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.