Bay Leaves in Flour?
Jasdip
13 years ago
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readinglady
13 years agosweet_home_chicago
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Corn Flour vs Brown Rice Flour
Comments (14)Oh, no! Bad sentence on my part. Southern California. We had a wonderful Syrian bakery that made brilliant pita. I still miss them. My heart breaks for what has happened there, but I've never been to Syria. You haven't said why you're eschewing "enriched flour" and don't need to, but white flour products are required by law to use vitamin enriched flour, and even most home baking white flour (bleached or unbleached) is enriched and has a little malted barley flour in it as well, which has a lot of an enzyme that's needed for rising. Unless you have a specific problem with one or more of the vitamins or the barley, the enrichment shouldn't be a problem. Maybe you're just concerned that there's white flour in there. White flour is often added to whole wheat flour to make the rise spongier. Sometimes vital wheat gluten is added to strengthen the gluten (the bran in the whole wheat can weaken or cut it). Wheat gluten can be isolated by hand by washing the wheat and kneading out the starch, and has been done for centuries, so it's not a weird industrial product. Anything that's made with white flour in the U.S. uses enriched flour. There may be some places that mill and sift their own flours that do not, but that's an extremely rare exception. Therefore, I would guarantee that the Lebanese pita are made with enriched flour. The thinner thing is probably a lack of leavening. Even in the Middle East, nowadays, the pita have leavening and are a bit spongy. That's not traditional. :) I haven't seen Kontos, and I'd guess it's an East Coast brand. I don't doubt that it's good! Whole Foods might be a better place to get 100% whole wheat, however, unless you can find a Middle Eastern or halal store where people are into the "new" kind of dietary laws (no white flour, pasture raise livestock, etc.). Maybe try stores near the colleges? College kids tend to be into better eating. Turlock is from California. I know they freeze to ship it to avoid preservatives, so you might find it there, but more likely the Whole Foods have something local. Good luck on your quest....See MoreWhite Spelt flour as substitute for all purpose flour?
Comments (7)Thanks, Grainlady. Actually, I went ahead and experimented by sort of combining the above recipe and a recipe I found on line for spelt bread. I used a combination of King Arthur whole wheat flour and the white spelt flour, about half and half, partly because I had already made the biga with the whole wheat flour. Then, I used the following recipe, adjusting the spelt flour amounts and water amounts to try and have the correct total for each ingredient. I used the technique for making ciabatta, where I let it sit, turned the dough, let it sit, turned the dough, until I was ready to bake the bread. It ended up making 2 loaves, which I baked in loaf pans, instead of ciabatta style. Surprisingly, it turned out surprisingly well, considering at the last, I tried to make one loaf out of it, and when I saw the dough spilling out of the pan I realized I had to deflate it yet once again and put it into two loaf pans. Here's the other recipe I used. I used dark honey instead of brown sugar. It's from Versagrain.com. Spelt Flour Recipes Sweet and Hearty Spelt Bread Recipe To cook this Spelt bread recipe you will need a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and patience. Unlike white bread this recipe for Spelt bread will take twice as long to leaven. From start to finish, it will take 2 - 3 hours. Ingredients (Makes 1 Loaf) 1 1/2 cups warm water (just barely hot to the touch) 1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce) 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon whole flaxseed (optional) 2 1/2 cups whole spelt flour 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon salt 1 3/4 cups whole spelt flour 1 tablespoon butter, melted Directions In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon of flaxseed (optional). Mix in 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly. Mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter, 2 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and salt. Stir in 1 3/4 cups of spelt flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with spelt flour until it pulls away from the counter but is still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 1 to 2 cups of spelt flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 30 minutes). Punch down and place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Allow to rise until dough has topped the pan by one inch. Depending on your yeast this will take between 1 - 2 hours. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not over bake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 1 tablespoon of melted butter when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely. TIP: Place a loaf pan of the same size over the top of the loaf while baking to create a better crust. Substitutions and Additions Honey can be substituted for the brown sugar in this whole spelt bread recipe. Substitute white spelt flour, hard white wheat flour, or bread flour for the 2 1/2 cups of whole spelt flour to create an even lighter and fluffier loaf of whole grain bread. To give this recipe a crunch, consider adding walnuts. In this whole grain bread recipe we included the option for flaxseed because here at versagrain.com we are big proponents of incorporating flaxseed into your diet. Its high protein, fiber, and omega 3 fatty acids makes flaxseed a nutritional powerhouse your body can use to fight depression, cancer, and heart disease....See MoreBay Leaves in Flour?
