“I am very much a novice baker, but I’ve been using this flour for my first handful of batches of sourdough, and it seems to be producing great results (although admittedly I don’t really have much to compare to at this point). It produces a lovely billowing, strong dough, which seems to spring really nicely in the oven as I’m getting beautifully risen loaves with relatively large air pockets. One thing I can say with certainty though is the flavour of the loaves is outstanding. Gilchesters deep organic, regenerative ag practices, using heritage varieties really pays dividends in producing an exemplary product with a deep, complex flavour.”
“I am very much a novice baker, but I’ve been using this flour for my first handful of batches of sourdough, and it seems to be producing great results (although admittedly I don’t really have much to compare to at this point). It produces a lovely billowing, strong dough, which seems to spring really nicely in the oven as I’m getting beautifully risen loaves with relatively large air pockets. One thing I can say with certainty though is the flavour of the loaves is outstanding. Gilchesters deep organic, regenerative ag practices, using heritage varieties really pays dividends in producing an exemplary product with a deep, complex flavour.”
“I've worked with various flours and use specific flours for the variety of products. This flour has no structure a all. I usually make sourdough using autolyse, stretch and fold, bulk over night cold fermentation during the hot weather and during the winter months would usually leave to ferment at room temperature. I've used a machine as well, however the dough just loses structure. I have wasted money and will have to bin this flour. Usually by Mathews strong bread flour or Cotsworld strong bread flour, however they were out of stock. Not happy at all.”
“I've worked with various flours and use specific flours for the variety of products. This flour has no structure a all. I usually make sourdough using autolyse, stretch and fold, bulk over night cold fermentation during the hot weather and during the winter months would usually leave to ferment at room temperature. I've used a machine as well, however the dough just loses structure. I have wasted money and will have to bin this flour. Usually by Mathews strong bread flour or Cotsworld strong bread flour, however they were out of stock. Not happy at all.”
“Great Flour for spring and taste. Have ben using it as 20% of the flour in my sourdough, with some Canadian white, Canadian wholemeal and Cotswold crunch”
“I'm surprised I haven't seen many other reviews raising this point, but (unless I'm doing something very wrong!) this flour seems to lack a lot of gluten strength compared, say, to a standard strong white bread flour.
I've baked with it a few times and have had to lower hydration quite a bit, or improvise on the spot (e.g., adding gluten, adding more flour later, adding lots of extra stretch and folds to build strength...). Maybe I'm just doing something wrong... Anyway, the loaves came out ok in the end and tasted great, but this made all of the bakes messy, very time-consuming and a bit stressful.
I would recommend this flour, but don't expect to be able to use it just like a standard strong white flour. Even though the protein % is reasonably high, perhaps the gluten just behaves differently? (perhaps due to the type of flour?). Not sure, would be good to know the w-index of it is. Perhaps best mixed in with something else, almost using it like a wholemeal.”
“This produces delicious bread but for me it doesn't work as the main base flour for a sourdough loaf if you want lots of oven spring and an open crumb. My best results with it have been mixing it with twice as much white roller-milled 13% flour (and a little bit of wholemeal rye for a pain de campaign type bread).”
“This produces delicious bread but for me it doesn't work as the main base flour for a sourdough loaf if you want lots of oven spring and an open crumb. My best results with it have been mixing it with twice as much white roller-milled 13% flour (and a little bit of wholemeal rye for a pain de campaign type bread).”
