“I don't tend to make sourdough just yeasted bread and found this to be really tasty flour. It's definitely denser than your rubbish roller milled supermarket stuff and as it's Heritage rather than contemporary flour it does behave a little differently. I found that I needed to reduce the amount of water I use a touch otherwise it's a bit sticky. Once I got the knack of it I found I was making really tasty bread.”
“I really enjoy the end result obtained with this flour, but I have to say it is by far the most difficult flour to work with that I've used. I'm not that experienced, but I have been baking artisan bread regularly for the last 18 months, trying a large range of British grown, organic, stone-milled flours in the process and so am not a total novice. My method of bread making is an autolyse followed by 12-14 hours fermentation with very low amounts of instant yeast and gentle folding rather than heavy duty kneading and the results I get from this flour, when it comes to aroma, taste and moistness of crumb, are utterly divine. Where I find it difficult is with the hydration levels, which seem critical. I always weigh all my water and most of the flours I use are in the region of 72% for white and 78% for a white/wholewheat mix. The Gilchester is around the 68% mark, but it takes very little error to go from a dough that feels too stiff to one that is too wet and doesn't retain its shape properly. I still haven't nailed it yet despite 10 attempts! The other 'negative' is the dough seems fairly weak and is easily torn despite me employing a gentle folding method. One should not be surprised that this may be the case in a heritage wheat from Northumberland with a protein level of just 12.7%, but it does seem more unforgiving than the Lammas Fayre flours. This aside I'm not giving up! I love the philosophy of Gilchesters and my 'imperfect' results so far have been gorgeous so I can't wait to see what it's like once I get it right! Any advice from more experienced fellow users is always gratefully received.”
“I don't tend to make sourdough just yeasted bread and found this to be really tasty flour. It's definitely denser than your rubbish roller milled supermarket stuff and as it's Heritage rather than contemporary flour it does behave a little differently. I found that I needed to reduce the amount of water I use a touch otherwise it's a bit sticky. Once I got the knack of it I found I was making really tasty bread.”
“The flour had a good colour, but that is where it ends. I made bread twice, and each time the bread dough was extremely sticky and difficult to handle. Even though it has been stated as having a falling number of 388s. Hydration was 75%, which is correct for the grade, and weight of the given recipe - still not handling correctly. Personally, this is just a brand of flour I will not buy again! A terrible waste of money.”
“Received this with some trepidation, but well worth every penny as the results are fantastic from the first bake. As usual, the service from Bakery Bits was superb with delivery the following morning.”
