Farine

Barley & Wine Crackers

Dawn Woodward, owner of Evelyn’s Crackers in Toronto, Canada, and the author of this recipe baked at the Kneading Conference West 2012: inspired by the flavors of Greek biscotti and Baco Noir, an Ontario wine, they are are among her favorites although she no longer offers them for sale.

They can be baked as sheets and broken off in odd pieces after baking or they can be pre-cut with a pizza cutter and separated neatly afterwards. Your choice… I tried both and I thought the triangles were prettier and really not much more work but it is a matter of personal preference. Either way, they come out crispy and flavorful. The fragrance of the red wine is clearly discernable, boosted by the hint of exotic spices and the heat of the black pepper: I can understand getting addicted.
Probably written with a crowd in mind, the recipe printout distributed at the Conference would have yielded way too many crackers, so I simply halved everything and still got plenty. Also it may have contained a typo: when I added up the weights of all the liquids, I found that it called for more liquids than solids which doesn’t seem the way to go for crackers. So I added in more flour. I used white whole wheat instead of regular whole wheat. I decreased by one third the amount of spice but you can add it back if you like really bold flavors. What follows is my adaptation of Dawn’s recipe.

Ingredients:

700 g white whole wheat flour (I used Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill‘s)*
165 g barley flour (I used Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill‘s)
20 g fine sea salt
10 g quatre-épice blend (or you can mix and match cinnamon, black pepper and clove according to your taste)
75 g red wine (all I had left) + 50 g water (or 125 g red wine, if you have it)
125 g extra-virgin olive oil
20 g wildflower honey
450 g water, at room temperature

Method:

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl
Combine all the liquids
Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquids while continuously stirring
When the mixture gets too thick to stir, turn out onto the table and knead until smooth and soft (Dawn notes that the dough will be pliable but slightly clay-like due to the barley flour)
Let rest 10 minutes then divide in 50 g balls and roll out into long ovals (Dawn suggests 75 g but when I rolled out the bigger balls, I got ovals that were too long for my half-sheet baking pans). Another option is to divide the dough in 150g balls and roll it out directly onto parchment paper
Optional: dock or prick all over with a fork (I found the crackers baked more evenly that way) and pre-cut in desired shape with a pizza cutter
Place on parchment or bake directly on tiles in pre-heated 375°F/191°C oven
Bake until crisp (start checking after 10 minutes)
Cool on a rack
Enjoy!

* I used to bake a lot more with white whole wheat flour when I first introduced whole grain breads to my family but I had pretty much stopped doing so a couple of years ago: I found it too bland and by then everyone had gotten used to the fact that I would put in some whole grain in most breads and had actually learned to enjoy the taste.
But then I discovered Fairhaven’s white whole wheat flour: it is still very mild (certainly not as flavorful as some of the red wheats I love so much) but it is speckled with bran which makes it both beautiful and fiber-rich and I find it a good substitute for all-purpose flour in many recipes where wheat doesn’t play a starring role.
I realize many of you live too far away to have access to this particular flour but there may be a mill in your neighborhood or a natural food store selling bulk artisanal flours and it might be worth a look in case in case you’d like to try your hand at baking with stone-milled white whole wheat.
As for me, I like supporting my local mill, mostly because the miller, Kevin Christensen, is committed to organic grain: he is a firm believer in sustainable agriculture and by sustainable agriculture, he means organic farming. Living right on the Washington Coast as he does, he witnesses first-hand the damages chemical run-offs cause to fragile marine and river ecosystems: it happens regularly that beaches are closed and shellfish harvesting prohibited because of toxic algae blooms. So he works hand in hand with farmers and bakers to promote the demand for organic grains as a way to support healthy farmlands. That is a goal I can relate to.

These barley & wine crackers are being sent to Susan for Yeastspotting.

