Flour

Thanks to finding a great book on baking (see last post), I have been playing around with baking artisan-style bread. So far the results have been mixed. Usually the problems are because of my own errors not because of the recipes.

I have been pretty happy with the Con-Agra "Kyrol" brand flour up to now, although it is not as absorbent as I would prefer. (In fact, I want to find a good source for some stone-ground organic flour but that is another blog altogether.) Anyway, since I was running out of flour I made a run to Costco to pick up another 25lb bag and they don't carry it any more. Not only that, but they do not have ANY unbleached, un-bromated, normal, high-gluten flour on the shelves.

I picked up the only other thing they have that is close...Gold Medal "All Trumps" high-gluten, bleached, bromated, enriched (and likely WAY over-processed) flour. I really hope it doesn't suck.

Since I began baking bread, I've noticed how important getting the basics right is. It is a wonderful metaphor for life. Do the little things right, the big ones will follow. Use good ingredients, get a better end-result. I've always known this when cooking. Baking just seems to reveal this in a more profound way. This is probably because there are fewer ingredients, and it is harder to cover an inferior one with more of something else.

So, to extrapolate the idea then, the more things in the recipe (or people in a group, etc.) the easier it is to cover a weakness. The fewer the items, the harder it is. As an individual then, my weaknesses and inferiorities are hardest of all to cover without help from something or someone greater than I.

Something to think about...

Peace,

Newbius