Proper strong white flour ...

rozeboosje

Hello peeps,

I'm experimenting with high hydration sourdough baking, and the one problem I keep having is that my boules tend to sag a bit due to the hydration of the flour. I tried a 76% hydration the other day, and while it still rose to a very respectable 7 cm unsupported off the baking tray, it did expand sideways as well and it had a very wide, "flat" appearance. I have successfully created nice looking "boules" at lower hydration levels, but to achieve something like that at 76 percent I need a stronger flour.

Odlums sell something they optimistically call "strong white flour" but ... yeah. At 11% protein levels I'm not impressed. I can find Organic strong white flour by Doves and by Marriages, but both come in at about 12 1/2 percent protein which is still a little bit low.

Now my local health shop DOES sell Marriages "Very strong Canadian wholemeal flour", and it has a very respectable protein level of about 14 1/2 percent, but for some funny reason they don't sell a similar WHITE flour. Having googled about a bit I see that there are a few stronger flours on the market - Marriages do seem to do a stronger white flour, and so do waitrose, but ... does anybody sell those in Ireland?

Cheshire Cat

Hovis Super Strong Flour (12.8%) is the strongest readily available white strong flour I have found. I buy it in Tesco. You can get Marriages and other Canadian strong flours from amazon

rozeboosje

Hm. Bit disappointing that - that's not really much stronger than the Marriages / Doves Strong White Flour that I can buy in my local health shop. Anyhoo. Our local Tesco (Greystones) doesn't stock the Hovis "Super Strong Flour" (funny name that when there's Canadian flour around that will beat the **** out of that), but maybe the easiest thing to do is talk to the shop owner of my local health shop. If she's already buying other flours from Marriages I might be able to get her to buy in a little white Canadian flour, too :-)

P.e.a.d.a.r

I get Marriage's 100% Very Strong Canadian White Flour in either the Asia Market or Fallon & Byrne (Dublin). I think it's about the same price in both.

rozeboosje

Cheers. I'm not in Dublin that often but I'll go see next time I'm there :-)

rozeboosje

Just making sure I'm looking in the right place. Asia Market is in Drury street, and Fallon & Byrne is in Exchequer street, right?

hfallada

rozeboosje wrote: »

Just making sure I'm looking in the right place. Asia Market is in Drury street, and Fallon & Byrne is in Exchequer street, right?

Yeah they are basically around the corner from each other.

rozeboosje

Hm. The point may be moot as I've just contacted my local health food shop - the one that carries the other types of Marriages flours - and they said they'd be happy to place some on order for me. Problem solved :-)

rubadub

rozeboosje wrote: »

local health food shop

My local one has the regular 500g bags of various grains & flours. Once I asked for a larger one, can't remember exactly if it was a 2kg or 3kg bag, but it was half the price per kilo as the standard 500g ones. So definitely worth asking, they were very happy to help & interested.

rozeboosje

Yay! Got my flour on Saturday. Thanks for the 2 or 3 kg bag suggestion. Cunning plan :-)