Andrew Whitley’s Spicy Buns

If you have been reading Farine for a while, you probably know that I am not a huge fan of anything sugary but these buns truly make the cut: the recipe calls for very little white sugar, most of the sweetness coming from dried fruit. Moreover they contain a healthy amount of wholewheat (55%) and they are leavened by what is apparently called a flying ferment, a lovely British term I had never heard before. It basically means a quick milk-based ferment that makes for a more active dough than when the yeast is simply added to the flour at mixing time.
I adapted the recipe somewhat, increasing the flour a bit (American all-purpose flours, while not as strong as Canadian ones, still seem to require more water than their British counterparts), replacing part of the raisins with dried cranberries (both for their tartness and their cheerful color) and adding dried orange peel (from Penzey’s Spices).
Andrew’s recipe calls for soaking the fruit in water, juice or brandy. In Victoria, Diane Andiel (who helped organize the workshop and was in charge of the ingredients) had been kind enough to pre-soak them for us in Grand-Marnier and the taste was exquisite. I opted for orange juice this time but I might go for the Grand-Marnier at holiday time, especially since the orange-cranberry bouquet of flavors make these buns excellent candidates for a Christmas breakfast, brunch or tea.
Those of you who would rather follow Andrew’s original recipe will find it in his book, Bread Matters, on page 254.

Ingredients (for six buns):

Flying Ferment

70 g wholewheat flour (I used Cedar Isle Farm flour kindly brought to me from Agassiz, BC, by my friend breadsong)
10 g sugar
3.3 g instant yeast (a scant teaspoon)
140 g milk

Fruit mix

40 g dried cranberries
90 g raisins
5 g dried orange peel (you might want to use the grated zest of an orange instead)
50 g orange juice (if using freshly grated orange zest, you will need only 25 g of orange juice)

Final dough

All of the above flying ferment
130 g white flour (you may need more or less depending on the flour you use. The best way to proceed might be to start with 100 g and adjust as needed)
55 g wholewheat flour
7 g baking spice (I used Penzey’s which I can’t recommend enough as the blend of Ceylon cinnamon, mace, anise and cardamom yields an irresistibly delicate flavor). Please note that I have zero financial interest in the company and no incentive to blog about it! It just happens that there is a Penzey’s store in Seattle and I like the fact that most of their spices are available in 4-oz resealable plastic bags that can be stacked flat in the freezer. Stored that way they keep their flavor almost indefinitely
5 g salt
15 g sugar
25 g butter (at room temperature, diced)
25 g egg (about half an egg)
All of the above fruit mix (don’t squeeze the fruit but don’t go overboard with the liquid either. Your best bet is to use the leftover liquid for another purpose. I added it to the plum sauce that was simmering on the stove)

Method:

Soak the fruit with the juice, water or brandy and allow it to hydrate for at least an hour, longer if you can, stirring from time to time (Andrew advises putting it in a plastic bag, sealing the bag, shaking it so that all the fruit get wet and if possible occasionally repeating the shaking during the soaking period)
Mix the pre-ferment and allow it to ferment for about one hour in a warm place (it should rise and drop)
Mix all the dry ingredients together then add the butter, the egg and the flying ferment (do not add the fruit mix at this stage)
Mix until the gluten structure is well developed (I started mixing by hand but the dough was too soft and I soon transfered it to the Kitchen Aid mixer: I mixed it on 2 for two minutes, then on 4 for a couple more minutes, at which point I took it out of the bowl, put it on the floured bench and folded it a couple of times. It came together beautifully)
Stretch the dough into a rectangle and carefully press the fruit into it, then roll it as you would a jellyroll, tucking in all the fruit that might escape
Turn the “jellyroll” 90 degrees and roll it again
Then return the dough to the bowl, cover it and let it rise until it no longer springs back when you palpate it with your finger
Divide in six and shape into fairly tight rounds
Put the rounds 5 cm apart on a parchment-lined half sheet pan, slide the pan into a clear plastic bag, blow once in the bag and tie it shut
Set to rise in a warm place until they are almost touching
When the buns are ready (the dough no longer springs back when you palpate it with your finger), decorate the top if desired (I sprayed them slightly with water then sprinkled some pearl sugar on them), bake them in pre-heated 350°F/180°C for 15 minutes (I steamed the oven first) then check their doneness. If necessary, bake another 5 minutes
Cool on a rack
Enjoy!

