Diving into Janie's Mill Flours
Welcome to another installment in our blog series on flour. In A Guide to Choosing the Right Flour, I provided a broad overview of flour characteristics and classifications. In Flour Extraction Rate, I delved into the milling process and its impact on flour. Now, we'll explore the rheological and baking properties of specific stone-milled flours from Janie’s Mill.
Why Janie's Mill?
I focus on Janie’s Mill because I have extensive experience using their flours, and they provide detailed specifications on their website. Over the past few years, I've built a relationship with the farmers and millers at Janie’s Mill, and I’m honored to be part of their extended bread family. While this article discusses Janie’s Mill flours specifically, the characteristics of similarly milled wheat, rye, spelt, and other grains are generally consistent across different mills.
Rheological Properties of Dough
Before diving into specific flours, I recommend reading the first two articles in this series if you haven't already. They provide a baseline understanding of dough rheological properties, explaining terms like elasticity and extensibility, which are crucial for choosing the right flour blends for your bread.
Exclusive Discounts for Sourdough Geeks
If you haven’t tried Janie’s Mill flour yet, they offer exclusive discount codes for Sourdough Geeks members:
- GEEKS40: Free shipping on any order over $40*.
- GEEKS10: 10% off any order.
- FREESHIPPING100: Free shipping on any order over $100.
*Offer good for shipping costs up to $25. These codes cannot be combined and can be used one time each.
Understanding Janie's Mill Flours
Janie’s Mill products are either whole kernel or high extraction, meaning they don't behave like conventional, refined supermarket flours. For instance, their Whole Kernel Bread Flour performs more like King Arthur Whole Wheat than King Arthur Bread Flour. Their All-Purpose Flour is more suitable for quick breads, pancakes, and biscuits rather than fermented breads. These flours require practice and patience to master, but this guide will help accelerate your learning process.
High Extraction Wheat Flours
Organic Whole Kernel Bread Flour: Milled from hard red spring wheat, this flour is 100% extraction, meaning it is unsifted. It has high protein and a good gluten-to-gliadin ratio, providing excellent dough elasticity. It also has a high water absorption rate and a Falling Number of 390, indicating tolerance for longer fermentation. Ideal for sourdough hearth loaves.
Organic High Protein Bread Flour: This flour is similar to the Whole Kernel Bread Flour but sifted to 80% extraction, removing 20% of the bran. It has lower ash content and a Falling Number of 400, making it suitable for lighter bread with more volume. Great for high extraction hearth loaves or blends with lower gluten-forming flours.
Organic Artisan Blend Flour: Milled from hard red spring and winter wheats, this flour has a moderate protein level and absorption rate. Milled to 90% extraction, it yields a more tender crumb and is perfect for sandwich loaves. Falling Number of 422 indicates excellent tolerance for long fermentation.
Organic Sifted Artisan Bread Flour: Similar to the Artisan Blend but milled to 80% extraction, resulting in a lighter texture and good volume. It’s great for laminated pastry doughs and softer, enriched doughs like buns and brioche.
Heirloom (Heritage) Wheat
Organic Red Fife Heirloom Flour: A 100% extraction hard red winter wheat with high protein and a slightly lower glutenin-to-gliadin ratio. It offers deep, complex flavors and tolerates long fermentation well. Ideal for flavoring grain blends in sourdough loaves.
Organic Turkey Red Flour: Known for its rich, nutty flavor, this wheat has high protein but is best used in small amounts in bread or in muffins and cookies.
Farro (Ancient) Grains
Organic Einkorn Flour: With high protein levels skewed towards extensibility, einkorn is challenging to work with in large amounts. It has a sweet, creamy flavor and is best used as a flavoring grain in smaller quantities.
Organic Black Emmer Flour: This emmer variety has a rich, earthy flavor and delicate texture. Lower in protein than einkorn, it adds excellent flavor and texture to baguette and pastry doughs.
Organic Spelt Flour: Easier to work with than einkorn and emmer, spelt has a high mineral content and a nutty flavor. It adds extensibility to dough and is a good starting point for experimenting with ancient grains.
Organic Durum Flour: Hard and high in protein, durum is primarily used for pasta but can be blended in smaller amounts for bread and pizza. Sifted to 70% extraction, it produces a finer texture and absorbs a lot of water.
Organic Semolina: Coarser than sifted durum, semolina adds rustic texture to breads and is used in pasta production.
Rye Flours
Organic Dark Rye Flour: Unsifted and rich in vitamins and minerals, dark rye adds hearty flavor and promotes excellent crust browning. It produces a stickier dough and requires a different approach than wheat flour.
Organic Light Rye Flour: Milled to 80% extraction, light rye has a more delicate texture and flavor. It blends well with high extraction wheat for delicious deli rye loaves.
Visit Janie's Mill
Janie’s Mill offers many more flours and whole grains for home milling. This guide highlights my favorites for bread baking. Experiment with these flours to discover unique flavor, texture, and nutritional profiles in your baked goods.
Time to Experiment!
This article provides insight into how to build better dough formulas using a variety of grains. Experiment with these flours and share your creative combinations with us! Comment below, or join our private community for more.
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