Battle of the flours - pt3 Marriages Very Strong vs ASDA

The Marriages bag of flour makes no claims of being organic or using superior milling techniques, the big difference here is that the Marriages' is Very Strong as opposed to just Strong white flour. This means a higher protein content, 13.8% vs. 12.1% for the ASDA flour. In theory the additional protein means more gluten produced and a more vigorous rise and hence a lighter loaf. Difference in taste isn't an advertised part of the bargain. Protein levels in white bread flours seem to range between 11% and 14% so we're not comparing the full extent of the range here, but we're not far off with the Marriages being pretty much at the top of the scale.

Technique was the same as last time, here are the loaves after a little tasting has been done:

I did slightly overcook the marriages one (on the left) which gave it more of a crust which definitely helped the flavour. The ASDA one didn't stay formed either (my fault) so put some of it's energies into growing out rather than up. Even with that in mind, the marriages one did form the best loaf shape so far and rose noticeably more than the previous 2 test loaves. The claims of a lighter loaf are definitely true. Tasters could definitely tell the difference between the two loaves again but didn't agree on their personal favourite, exhibiting the same preferences as last time. Personally, I think the marriages had the edge and there was an obvious difference in the finished loaf visually suggesting something extra was going on. I'll probably be paying attention to the protein content of my flour in future more than how it was milled but I'm not totally convinced it's worth the extra cash yet.

Pasta with chorizo, sun dried tomatos, spinach and Gouda

The primary taste tester was whinging about being hungry, ignoring her was no longer effective as she'd got out of bed and brought the whinging into the kitchen. Some sort of quick pasta dish was in order. My friend Tomasi, an Italian who I knew in Melbourne, taught me his rules to knock up improvised pasta dish which I still go by today. Just one rule really, use 3 ingredients, not including the onions which are cooked for long time in olilve oil. It helps if you've some idea the ingredients will go together. I normally google for recipes based on what I'm thinking of using, if I get hits I assume I'll be safe. I had some Chorizo from the farmers market, quite a spicey one, some sun dried tomatos and a little spinach in the garden (perpetual spinach hence still being active in January, I think it's actually leaf beet).

This is the recipe, or there abouts.

Half a medium onion
Chorizo, finly sliced, about 60g
About 7 pieces of sundried tomato, roughly chopped
A handful of fresh spinach
Shavings of gouda to garnish
2 to 3 tsp dried basil

It was pretty lush. I finely chopped the onion and fried in a few tbsp of olive oil for about 10 mins, then got the water on for the pasta. When the pasta went in I added the sundried tomatos and a few tsp of dried basil. About 5 mins before the pasta was done I put the chorizo in with the onions and finally added the spinach in for the last couple of minutes. Once drained and rinsed I put the pasta in with the sauce, drizzled a little more olive oil over and served it with shavings of gouda.

I think technically Tomasi would have insisted that was actually 5 ingredients, skipping the gouda and basil may have been more authentic, but it seemed to work well enough to me. A cup of tea and some crusty bread to accompany it would have been nice, maybe next time.

Battle of the flours pt2 - Wessex Mill vs ASDA

ok, so I only got the 2 loaves baked in the first trial due to some distractions that afternoon. I went for the Wessex Mill flour and the ASDA's own brand as I figured that if there was any great difference between pricey and cheaper flours you'd see something between these two. I honestly expected some noticeable difference which would validate my purchasing the more expensive flour, this could have obviously tainted my own assessment of the differences. So, I've tried the two loaves out on ten people so far, here they are so you can take a look for yourself.

The one on the left here is the Wessex Mill one, it does I think look like the more tempting loaf, the presence of some slightly larger holes is likely down to the prooving time which was a bit more extended for this loaf.

The Results?
Everyone could tell the difference between the two although nobody thought it was particularly marked. People were pretty much evenly split between the two, those who preferred the ASDA loaf mainly thought the other had too much taste and did generally identify it as the fancier one. Of those who preferred the Wessex Mill loaf the main reason given was that the ASDA one tasted a bit floury. Quite possibly this was down to something in the way I made the loaf. I'll try a few more comparisons with the other two bags of flour I've got and see if the ASDA loaf is always consistently floury. Also to see if there is any big improvement with either of those, especially the Canadian very strong flour with it's higher protein content. 


I was a bit disappointed by this as I guess I'd wanted to believe that paying more for my flour would lead to better bread, cognitive dissonance getting the better of me I guess. I'll try comparison of wholemeal flours in future I think to see if there is more of a difference in those and especially with stone ground vs flour coming from roller mills.

Any suggestions for other experiments? the next one I'm cooking up is going to compare a loaf made with a starter vs the regular loaf baked above. After that I'll start getting into matters of personal taste and try different additions (using 10% Rye flour is the only one I've tried so far and I was pleased with that). Also there will be my continuing search for a decent Stottie Cake recipe.

Battle of the Flours - Which makes the tastiest loaf?

The theory is that buying a better quality flour will result in a better quality loaf, but is it really that big a difference? ASDA sells it's own brand Strong White Bread flour for 61p that's 40.7p/kg, on the other end of the scale you can get a bag of Wessex Mill Strong White Bread flour for £2.15 or 143.3p/kg. That's nearly 4 times as expensive, that better be one awesome bag of flour. Wessex mill claim their milling doesn't heat up the flour as much as other mills would thus preserving nutrients and vitamins in the finished product. Whether or not this will be discernible in the baked bread or not I don't know. Quite possibly it's also down to the quality of the wheat used to make the flour. Although you don't often get details of the wheat used you might assume someone offering a premium product is sourcing higher quality materials. All and more of this could affect the final loaf, I'll just be making the same loaf with each flour and seeing what the end result tastes like. The flours assembled above could be more scientifically collected to assess different possible influencing factors, the main thing I want to see is if there's any discernible difference which I can confidently assign to the flour used between cheaper and more expensive flours.

I'll be making the loaves to the Pain Ordinaire recipe from this book, which goes something like this:

1. Mix the yeast and about 1/3 of the water
2. Pour into a well made in the mixed flour and salt
3. Mix in enough of the flour to make a thin paste and leave for 20 mins
4. mix, kneed, rise (I'll check all doughs for proper rising rather than relying on timing)
   
5. knockback, rest, shape
6. proove, bake
   

I'll also be glazing with olive oil before prooving and baking as my primary taste tester doesn't like their bread too crusty (does this invalidate their ability to be a taste tester?).

The first loaf is prooving now, just getting some bangers and mash on for my lunch, I'll start the second this afternoon and try to get at least 3 loaves in total done today.