Andrew Whitley’s Spicy Buns are going to Susan for YeastSpotting.

Daily Bread: An Andrew Whitley Workshop

When Andrew Whitley was invited to speak at the Kneading Conference West 2012 in Mount Vernon, Washington, Victoria-based writer Rhona McAdam (who had attended an Andrew’s Whole Grain Baking workshop in Scotland earlier this year) knew she had to jump at the chance to have him come to nearby Vancouver Island, BC and teach. So she put together a weeklong program of teaching and discovery for him (neither Andrew nor his wife Veronica had ever been to Canada) and I was lucky enough to be able to participate, at Diane Andiel‘s suggestion, in Daily Bread, the baking workshop which Andrew led on Saturday, September 22 at the Royal Oak Middle School in Victoria, BC.
Not only was I very excited to get to learn from Andrew, if only for a day, but Victoria holds a special sway on my heart and imagination as a city where the local food movement is alive, well and bold. I have yet to read, Digging the City: An Urban Agriculture Manifesto, the book which Rhona just published (I have it on pre-order for my e-reader and should get it by mid-October) but I already knew that beyond the bright flower baskets, the colorful totems and the ceaseless ballet of roaring seaplanes over the harbor, not to mention the upscale and touristy afternoon teas at the Empress hotel, there was a vibrant city pulling itself by its roots so to speak, with urban farmers raising chickens, energetic young gardeners biking around to pick up compostable waste and citizens growing their own fruit and vegetables on their balconies or their decks or in their backyard.

On the night I arrived in Victoria, I went straight from the Clipper terminal to a lively panel discussion on alternative ways to support a local food economy: Andrew Whitley was there, making a case for community-supported baking (CSB) and explaining that CSB can take many forms: providing capital to buy equipment or rent premises; contributing labor or offering administrative support; helping out with product distribution, etc.
Another panelist, fisherman Guy Johnston, described the community-supported fishery (CSF) he had established. Now in its second year, the CSF had gone from 65 members the first year to 130 today: the members buy a share of the crop (prawns, octopus and salmon) ahead of the season, providing fishermen with guaranteed income from sustainable fishing. Knowing pre-season how much fish they should bring back made a huge difference (I was reminded of that fact when reading in the New York Times earlier this week that many fishermen in Spain couldn’t keep up the payments on their vessels).
Another panel participant, Angela Moran, an urban farmer, explained how she had successfully enlisted her neighbors’ help in managing her flock of chickens: everyone took turns in caring for the chickens and in exchange got a share of the eggs they produced.
Andrew Whitley – who lives and works near Edinburgh – said that food was a powerful connector to help weave social traffic and that the emerging community schemes in the Victoria area reminded him of Nourish Scotland, a movement which existed “to reconnect producers, growers, retailers, consumers and all who care for local, sustainable food in Scotland” and which aimed, among other things, to change local food economies. A key element of food security was the resilience stemming from the knowledge that these local networks could not be bought: built on human relationships, they were based on the desire to relate, which wasn’t for sale.

Teaching bread-baking can also be a way of generating interest in this form of local economy as people learn to bake, “produce more than they can eat, share the surplus with others and so take the first step into commercial and community baking”. And in fact among the people attending the workshop the following morning were grain growers, local chefs, homebakers and farmers, some of whom were already making bread for their communities.
I wish I could show you pictures of Andrew demonstrating how to make bread (especially his fascinating air-kneading technique) but he had outlawed photography and so my camera remained in my backpack. Rhona was allowed to click away for a while however and she was kind enough to share her pictures so that you can at least have an idea of the setup:

As you can see, space was limited (which meant no notebooks on tables either) but it all worked out (note to self: great networking opportunities are to be found in tight quarters!).
Andrew had us bake four different kinds of breads:

