What flour do you use?
This is undoubtedly one of the most frequent questions I get and for good reason. I am pleased to finally have a response to this question I am happy with.
FLOUR
Not much to it, right? That’s exactly what I thought when I first got into this. WRONG!
This seemingly simple ingredient is integral to the quality of your bread and most importantly how it tastes and how YOU feel after eating it.
Let’s face it, bread gets a bad rap. BUT it should not be like that!
If a food has been around since the dawn of civilization, but it is just now causing problems in
If a food has been around since the dawn of civilization, but it is just now causing problems in recent years, it makes you wonder what has changed recently which has compromised bread’s INTEGRITY.
How did we get here?
I believe one of the culprits is a cocktail of ingredients that sacrifices the health of the one that consumes them for cost savings and sheer volume of profit per minute.
I get that it is important to make money in business, but there should be a way to do so without creating a product that might make the one that consumes it ill and that does not rely on synthesized mixtures to remove natural ingredients.
Back to FLOUR. With certain processing of grain into flour, nutrients are burned out by the friction created in the milling process. There used to be a requirement in the U.S. for flour to have an addition of thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, folic acid and iron (hence the term “enriched”) and now that practice has become commonplace. These are added back in after milling (typically artificially created) to meet the formerly standing requirement. Many of these can cause deleterious effects to your gut, endocrine, system and metabolism.
And that is exactly what my efforts to source this flour have revolved around: finding a commercially available flour milled without that added enrichment, so that my customers are fueled up and ready to go after whatever their day might hold.
The Dilemma
Up until now, I have not had access to flour at scale that checked 3 crucial boxes:
Functionality and taste
Nutritionally sound
At a price point I could justify passing along to everyone who seeks to purchase bread on a regular basis.
I was juggling two of the boxes at most and always dropping a third one.
KA AP flour at the store had exactly what I wanted, but frustratingly the closest KA commercial equivalent added the enrichment back in. I entertained going 100% local, having pallets shipped across the country, driving cross country with a van loaded up and more half-baked shenanigans. The solution arrived when I was finally able to go through enough flour on a weekly basis for a food supplier to justify bringing this flour in from Utah and stocking it at their warehouse, especially for my bakery.
Problem Solved
The current solution is a line of flour from Central Milling. Their flour is well-regarded In full transparency, it is double the cost of the King Arthur I had been using, and I will likely have to adjust pricing, and I am convinced that the integrity of bread you can trust is made with quality ingredients is well worth it.
I still would like to begin using a greater percentage of VA grown flour from local mills and I do currently use a percentage of outstanding Rye from Deep Roots milling for my sourdough; however, it is my goal to balance integrity, craft, and affordability. I intend to build a bakery that integrates modern efficiencies, innovation and exciting culinary exposure we are fortunate enough to enjoy today with the integrity and flavors of a time honored tradition.
I am pleased to announce that I the backbone of most of our breads is the Red Rose line of flour from Central Milling, free from the added enrichment. This is all part of our goal to bring you bread with integrity that fuels you and your mission. If you see our bread on the shelves of a local purveyor, a farmers market, or a menu of one of the many restaurants we work with, I do hope you’ll give it a shot.
