Demeter flours

possum-liz
Don't know if this if the right place for this question but..
I've just bought a big bag of Demeter's unbleached wheat flour, a friend got it for me at the wholesalers where it was called white organic flour. It is a cream coloured flour and has a slightly different feel to the usual white unbleached that I use.
Question, has anybody out there used it?  If so what's your experience? I made a batch using my usual all purpose sourdough recipe that runs at 67-70 % hydration and had to add water to about 80% hydration to get it to a good dough. I baked it in pans. It made a fantastic bread both taste and looks. (sorry no pix I haven't mastered that yet).
Keep on baking.
Liz
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Ben's picture
Ben 2009 April 12
I've been experimenting on and off with a couple of Demeter flours, the wholewheat bread flour and the light sift wholewheat bread flour but not the unbleached bread flour. The fragrance of the flour is incredibly sweet, just going to going to my local food coop and scooping the stuff into my containers gives me an incredible amount of joy. I was initially unhappy with the results (I posted my concerns in another forum http://sourdough.com/forum/trouble-organic-flour) but have had better results since. I find that my loaves don't tend to rise quite as much as ones I bake with white baker's flour from the supermarket but their really isn't any comparison with the taste (and I'm sure with the nutrition as well). I'm going to experiment with some different techniques to see if I can get the breads to rise a bit more.
possum-liz 2009 April 12

I used Demeter flours all the time but lately have been using whatever organic wholewheat flours my friend picks up for me at the organic wholesaler and sometimes I get the ordinary ww flour from the local wholesaler. I think that a regular grind flour gives a lighter loaf. The Demeter does have a very nice flavour and I haven't noticed much difference between organic roller milled flour and the Allied Mills wholewheat. I usually bake 50% wholewheat for my everyday bread and use Ben Furney's Gold bread flour for the balance. Yesterday I made a 50% ww high hydration (80%) sourdough that was supposed to be for baguettes, tasted great but not a baguette. I find my 100% ww Demeter bread very heavy, but did make a nice light loaf using Peter Reinhart's Mash Bread recipe without added yeast and baking it in my dutch oven.
Happy Baking
Liz

Ben's picture
Ben 2009 April 16

I've been baking quite a bit over the past couple of weeks with my demeter flours. I thought I'd post a photo because I've been very happy with the results. The small loaf on the left is made from 100% demeter wholegrain flour (labelled "hard wholemeal flour" at my food co-op). I also baked a loaf with this flour using a different method with about 50% starter and only one prove, It gave me a better rise but I wasn't as happy with the taste (it was a bit more like a supermarket wholemeal taste and didn't seem to me to digest as well) so I reverted to a more traditional method for this one. The larger loaf on the right is made with what the co-op labelled "hard white flour", it's either the demeter light sift wholewheat bread flour or the demeter unbleached bread flour. I'll have to ask exactly what product I've been using. [img]http://sourdough.com/gallery2/gallery/d/12358878-1/PA163881.jpg[/img]

Kerry 2009 April 18

Hi sentient, would you mind telling me where your local food coop is, as I would like to try some different flours.

Ben's picture
Ben 2009 April 18

Hi Kerry.

I've been buying my flour from Alfalfa house food co-op at enmore http://www.alfalfahouse.org/index.htm it's a great little shop, heaps of good organic ingredients and produce, you bring your own container and fill it from their bulk bins. I've also bought it from the Green Tucker Store, which is another organic food co-op at Forrestville, they also have Kialla flour there. It would probably be a good idea to ring before heading to either store to make sure they have stock.

I'm not sure where you are in NSW, if you can't find a store nearby it might be worth ordering online, there are a couple of organic grocery providers in Sydney that have flour. I also really enjoyed the flour I bought from this website, and it was a good price, they weren't milling wheat last time I tried to order though.

Kerry 2009 April 18

Thanks sentient. I'm in Sydney about mid-way between both the stores you mention. I've been to the co-op in Manly some time ago but don't remember if they kept flour.

Kerry 2009 April 18

Hi Ben,

I'm fairly new to baking, but the rule of practice, practice, practice seems to be paying off occasionally. There probably are other North Shore bakers around that we don't know about, I only stumbled over this site with some random searching.

Kerry

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