A 100% wholewheat no-knead bread (straight dough) which some of us shaped in a braid
33% wholewheat rolls for which he had prepared an overnight sponge
A plain sourdough 100% rye (from his book Bread Matters, pp. 160-166)
Pre-fermented 55% wholewheat spicy buns (from the same book, pp. 154-155)

Plain rye sourdough

Andrew has developed his own method for maintaining a rye levain and I will describe it in details in another post as soon as I make his sourdough rye at home (which should be very soon as the rye culture is already bubbling away).
A lively instructor, he kept a running commentary that made for instructive and entertaining baking. As you may already know (especially if you have read his book), he is a big fan of whole grains, high hydration and long fermentations. He thinks that commercially available white flour is dead flour and even though his baking repertory does include white bread, back home he uses a stoneground flour that retains more of the nutrients. Baking a loaf with a super airy crumb isn’t clearly not his top priority: as he puts it, “big holes in a crumb means white flour and no nutrition.”
Of course he had access to none of his regular flours in Victoria and I believe he was slightly puzzled by the way the unfamiliar (to him) Canadian flours handled themselves: they required more water than their British counterparts and yielded a dough that was more difficult to manage. At one point he had his assistant, Barbara, wash a piece of dough under running water until only the gluten strands remained. They were tightly packed and the whole thing looked rather like an used chewing gum. It was a striking sight (I wish I could have taken a picture!) which brought in sharp relief the true nature of gluten (which should surprise no one since its name is derived from the Latin word for glue). Andrew said that trick was a good way for the baker to evaluate the protein content of a flour when the information wasn’t readily available otherwise.

No-knead wholewheat bread

Generally speaking the breads didn’t come out as plump and golden as they could have and I believe that beyond the flours (which would have benefited from a pre-workshop test but there had been no time for that), the ovens were also rather a disappointment: the class took place in an home economics classroom equipped with homestyle stoves and steaming wasn’t an option. But it really didn’t matter. Bread matters and in that respect, Andrew’s knowledge, passion and commitment are stellar; they made for a memorable workshop. Thank you, Andrew (for teaching the class), Rhona (for organizing it), Diane (for generously helping out with the ingredients and the pre-ferments) and Barbara (for making the whole thing run smoothly)!

Related post:
Andrew Whitley’s Spicy Buns

Farming in Greater Victoria: other images

Scott Mangold: Test-Baking with Local Wheats

This year as last year, it was tough to make a choice between all the workshops, lectures, roundtables and demos offered at the Kneading Conference West and on that gorgeous Saturday morning (the last morning), I would especially have loved to attend one of the events taking place in the outdoor tent area instead of hanging out in the lobby kitchen, which is where Scott was giving his demo. But local grains were calling and local grains I picked!
I am glad I did. Sott gave us useful pointers which I am happy to share here. I took copious notes and so did my friend and fellow SHB/bread blogger breadsong who was sitting next to me. When she heard I was going to write up the class for this blog, she very kindly sent me her notes. What follows is an amalgamed summary of what we both wrote down. Thank you, breadsong!
The whole wheat Scott Mangold is currently baking with at Breadfarm, his beautiful bakery in the Skagit valley, is milled nearby at Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill but it is grown in Whatcom county. Stephen Jones, Director, WSU Research and Extension Center at Mt. Vernon, is seeking to grow locally flavorful wheat that could be used by bakers and Scott hopes to be able to make a Skagit Valley bread one day. Meanwhile he tries the flours he can put his hands on with varied results: local wheats are inherently inconsistent. Even when working with them as individual varieties, there will be variability in flour performance because of the climate and the weather.
For this morning’s demo, Scott picked Camas Red Fife (12.8% protein), Renan (a standard French varietal, 12.3% protein), Hedlin Farm’s Bauermeister (10% protein – last year’s crop as this year’s is fairly low in protein) and Red Russian (14.6% protein).

