Will wrote:

>On Monday, July 18, 2005, at 11:36 AM, Mike Avery wrote:
>
>
>
>>If your goal is mystical re-connection to the earth, a quest for better
>>nutrition, religous reawakening, other health issues, or whatever, then
>>it might be worth it.
>>
>>
>
>Come on, Mike...
>
>How did you feel when you discovered that mechanical dough development
>was bogus?
>
>
Well, it's not bogus, so thats not a good comparison. Kneading works,
and works well. And is reasonably optimal in a large production
environment. I don't feel betrayed because I've been kneading dough for
30 years. The breads I made were good. I enjoyed them.

>There must have been some element of re-connection. I mean after all,
>thousands of pre-industrial, French bakers lived and died, working
>every day with the knowledge you just discovered. They used coarse
>flour from a donkey mill too. Want to bet there's another revelation to
>come? <bg>
>
Since the middle ages - or before - flour has been sifted or bolted to
remove the extra bran that makes the bakers job difficult. In the
middle ages, the wealthy ate white bread that would please a wonderbread
fan.

When people have tried to use really whole grains, they have met with
mixed results, usually along the lines of, "thats nice, but I prefer
something lighter". Commercial whole wheat, like you get in the grocery
store, is about an 85% extraction flour. That is, 15% of the grain has
been extracted and sold as animal feed. Getting commercial whole wheat
to rise "well" is an interesting exercise that some people never manage.

I am quite convinced that if you don't do something with flour straight
from the mill, something like mix it with a high protein flour, use
wheat gluten, or sift it, you'll be getting less than wonderful bread.

I've made enough less than wonderful bread that that is no longer my goal.

I don't think I'll be getting a reconnection with milling my own flour
and using 100% extraction flour.

That said, I love dense ryes, rich whole wheats, and I really like to
crack grains to add accents to breads. I'm not a white bread fanatic.
I just don't think grinding wheat into flour and using that flour as
ones only flour is a good answer for most people.

Mike