According to the KAF website, their white whole wheat flour is 13% protein, their whole wheat flour is 14%, their bread flour is 12.7% and their AP flour is 11.7%. (By comparison, Gold Medal unbleached AP flour is somewhere around 10.5%, I believe.)
KAF offers two pastry flours, the pastry flour blend is 10.3% protein, the pastry flour (which I prefer) is 8%. KAF's unbleached cake flour is 10% protein, other brands of bleached cake flour will likely range from 7% to 9%.
Of course, some of the protein in a whole wheat flour isn't gluten, so I'd consider it the same as their bread four for blending purposes.
I'd blend to get to about 11.5% myself, it'll produce a softer roll. When I make cinnamon rolls, I often use a lower protein content flour like Gold Medal.
Over on the BBGA forum there's a report that SAF Gold (osmotolerant) yeast has become hard to find, I've confirmed that several online sites are reporting it as out of stock.
SAF has plants around the world, but I don't know how many of them make the osmotolerant product.
I think we'll just have to get used to shortages in baking supplies for a while.
Mike, I went to the senior special shopping hours the other day, except I screwed up and got there at 7:30 when the hours were 6-7:00. The parking lot was packed, and all the handicap spots were full. The aisles were crowded with shoppers and people restocking shelves - so the selection was fairly good, except no toilet paper, cleaning/sanitizing supplies, flour, dairy products (plenty of eggs). About half the shoppers at that hour were 20-somethings, and half 60-somethings. You are right, who wants to get up at 5:00, leave home at 5:30 because it's a 25 minute drive, just to shop at 6:00! Supposedly everything is freshly cleaned, and the shelves better stocked. I will do this again, it's worth getting up early (and, since we're not doing anything else, we can take a nap as soon as we get back home!)!
Our Farmers Market went to 1st, 3rd, and 5th (if there is one) Saturday beginning in the later fall and usually stays on that schedule until May. This past weekend was a market weekend, but they knew that they could not hold it inside the community room at the library. So, one of the two market managers put a lot of effort into creating a way for people to order online, and the other manager did some publicity. People could pull into the library parking lot, pay (exact change or check), and receive their items.
I didn't participate as this time of year, the produce is limited to greenhouse spinach, lettuce, kale, green onions, and microgreens (never have tried these). I didn't need any of the produce this week, and I don't have a bill smaller than $10.
Most of the crafters probably chose not to participate, although the jewelry designer did. In addition to the lady with the greenhouse, and the couple with microgreens, there is also a local beef and pork seller. and the microgreens guy also sells small artisan breads and chocolates. There is also a lady who sells muffins (well cupcake muffins) and quick breads.
Apparently the experiment was a success, although with a few hiccups, so they plan to do it again the first weekend inn April.
I made a cake from a mix, (BRM gluten free) it's a vanilla cake but I added a teaspoon of cake spice from The Spice House (sadly, they no longer make that blend), I did make the chocolate frosting from scratch. The cake calls for 1/2 cup of melted butter or veg oil, I used 1/4 cup of peanut oil and 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. It says to wait for the cake to cool before frosting but I frosted it warm because it spreads easier. It's still cooling right now so I have to wait to sample it.
I probably have 50 egg cartons in the garage, I give them to the egg vendors at the farmer's market, but who knows if/when it will open this year, usually around the end of April, or if they'll want 'used' egg cartons this year. The meat/egg sales at the UNL meat lab have eggs from their test flocks that you have to use your own cartons for, but the last time I was there Aldi was 25 cents cheaper. I suspect the UNL meat sales are shut down along with nearly everything else at the University right now, though. My wife would normally be off this week for spring break, but I think she'll be helping profs get ready to finish the semester online, especially those profs who haven't had much experience with distance education.
I'm down to less than 2 dozen eggs, so we'll probably pick some up on our next grocery run, assuming they're available.
With restaurant sales way down, I wonder if Sysco has flour available? I'm not sure they normally support walk-in 'retail' customers and they might not allow non-employees in the building at all right now. I may give them a call, a 50 pound bag doesn't scare me. (Before he moved, I would have just asked my neighbor, he runs the Lincoln Sysco office.)
On Sunday, I tried a new recipe: Olive Oil Coffee Cake with Blueberries and Pears, which I found at:
Olive Oil Coffee Cake with Blueberries and Pears
However, that was just a starting point. I have a Pear-Walnut Coffee Cake recipe in my recipe box (from the Dark Ages when I would type recipes onto cards), which came from something called “My Great Recipes.” I was craving the coffee cake and saw two Bosc pears on sale early last week. However, my original recipe has 10 Tbs. margarine or butter, which is not acceptable. So, I went surfing for an oil-based recipe and found the one in the link. Then I began to make changes. I used the two unpeeled pears and no blueberries. I don’t see the point of mixing the two fruits, although if we like the recipe, I might try it again with frozen blueberries. I used half AP flour and half whole wheat pastry flour. I reduced the baking powder to 2 tsp. and added ¼ tsp. baking soda. I used nonfat Greek yogurt. For the topping, I used a streusel from Recipes from the Old Mill that I like on an apple cake. It uses just 1 Tbs. of butter. I used pecans, as I have more of those than walnuts. The recipe used a ceramic dish. I used a 13x9 inch glass one. I would have done so anyway, as I’ve discovered that fruits (apples, blueberries) affect the finish on USA pans. I baked for 40 minutes on the third shelf up in my Wolf oven. My husband has been smelling the cinnamon all afternoon and is excited for dessert tonight.