Scott describes the in-bakery test bake system that he has devised for himself: when he gets his hands on a new flour, he always begins by taking a small amount which he mixes in a straight dough, then ferments and bakes. The process never varies, which makes later comparisons much easier. He strongly recommends that we too, at home or at the bakery:

Take detailed notes about times, temperatures and water amounts
Rely on feel: as the flour absorbs the water, the dough feel may change. You may have to adjust hydration to get the consistency you are looking for (keep notes on the amount of added water)
Make note of the dough temperature at the end of the mixing

As bakers, we need to keep in mind that:

Flour is at its best within 24 hours of milling. After that, it needs at least two weeks to oxidize properly
When protein is concerned, quality trumps quantity: The speed of dough development correlates with the quality of the protein: glutenin provides elasticity and gliadin extensibility. Spring wheat has higher levels of protein but these proteins are organized in a less compact way. Winter wheat’s dormancy period during the growing season makes for a better perfoming protein
The quality of the protein is what determines how long the dough needs to be mixed. When gluten develops poorly during mixing, use the stretch and fold technique

What goes on in a dough

Yeast consumes sugar and produces gas (the warmer the dough and/or the more leavening it contains, the faster it happens)
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce lactic and acetic acids. If using a pre-ferment and a long fermentation, acidity is produced even in yeasted breads. Acidity strengthens the bonds of gluten. The colder the dough, the slower the production of acidity
Enzymes are at work: amylase converts starch to sugar and protease weakens the gluten. Enzymatic activity is less temperature-dependent and more time-dependent
These three phenomena are “happening in a dance together”

Enzymes

Amylase is activated in the presence of water and breaks down complex sugars to produce simple sugars that the yeast can feed on. Amylase activity is measured by the flour’s falling number (an information which is seldom to be found on the bags of flour available to home bakers). A high falling number (ex: 400) means that the flour is a slow mover and will be good for long-fermented doughs. A low falling number (ex: 250 or less) means that amylatic activity is high. Amylase brings a nutty flavor to the bread
Protease‘s role is to denature protein: it helps increase the extensibility of the dough by softening a strong gluten. Salt is a protease inhibitor and is good for a loose dough which it helps tighten
Using more pre-ferment or a riper pre-ferment to boost acidity will strengthen protein bonds. You can adjust the temperature of the pre-ferment to influence the level of acidity
Protease activity and amylase activity go hand in hand: they increase with time

Pre-ferments

When we use a pre-ferment, we are extending the time when the flour is wet, thus increasing enzymatic activity and acidity: we allow the amylase to break down more complex sugars into simple sugars that the yeast can feed on and the increased acidity counters the increased proteolytic activity (the weakening of the gluten by the protease)

Poolish (liquid pre-ferment): when it is ripe, its surface will dome and it’ll be bubbly. An upward “curl” will be visible at the edges. As it continues to ripen, the surface will become concave and sink in and it will show lines. The poolish is then at its prime
Biga (stiff pre-ferment): use a poke test. Use it when it feels the same as a fermented dough ready to shape or bake

Soakers

Whole-milled wheat yields a flour which contains much more active enzymes
Peter Reinhart‘s technique (epoxy method) when baking with whole wheat is to let the processes happen prior to the mixing by using a soaker
A soaker is basically a long autolyse: it allows for enzymatic activity in the absence of fermentation and acidity. The protease acts on the gluten and the amylase creates sugar which is not consumed by yeast since no yeast is present
In a nutshell, a soaker yields more sugar, uses more water and makes the dough weaker. If you suspect that the dough will be too weak, use salt in the soaker

Autolyse

Do an autolyse: the autolyse allows for full absorption of the water into the flour, facilitating the bonding of the protein molecules and the development of the gluten. It also jumpstarts enzymatic activity. At the bakery, Scott uses a modified autolyse, soaking flour and water overnight in the walk-in. Then in the morning he uses 15 or 20% of this autolyse in each mix without doing a new autolyse for each. He learned the technique from Jeff Yankellow who used it for Team USA 2000
Hydrate the autolyse at 70% (in regular baking, whole wheat would require a much higher hydration, maybe 85%, as it loves water)
Let the autolyse rest 20 minutes

