What are you Baking the week of June 7, 2020?

[Mike Nolan]

There's some evidence that whole grain breads might go moldy faster than ones made with white flour. I know when I started experimenting with first clear flour, which has more bran and germ than AP flour, I found the loaves went bad much faster.

It's probably because bran and germ retain more moisture than endosperm, so they release more as the bread cools. There has been an interesting thread in the BBGA forums lately on crusts, and how whole grain flours impact them.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, what do you use first clear for? I've only used it for deli rye and I feel like it makes a difference from bread flour. But buying it from KAF is too expensive. I'd purchased it from NY Bakers but they appear to have stopped selling it.

[Mike Nolan]

I bought a 50 pound bag of clear flour from Stover Company (in the Pittsburgh area) when we visited my son last summer, froze about half of it, and over the last year have used it in a variety of breads, generally as a replacement for some or all of the AP/bread flour in the recipe.

It produces breads that have a bit more pronounced flavor, though not quite the nuttiness of semolina. The volume wasn't quite as high as with an AP or bread flour. But what I noticed most is that they tended to mold faster.

There are a number of recipes in the Ginsberg book that either call for first clear or say it can be used in place of AP/bread flour, recently I've been using it mostly in those recipes.

The price issue is kind of funny, old-time bakery books said that bakers used first clear flour in rye breads because it was cheaper than AP and the darker color wasn't a factor because the rye flour was even darker.

I had my former neighbor check on it, he couldn't even get clear flour from his suppliers unless he ordered a skid of it. Apparently it isn't sold west of about Ohio except for a few places on the west coast.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--Baker's Authority has first clear flour in 5 lb. and 50 lb. bags.

What happened with my millet bread is that the pieces of millet were attacked by the mold, so the part that was left had green polka dots! Cooked millet holds a lot of water.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. Not sure if I could use a 50 lb bag of first clear but their 5 lb is about the same as three lbs from KAF.

My bakery books - and some are new - say the same as yours Mike. First clear used to be a by-product according to them. I was working with a distributor here who worked with "dozens of artisan bakeries in CT and NY" and he had never heard of it. He was shocked and it became a mission for him. I can order a 50 lb bag from him but unless it is batched in with other, bigger deliveries the shipping is prohibitive.

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