On Sunday, I also baked Lens Rye/Semolina/Whole Wheat Buns. I used white whole wheat flour this time and let the bread machine do the kneading, so that I could work on the coffee cake. I sprinkled some of my free sample of KAF’s Everything Bagel Topping on two of the buns. We will use the buns for dinner sandwiches, but I’ll have one with the topping, which I don’t think my husband would like.
Thanks for clarifying Aaron. Clearly I was muddled.
We made a quick trip to our local grocery today. I actually found organic long grain brown rice at a reasonable price. There was a fair amount of brown rice on the shelves. I think people don't know how to cook it, or in this area are unfamiliar with whole grains. I was also pleased to find frozen turkeys at 99-cents a pound. We bought the smallest, which is still over 14 pounds. My thought is that some restaurants are not buying food now, so the retailers are turning to the grocery stores. I stowed the turkey in the freezer of the apt. refrigerator.
Our grocery store sent out a request for egg cartons, since the only eggs they could find (originally destined for restaurants) were not in cartons. They were able to find some used cardboard holders.
I'm low on wheat germ, which I use in my granola. There was none at the store, so the next batch of granola will use only what I have.
It's good that I wasn't looking for flour, as that section was bare, although the tiny health section had some small bags of Bob's Red Mill wholegrain rye. I read a story about a cook and her boyfriend, who is a cook, who are both laid off due to restaurant closings, and she mentioned a flour shortage, so it is hitting nationwide.
Of course, we were commenting on some flour scarcity BEFORE all of this started.
I may have to slow down how much baking I do, not so much to conserve my flour but I'm running out of freezer space! Right now I've got Challah, semolina bread, honey wheat bread, several types of rolls, including the Finnish cinnamon rolls, and a number of rye breads in the freezer.
I'm packaging up most of the 10 pound tube of ground beef for the freezer in 12 ounce bags. (A pound of ground beef is more than we normally eat at one time unless I'm making something like a meat loaf.) Some of it will be pre-shaped as 3 ounce patties.
Aaron--The only 100% whole wheat bread that I've ever made was the Stella Parks recipe that uses a food processor. It's a mess to clean the food processor, but it is a very good bread. There should be a link somewhere here on Nebraska Kitchen, as both Mike and I have made it. I just checked, and she used regular whole wheat. However, maybe the technique would work for you.
I've not used white whole wheat in most of my breads; I've kept it for cookies. I really liked the white whole wheat (ivory flour) that Bob's Red Mill had, but they don't produce it any more. I thought that it had a better taste than the KAF white whole wheat.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by
BakerAunt.
Ahhh. This is what they used to call Sir Lancelot (maybe they still do.) I seen people use this for pizza and bagels.
Could you mix it with AP to lower the gluten? I haven't used AP in years. I use bread flour for AP flour in cookies and brownies and cakes.
I don't see why not. I've used everything from Gold Medal AP to 15% high-gluten flour in that recipe (or the one in BBA, which is similar but makes more dough), and they all came out fine. The other day I used KAF AP, because it's what I've got the most of on hand.
You may need to adjust the moisture level a bit, just make sure it meets Peter's criteria: satin appearance and not at all tacky.
High gluten flour makes great bagels. My next door neighbor used to say it was only good for bagels and pizza. (He carried one that was around 15% protein.)
BRM's website keeps crashing whenever I go there. It was not great to begin with, and I suspect that traffic dealt it the final blow. I looked at the KAF website, but they still show as being out of most flours.
My sister mentioned seeing a 25lb. bag of BRM at Smart and Final in California. She doesn't bake, so passed by what I would have grabbed--even BEFORE the current challenge was upon us. We are planning to sit tight in our small town for a while, and the one grocery store never had much by way of specialty flours.
I found that I have some bags of KAF high gluten flour in the back of my pantry, so I need to figure out the best way to use it. I've found a KAF recipe that calls for it (naturally), so that will likely be the next loaf of bread.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.
I'm making some pie crust dough today, but don't plan to make anything with it until tomorrow. I'm making enough dough for 3 bottom crusts, 2 will go in the freezer.
I'm still experimenting with how to accurately measure pie dough thickness. I've been working on a lengthy article that includes a table showing how much pie dough to make based on the size of your pie pan and type of pie being made, with different amounts for a standard bottom crust and a deep dish bottom crust as well as for a standard top crust, lattice top or dome top. (I recently saw an article on making a braided top, but I'm not planning to include that type.)
This article expands on the one PJ Hamel wrote for King Arthur back in 2014 about how you shouldn't divide your pie dough into two equal parts. But the challenge in figuring out how much dough to make is having a reasonable value for thickness, since that's needed to compute volume or mass. I've been checking a lot of sources, there's no consensus answer. I may wind up with two weight recommendations based on how thick you like your pie crust.