Mixing

Add yeast, disperse in the mixer and let it incorporate for a few minutes before adding the salt (salt is a tenderizer and breaks down protein)
Periodically evaluate the development of the dough in the mixing bowl (windowpane test)
If the proteins are not strong enough, you will weaken the gluten if you continue mixing. Use more folds
Don’t mix too fast: it weakens the dough
Stiffer doughs generate more heat during mixing
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a strengthener for weak doughs
Desired dough temperature for these tests is 75°F at the end of the mixing

Fermentation and proofing

The more time for fermentation, the more alcohol (and flavor) is produced: flavor results from a combination of sugar and alcohol. If the yeast consumes all the sugar, you’ll get a flatter-tasting loaf

Evaluating the dough

Scott is following the method devised by Cliff Leir of fol épi bakery in Victoria, BC, to evaluate the dough as it comes out of the mixer: he takes two ounces of each mix, forms small boules and leaves them to sit, covered, next to each other so that he can compare the rise to spread ratio of each and assess proteolytic activity (degree of gluten weakening by protease)
For each dough, after 30 minutes of bulk fermentation, check to see how quickly it is fermenting and how is the gluten handling the fermentation. Do a tug test: what is the dough’s resistance? Test elasticity: does the dough stand up or fall back down after being tugged (standing up is a predictor of good loaf volume)? Is the dough trapping gas? Stretch another gluten window and see how the gluten is holding up/developing. A good gluten window will be hard to break at that stage
After 45 minutes of bulk fermentation, check the dough again: how is it inflating? Do a poke test (as you would for a proof test), does the dough push back? If the dough holds your fingerprint, it could mean that the gluten is strong enough to hold down the rise; the gas produced by the yeast is being held tightly; there will be more pressure in the loaf and smaller holes in the crumb. Does the dough feel sticky or release water?

Note: The dough may be fermenting but could be releasing gas if it is porous (it happens when gas is escaping but you don’t see any holes in the surface of the dough). When it is time to shape, check to see if the dough is collapsing. If the proteins are breaking down, you will have small holes and a homogenous crumb.

Variables in fermentation and proofing

Rapid fermentation/slow proof: the yeast is running out of sugar. Next time, reduce the amount of leavening and use a soaker instead of a pre-ferment
Rapid fermentation/fast proof: enzymatic activity is high. Sometimes the dough will get wetter and softer. Next time you might want to decrease hydration. Do not use a soaker
Slow fermentation/slow proof: low amylase activity. Use both a pre-ferment and a soaker but decrease the amount of leavening in the pre-ferment to give yeast more time
Slow fermentation/fast proof: very rare. Sometimes it is a good thing, but if it isn’t, just don’t use that flour again

Compensating for flour deficiencies based on test results

If the flour contains a high percentage of protein, next time:

Do an autolyse
Under-mix (a web of gluten is a lot like thread count on a sheet: the less you mix, the fewer the connections between the strands)
Stretch and fold (more frequently)
Boost acidity by using a riper pre-ferment or more pre-ferment
Increase hydration
Bump up proteolytic activity by not salting the pre-ferment or soaker

If the quality of the gluten is poor, next time:

Reduce fermentation time
Increase leavening
Pre-ferment a greater portion of the flour
Bump up acidity: use pre-ferment when at or past its prime
Stiffen up the dough by decreasing hydration (but you’ll lose some flavor)
Don’t use a soaker

If dough is hyperactive, next time:

Decrease the amount of leavening in the pre-ferment
Decrease fermentation time

If poor rise and no color out of the oven, next time:

Give amylase more time (use a soaker)
Increase the quantity of pre-ferment (giving more time to amylitic activity)
Extend fermentation time (more folds), so that the amylase has more time to cleave the sugar off the starch

The results of the testing are mostly relevant to those of us who have access to the same flours as Scott. But just to give you an idea of the conclusions he was able to draw for himself in case he wanted to use these flours again, here is what he found:

