The nutrition labels in the USA don't give you a lot to go on, because they usually consider a 'serving' of flour to be somewhere around 30 grams and they report protein content in gram intervals, so you basically will see 3 or 4 grams of protein per serving.
4 grams of protein per 30 gram serving really means somewhere between 3.50 grams and 4.49 grams, which means somewhere between 11.6666% protein and 14.96%, which is a pretty wide range.
So you can sort of tell whether a flour is a fairly low protein flour (below 11.66%) or not, but that's about it.
I've been reading nutrition labels a lot more lately, because of my low-sodium diet, but I still think they are less helpful than they could be. (And I hold out zero hope that they'll ever be meaningfully improved.)
Another annoying aspect of the labels is what they consider a serving. I bought a candy bar once that contained 2.5 servings. Yeah, right.
I always thought '00' flour referred to the degree to which it is ground, 00 being a fine grind (which cake flour is, too.) The protein content is going to depend on what kind of wheat it's made from.
Most European flours are lower in protein content than North American 'all purpose' flours, even after you take into account the differences in how the protein content is measured by European standards and American standards.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by
Mike Nolan.
I have spent Wednesday afternoon baking. I baked Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, a recipe that first appeared in Bon Appetit in February 1998. The original recipe calls for slivered, toasted almonds, but I used chopped pecans instead, which go nicely with the dried cherries and Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips. I deleted the almond extract and used a 1 rather than a 2 Tbs. cookie dropper, so the recipe yielded just over three dozen. I then baked my Oatmeal and Cinnamon Chip Scone recipe. The last project was to make Ellen's (formerly Moonie) buns as a dozen rolls. No, I did not try braiding them. 🙂
Thanks for the link BA.
I make thin crust although I want to try making Chicago style stuffed (which is still thin) and deep dish. I just haven't done it yet.
I've never used semolina. I did use a type oo flour that claimed to be semolina but was very fine rather than being course. Probably a mistranslation equating durum with semolina. I do have some olive oil/semolina cake recipes so I may try it there. My family did not care for it so after I used it up I went back to cake flour as it is less expensive and more readily available.
I do not use oil in my dough. My ingredients are KAF white ww flour, Bob's Red Mill unbleached cake flour, cool water, BRM red flax meal, BRM chickpea flour, SAF Red instant yeast, 365 turbinado sugar, Morton's kosher salt. I'll figure out amounts next time I make it rather than relying on doing it by feel.
I've had sausage with and without sugar that was used either as breakfast or non-breakfast sausage. The Italian sausage I am trying to replicate uses demerara sugar in both the sweet and hot versions which is why I added some sugar to mine.
Today I made sandwich buns, the same recipe I used last week to make the basket weave loaf. Except I subbed a little rye for the white flour (1/2 cup). I also wanted to try to make the basket weave for the buns. So I tried it for 2 of them to see how it would turn out. The challenge was to coax 95 grams of dough into 6 ropes. As I expected it would be, it took a little effort. But here is the result.
Of course, it would be easier if I made larger buns. If I do this again maybe I'll make 7 buns instead of 8.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by
RiversideLen.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by RiversideLen.
Attachments:
You must be
logged in to view attached files.
Congrats on your great find, and I agree with Mike that you should be able to bake any type of bread in it. I am sure it will be delicious, no matter what you bake.
If you can't find a use for it...I will gladly take it off your hands!!!!!!!!! (:>=
Last night we had ribs (cooked on the grill on the deck with the temp about 20*) and oven roasted veggies. Tonight I made Shepherd's Pie - with ground beef, whole kernal corn and mashed potatoes with lots of onions and garlic.
Today I'm making a "use up all the vegetables in the house" (chopped red and orange bell pepper, celery, carrots, green onions, mushrooms) soup on the wood stove, using turkey stock, the leftover ground turkey from last night, and some pearl barley.
Congratulations on your find. You should be able to make nearly any type of bread in your new cloche. (I've heard of problems with breads with chocolate in them in a cloche because the chocolate scorches, but other than that you should be fine.)
I should mention that adding the oil later makes a bit of a mess, and it does not all seem to be incorporated, in spite of my best efforts. The first time, it was a mistake (forgot to add the oil until late in the process.) I usually pour any oil pooled in the mixing bowl into the bowl in which I will let the dough rise, and turn the dough to get it all covered. Every time, I say to myself, I will not do it this way again, and then I taste the texture and chewiness of the crust, and I do it again because I like the result.
This morning I baked Gingered Lemon Barley Scones. I worked off of the recipe in the King Arthur Whole Grains Book and a recipe for Ginger Scones from Le Brea bakery that I got out of Bon Appetit. I needed to use up some lemons (done!) and some half and half, which I bought and then could not recall why I had bought it (sigh). They came out pretty well. I need to play around with the recipe a bit. I do like crystalized ginger with lemon, and with two-thirds of the flour being barley flour, there is a nice whole grain taste.
Yesterday I baked 5 loaves of molasses/oatmeal bread (the favorite bread of my clients), and 4 loaves of white from my own recipe to fulfill an order. I also managed to bake a cheese cake in between the bread baking. Tomorrow I will bake 4 loaves of light whole wheat, and 4 loaves of light whole wheat with molasses, also to fulfill an order.
I really want to try the challuh that I wrote about last week, but might be able to do that on Wednesday.
I've often toyed with the idea of making sausage. Rachel Ray on "30-minute Meals" (Food Network) used to make different kinds of sausage. The host of "Southern At Heart" (Food Network) made "Breakfast Sausage." She put brown sugar in it, which she said made it breakfast sausage. I like the idea of making my own, because I could have sausage without black pepper. But I've never taken the plunge.
In my case, it just skipped my year, so I assume that there were no fast food developments in it.
I come from a large family, so we only went to McDonalds as a special, occasional treat. However, my family did develop a pizza habit by the time I was a teenager, so that was the fast food that we would do on Christmas Eve (so we could get to church on time) and often on Halloween. It was actually cheaper than buying frozen pizza, since we always added mushrooms and olives anyway. When I was in high school, one pizza parlor gave out discounts if people showed their "I have voted" stub, but at some point that was stopped because someone thought it encouraged people to vote for the wrong reason.
Some foods, along with other things, were rationed in those days! We didn't have any "fast food" places then either, and when some did open, my family couldn't afford to eat there. We went once a year to a decent (good food, reasonable portions, reasonable prices) seafood restaurant, and once each summer to a seasonal soft-serve ice cream place. I simply cannot imagine eating most of your meals at a fast food joint, as many families do these days. However, I do note the trend is now toward more home-cooked meals.
