“I used the same sourdough method that I use for most of my bread and the finished loaf had a dense texture and poor volume and oven spring compared to the Shipton Mill and Bacheldre flours I normally use. It tasted fine and I'll try a loaf using conventional yeast but, at the moment, I'm not sure it's a flour I'll use regularly.”
“I used the same sourdough method that I use for most of my bread and the finished loaf had a dense texture and poor volume and oven spring compared to the Shipton Mill and Bacheldre flours I normally use. It tasted fine and I'll try a loaf using conventional yeast but, at the moment, I'm not sure it's a flour I'll use regularly.”
“Your service excellent as always. The flour smells and feels good in the bag but does not seem suitable for the type and method of dough I use. Due to disability I make my dough in a Panasonic bread maker and shape, final prove and bake. It is an hybrid dough. 20% wholemeal with powdered malt, milk, butter, salt and 100gms of sourdough starter (80% hydration) plus a couple of grams of instant dried yeast. I aim for 65% hydration and With other flours this produces a lively dough which holds its shape and has an excellent oven spring keeps well and has the signature flavour of sourdough though not as strong as true sourdough. With this flour I find the dough is for want of a better term dead. There is no elasticity as if the gluten has not developed. I have tried re-kneading with a little extra flour as the dough is also very wet but there is no development and once again it is lying in a basket and I'm expecting to produce another flat slug at the end of the process. The flour is probably excellent with other methods but is not working for me I'm afraid and my search for a flour that doesn't rely on Canadian wheat to raise the protein levels and works for me goes on.”
“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 love this flour. I use it for my loaves but also to feed my sourdough starter - it makes the starter incredibly lively. It was so lively that the starter expanded and spilt from the pot - not happened to me before!”
“The flour arrived promptly with my order and well packaged. It was interesting trying a new product from unbleached white flour but I found it resulted in a rather dense bread, despite the impressive rise during proofing, and was not to my taste.”