Camas Red Fife: Seems fine for baking purposes. Add water. Use an unsalted soaker. Use a pre-ferment (small amount). Decrease the yeast and increase fermentation time
Renan: Increase hydration to make the dough softer. Increase the amount of sugar available to the yeast by using a soaker with salt and a pre-ferment
Hedlin Bauermeister: Slow it down by half, do more folds, bump up acidity by using a ripe pre-ferment and maybe use a soaker
Red Russian: Bump up acidity by using a ripe pre-ferment. Do not use a soaker

Such pointers are what we are looking to get out of these tests. Scott is encouraging: “It is a lot of information to wrap your head around but once you see the various adjustments that can be made, it is fairly straightforward.”
He adds: “We have years of work ahead of us here in Western Washington. We need to find wheats that are resistant to rust while looking for flavor and long fermentations. We have a miller but no storage capacity (such as the grain elevators in the Midwest). The miller could conceivably make a blend of local wheats but his mill isn’t equipped to mill white flour. Also, our customers do not buy lots of whole grain breads, so we cannot completely switch over. But we would still like to use local wheat, so we need to find a solution.”
Right now grain is mostly grown here as a rotation crop and sold to Asia as pastry wheat. Farmers usually lose money on it but it is good for the soil. If they could make money on grain, they could grow more. They would make more money off of the commodity market. As for the baker, he would get a better product than when he buys from the Midwest something that was milled last year and doesn’t offer good nutrition.
There are ways to make white flour more nutritious, for instance going for a higher extraction flour. Cliff Leir (who mills his own flour) soaks the wheat for a minimum of eight to ten hours, which softens the bran. When milled, the bran pops off in big flakes which builds up in a catch sifter and the whole aleurone layer and germ make it into the white flour.

Results of the test bake

Andrew Whitley: Bread Matters

What you’ll find below is a summary of the keynote address delivered at the Kneading Conference West 2012 by Andrew Whitley, author of Bread matters: the state of modern bread and a definitive guide to baking your own. It is based on the notes I took as he was speaking. Any error or inconsistency is my own as I couldn’t write quite as fast as he talked (although I tried hard!)

