l think wheat is like rice。different land over the global haVe different pH and mineral contents in their Soil and water which is the significant contribuTion to their every specific wheat berry’s taste and texture。The grinding or chopping method of flour mill also affects the release and vaporation of the wheat aroma。that being said, to me, bad flour refers to the tasteless products that are from nutrient-deficient land or overheat metallic machine grinding。 (pls forgive my Engish cos l’m not a native speaker。Have a rice day!)

Hello,
Along with the protein % or Gluten content in wheat flour, mixing time in dough making plays a significant role in bread quality.
If Gluten % is High we should give some more mixing time for proper development of gluten networks…

Hello Reinier,
Yes you are right, but that does not mean it is not sold. Look at this article for instance:
www.foodwatch.org/nl/cu…foodwatch/
We do not know for sure if this flour was bleached and in what way, but it being so white, there must be some process responsible for it, it is at least very much oxidized.

Hello Ken,
The dough is clearly over-proofed, but the question is how this is possible.
Did you change flour brand or type or is anything different compared to all the other times. Did the flour producer change anything, is the protein content still the same. is something wrong with the bread machine? Is it getting too warm maybe?

Hi Ziona,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. We did find that we do have developed a preference for certain flour brands that give the best result. We still keep on experimenting and especially trying flour from different mills in our neighborhood, we do like to support them too!

Hello James,
We want to thank you for taking the time to add your very useful comment to the subject.
We have found that talking to the miller (because of the lack of info on the bags in Holland) is the way to find out about things like area of the wheat and protein content and other info on how they operate. Smaller mills (often run by volunteers) usually only mill a small selection of flour themselves and often sell flour from other mills.
In Holland the distances are not that vast, so sometimes it really pays to try a few different addresses to get the right flour.

Greetings from the low countries,
Breaking heat records over here with temperatures close to 100 °F! (not the best weather for baking and hot ovens)

Ed & Marieke

Hello Roger,
Focusing on the protein content is indeed a simplification, but it is an important factor for bread baking. The mills are just great if you can find one close by of course and very often they are very reasonable with their prices.
If this is not an option we would suggest trying different flour brand from the supermarkets because there can also be a (big) difference between them. The flour you mention could be great for bread. Mixing like you did is a great option. This is also what we did with option 3, using the durum wheat / semolina in combination with the cheap supermarket store brand flour. This durum flour can also be found at Turkish supermarkets in Holland at a good price.
And more and more we see supermarkets offer organic versions of wheat flour, that are a little bit more expensive but also give better result in terms of baking results and taste.
This way you would still be able to bake a very good and healthy loaf of bread without any additives and enhancers for around 50 to 60 cents.

Hallo Joost,
Dank voor je leuke comment. Wij kunnen niet echt van aanpassingen spreken omdat we vrijwel altijd met steengemalen bloem en meel werken voor ons brood. We doen wel voortdurend kleine aanpassingen, afhankelijk van het seizoen en bij iedere nieuwe zak, omdat er altijd verschillen zijn (denk zomer- en wintertarwe bv). We kijken naar de graansoort en naar het eiwitgehalte. Je ziet bij de bio bloem die wij gebruiken dat ze meer eiwit bevat dan de niet bio die wordt aangeboden. Wat betreft het kneden zou je dan een aanpassing doen. Dus het antwoord is dat je op basis van ervaring continue kleine aanpassingen doet, zodat het deeg er uit ziet en aanvoelt zoals je dat voor ogen hebt.
Wij gebruiken vrijwel altijd mandjes voor alle ‘rustieke’ broden. Zowel riet als houtvezel, vaak door elkaar, dat maakt ons niet zoveel uit. Vooral met de nattere degen en langere rijstijden geven de mandjes steun en vorm aan het deeg. In onze shop bieden wij zelf een uitgebreide collectie mandjes aan, misschien heb je dit al gezien: (www.weekendbakery.com/websh…ijsmandjes).

Heel veel bakplezier!

Ed & Marieke

Wat een leuk en nuttige test hebben jullie gedaan 🙂 Vooralsnog heb ik met name ervaring met wals/ cilinder gemalen franse bloemsoorten (Tarwe T65). Deze zijn overigens zonder enige broodverbetermiddelen o.i.d.

Nu ben ik benieuwd welke aanpassingen jullie doen als jullie met een steengemalen bloem werken (langer/ korter kneder, meer/ minder water e.d.). En zit er dan nog veel verschil in een bio steengemalen en en niet bio steengemalen?

En gebruiken jullie broodmandjes om het deeg te ondersteunen zo ja welke?

Alvast dank voor jullie reactie en keep up the good work!

Joost

Hi again Escafon,
That is such an interesting story to share. I am sure your girlfriend could approach them and talk a bit more about bread or get some tips. They have valuable knowledge and for sure inspirational recipes and breads.

Happy baking and sharing!
Marieke

Thanks for the tip! Now I actually remember how I got the idea to make bread from Lidl “belbake” flour, it was last winter when I had a “pasta madre”, sourdough, and for maintaining this culture I had to throw away dough. There I started to experiment with cheap flour. (I had started the culture with Demeter biologic dynamic flour ) And the lidl flour felt surprisingly quite good in my hands. It was actually the feeling I had kneading this flour which made me thinking “why not try baking bread out of it?”
Other thing is that in the Lidl Indische buurt we often see Maroccan women of a certain age buying substantial amounts of this flour, and my girlfriend started to talk with them.
There we found out that there are a lot of Marrocan women bake their own bread, and that they prefer Lidl flour over the Albert Heyn.
Now we allso know that these women bake their bread with a culture leaving some dough for the next bread, and actually I am quite curious to know what kind of bread baking knowledge these elderly marrocan women have just in my very own neighbourhood.

Hi Escafon,
The supermarket flour we used is no longer sold under this brand name (Euroshopper), but the AH Basic is probably very probably the same stuff. We know the AH biologische tarwebloem gives good results (also 11%) but is expensive in comparison.
We can suggest using durum wheat from a Turkish ‘supermarkt’ and combine this with your basic flour from Lidl. Normally this flour has a higher gluten content and is also reasonably priced. Just keep trying different flours from different supermarkets, they could all be different but some may be better than others.

Good luck with everything and great you are baking your own!

Ed & Marieke

The lidl flour has a protein content of 11%

P.S. Nice to see I’m not the only Dutchman with a food blog in English.