Comments (17)I know you do a lot of breadmaking and other baking and use a lot of rice so maybe that's a reasonable amount to buy at a time, IDK, but I would give it some thought and not get more than, say 3-6 months worth at a time, which this may be for you. As for storage, I've heard of the bay leaves, but not sure if it really works. And it's really unnecessary if you seal it tight which you need to do anyway. Open bags of flour are bug/roach vacation spots and a few bay leaves aren't likely to stop them. You need it sealed and maybe the leaves will help some. What's your outside temps now? Put the stuff into plastic bags into tight plastic containers (5 gal pails with tight seals and a plastic seal works well) and keep it in the garage if you have one. Stuff it in a cooler, covered pails, totes or something and stick in a snowbank if you need to and have the spot for it. I doubt you'd have enough room in your freezer for that much product. I suppose by now if there's bugs they're in there so if that's the case, it's too late now but just some options for the future. If you don't have freezer space when buying it, I'd leave it in the car and freeze what you can, then seal it. Check with deli counters for glass pickle jars. They make great flour canisters. You might want to give some thought to a vacuum sealer too. You might have enough different uses for it to justify the cost. Although backroom conditions have improved around here dramatically, I saw too many bugs and rodents in the back rooms of stores to not seal and freeze everything I can. Pasta, flour, sugar, rice, and anything that's not sealed in a plastic bag in the box. That's an absolute around my place. I'm a real stickler on that. Literally within seconds of it coming home, pasta, flour, etc is put in the freezer or a cooler in the garage (during the winter) and/or plastic bagged. I know people think I'm paranoid about it but like I said after seeing the mice running across the floors in the back of a grocery store years back it just stuck in my mind and hearing from people who've experienced infestations, well I'm gonna just be paranoid! You're not in as much danger as the southern climates but bugs are a real PITA if you get them and they're not easy to remove once infested. Plus, you're in an apartment, right? You also run the risk of neighbors not being careful and the little buggers can come for a visit from you. A friend had to move from a great apartment because they couldn't get the roaches under control. When they are crawling out of the laptop computer (which they did) you know things are bad! I assume you're buying these sizes for price? Be sure to factor in the cost of containers, extra ziplocks, plastic wrap, etc when you think about price. I imagine you could even look at a small freezer and factor in the electric expense if you go through a huge amount but I doubt it would be cost effective. Stores have flour on sale at all major holidays and it beats the "cost club" pricing anyway. If you have an Aldi around you can check their prices too. Might be a better alternative. But for now, seal that stuff up tight! Even if you have to use ice cream pails, Press-N-Seal wrap and an extra layer of good plastic wrap will make a pretty tight seal. Wrap in a large plastic bag and/or put in a tote for storage in a closet or corner....See MoreIdeagirl: bay leaves
Comments (12)Frazestart -- I would think so too. But they didn't seem to. If you're up for it, please give it a try (with a small quantity). I am curious what fresh would do. I used older uckier non-organic/real ones (a friend brought me some lovely ones from her tree but I have retained those for us, not the moths). I don't claim to have the most refined palate out there, but I can't detect it when baked. Truthfully, sometimes when not cooked well, as in say a white sauce, I detect what might be bay. I cover it up with some other flavor; it's very subtle. So for highly refined cooking I can see it might not be ideal for the flour, maybe. But casually, *no one* has ever mentioned it. I do agree it seems very odd that it would work so well. Odd, too, that it's not better-known given how well it seems to work for some of us. fwiw I use mostly ww flour, though I have some white around and it has bay in it too and has for a loooong while since I don't use it much! But I do think it's also possible the heavier flavor of the ww might mask any residual flavor a bit. just guessing....See Moreannie1992
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