before you buy it. I think the bags of KABF I got were not fresh and delivering way below their potential. I'm making an 80% hydration dough with the RREL flour and it just pulled itself together into a smooth ball on the initial Rubaud mixing! It was giving decent tension on the first round of stretch and fold. That simply didn't happen with the KABF I was using. Anyways…

This dough temped around 74F, mixed, stretched, coiled for the first 3 hours, and then rested for 4 more hours. Preshape, final shape, 30 min banneton proof– a little under 8 hours for BF and then CF for 15 hours in this case. I'm very happy with the crumb and ear on this. My next change will be a longer bake and a lower temp for a thicker crust.