Baker Andrew Whitley started his professional life as a broadcaster in the BBC Russian Service. He attributes his choice of a new profession to the deep influence of four writers on his world wiew: Leo Tolstoy, who challenged people born into privilege to work out for themselves what constituted a good life, extolled the dignity of labor and urged a reconciliation of the work of the brain and that of the hands; Anton Chekhov, who had little time for people paralyzed by hereditary guilt; John Ruskin, for whom artisan work was a creative response to the availability of raw materials grown in nature, not torn apart by excessive processes; and Rachel Carson, whose impeccable science and elegiac evocation of nature in Silent Spring led him to finally change his life for ever.
Coming as he did from a privileged background, Andrew was nevertheless a firm believer in the dignity of labor; he knew he wanted to actually do something about the problems identified by Carson; he also felt that working with whole grains (as opposed to the reconstituted flours sold in England under the label “wholemeal” which are often white flour with the bran added back in) was a search for vitality and connectedness that said something about the integrity of one’s personal and professional life. So he started growing wheat on an allotment in the middle of London. While the occupation was morally satisfying, he quickly realized that it wouldn’t allow him to pay the mortgage and when he heard of a watermill being restored in Northern England, he jumped at the chance of buying its flour and becoming a baker.
First he needed to figure out how to make bread. The learning curve was steep, especially because the local wheat was wildly unpredictable. Also, nobody was familiar with the kind of bread he was striving to make. As he put it: “I went to a part of the country with almost no population to make a product nobody asked for with a grain that didn’t have the right properties.” Against all odds, it worked and for this, he credits his early customers who were both encouraging and steadfastly supportive.
Bread matters to us as individuals because it is part of our nourishment. In certain developing countries, it is the main staple and people are still enormously dependent on it. In Great-Britain, the bread culture can be characterized by irreverence or indifference. There is no consideration for the nutritional quality and digestibility of wheat grown for human consumption. Poor choices have been made in terms of plant breeding since World War II, the goal being always to maximize yield through chemical and mechanical means. But the way we make bread as a society has huge consequences for the soil, agronomical methods and choice of seeds as well as for the distribution and consumption of the product and its disposal (in the United Kingdom, up to 30% of bread is thrown away untouched, still in its unopened plastic bag).
Agronomy has an interesting effect on the quality of grain: nitrogen is applied to the wheat after flowering (late nitrogen method) to boost the protein content. But what is the quality of this protein? Tests have shown that organic wheat with a protein level of 11% has the same baking properties as non-organic wheat checking in at 13% protein and that wheat treated with late nitrogen contained twice as much gliadin (for more info on the link between gliadin and coeliac disease, click here). In another experiment, scientists compared the nutritional quality of wheat coming harvested at the same time and from the same fields but milled differently: half was stoneground, the other half roller-milled. The stoneground flour contained many more nutrients than the roller-milled one.
Due to the combined effect of new wheat-growing technologies, milling methods which take much more out of the grain than traditional ones and the acceleration of the baking process itself, the industrial construct of water, flour, salt and additives that is now eaten by most people in the UK may be called a loaf but it should never be dignified by the name of bread. Although choices appear deceptively wide at the supermarket, the fact remains that, beyond superficial differences, all British loaves are actually very much the same.
When a baker allows flour to ferment for a significant amount of time especially in the presence of sourdough, changes happen in bread that seem to make it more nutritional. It is hard to research digestibility scientifically but anecdotes are reliable stories about how people feel when they eat something. The Real Bread Campaign – which Andrew Whitley helped launch – was born of the desire to make bread better for ourselves, our families, our communities and our environment. It calls for honest labeling of all ingredients and processes. The bread industry accuses the campaign of seeking to drag it down. But isn’t its coming clean as to what it does and uses a reasonable thing to ask? The industry refuses to list the enzymes it uses routinely, for instance. Why?
A fervent believer in the need to re-localize the food chain, Andrew seeks to be an agent of revitalization of the local supply chain for grain and flour. Most of the grain grown in Scotland – where he now lives and works – goes to the commodity market where it is subject to investors and speculators. Andrew himself owns five acres of land on which he grows several varietals with the goal of evaluating their baking properties. He is involved with a project run by Martin Wolfe of the Organic Research Centre to produce multiple varieties of seeds and combine them in order to help them resist pests and other adverse conditions. He hopes that one day he’ll be able to bake from wheat entirely grown in Scotland.
He seeks to encourage community-supported baking through a system of donations or through novel forms of community funding, for instance ‘loaf loans” under the terms of which 7.5% of the interest due is paid in bread vouchers; or “bread basket” systems under which one customer buys one basket of ten loaves, gets one free and sells the other nine to colleague and friends, making it possible for the bread to reach people who would otherwise never think of walking into an actual bakery.
The cultural context needs to evolve: dietary changes will come from a combination of changes in regulations and actions at the individual level. Minimum nutritional standards should be set for minerals and vitamins in flour. No additives should be allowed. The pressure should go all the way from the consumer to the breeder. Last time the UK tried to raise the standards for bread was during World War II when it instituted the “national loaf”. Today’s bread, based on the values of simplicity and common ownership, could be rebranded and promoted as the “common loaf”.
In fermenting dough, many transformations come together to yield a flavorful and healthful bread. At the time of the French Revolution, “le pain se lève” (the bread is rising) was both a password and a call to arms among the insurgents who prepared to storm the Bastille. Today British consumers still have a long way to go to free themselves from large corporate interests that do not have their best interest at heart. As Andrew sees it, the move towards real bread is light-years ahead in the United States. Events such as the Kneading Conference are an essentiel ingredient in the fermenting process. The bread is definitely rising!

A field of heirloom wheat at WWU Mt Vernon Research and Extension Center
with orchards in the background and the snowy peak of Mt Baker in the distance
(the Center is the seat of the Kneading Conference West)

Related posts:
Kneading Conference West 2012
Naomi Duguid: Bread Over Time

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