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We are having a rainy Wednesday, which is good for those trees we had planted last Friday. I decided to make Barley Crispbread again, as the recipe has proved very popular with my husband as well as with me. At least they are large, so they are not scarfed down as fast as the cheese crackers. I have been refining that recipe from the Swedish baking book, which means figuring out what flours to use, reducing the salt, and ignoring directions that do not work in a home kitchen. I do not own a 40x40 cm baking sheet, nor would it fit in my oven. Today, I decided to replace the 100g of wheat flour, preferably stone ground and high in gluten, for which I have been using Bob’s Red Mill bread flour with 50% BRM whole wheat and 50% KAF high-gluten flour, as I want to conserve my bread flour and use up the three bags of high gluten flour that has been sitting on my shelf. Given that my mixer can’t handle this small amount of dough on low speed (and maybe not on any speed), and that trying to knead with the mixer meant 15 minutes of continuously stopping the mixer to re-adjust, which I’m worried may wear out the mechanism, not to mention my patience, I decided to do the 15 minutes of kneading by hand after I initially mixed up the flours and waters and mixed in the melted butter. What could be more low speed than that? As it is a clay-like dough, it was easy to knead. I have not kneaded by hand for a long time, and I’d forgotten how soothing it can be. The dough is now rising. If it comes out well, I may go ahead and post the recipe here at Nebraska Kitchen, since the adaptation I was forced to do, given the lack of explanation about flours and other matters really does make this recipe my own.
The crispbread looks good, with the same crisp texture as when I've made them before. I'll see what it tastes like tomorrow.
We are nearly out of bread, so I am making another loaf of the Barley Wheat Bread, having let the Zo do the kneading. This time I needed to add 5 Tbs. flour; last time it was four. It may be that this cottage cheese has more liquid than the brand I used in Texas. My husband really likes this bread and that it stays soft.
There was an interesting discussion on flour mills on the BBGA forum recently, in doing some research I found that according to the national association for millers there are 166 flour mills in the USA, the largest of which can process over 3 million pounds of flour a day.
By comparison, there are 8 mills in France, and the average US mill process 13 times as much flour as a French mill. In general, the flour processed at a French mill comes from farms within a 60 mile radius, and the grower cooperatives decide which farmer grows which type of wheat, so that they will know what they have to work with when blending.
I recently got a small amount of French traditional T65 flour, along with two specialty flours, some Kapnor and some Campaillou. I'm looking forward to researching them some more then trying them out. (I think I know what T65 is, Kapnor appears to be a bread flour, Campaillou appears to be a blend of wheat and rye.)
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