Dove Farms Organic Bread Flour

...fashioned way.

Dove Organics produce flour. This in itself is no extraordinary thing. They're a British company producing organic flour and selling it through both supermarkets and healthfood shops like Holland and Barrett. They make plain flour, which, in short, is organic and disimllar only from other plain flours in that its somewhat more costly, and better for the environment. They also produce strong flours suitable for making ...
...to distinguish. When considering buying Dove Organic's wholemeal or white wheat flour for bread making, the question really is, do you want to spend a bit more money for a more environmentally friendly crop?

Recipe books abound with methods for making white or brown bread, but the gist is as follows - take one pound of flour, half a pint of warm water (slightly more for wholemeal), two teaspoons of sugar, one of salt, and yeast according ... more

I've been an avid bread maker for some time now. I'm not a fan of bread machines, I think they take all the sense of personal connection and achievement out of bread making, plus I've found them unreliable, so I'm afraid this op is going to be geared for people who want to do it the old fashioned way.

Dove Organics produce flour. This in itself is no extraordinary thing. They're a British company producing organic flour and selling it through both supermarkets and healthfood shops like Holland and Barrett. They make plain flour, which, in short, is organic and disimllar only from other plain flours in that its somewhat more costly, and better for the environment. They also produce strong flours suitable for making bread.

Wheat: I've bought a lot of grains for bread making, I've tried various different brands of wheat producers, and while my palate is subtle and my awareness of different textures whilst baking pretty good, there's not much to distinguish. When considering buying Dove Organic's wholemeal or white wheat flour for bread making, the question really is, do you want to spend a bit more money for a more environmentally friendly crop?

Recipe books abound with methods for making white or brown bread, but the gist is as follows - take one pound of flour, half a pint of warm water (slightly more for wholemeal), two teaspoons of sugar, one of salt, and yeast according to the instructions on your yeast packet. Mix together, knead, leave to rise for an hour, cook at gas mark 7 (Sorry, can't translate, but as stated there's nothing in the above you can't find in any book.)

Where Dove Organics get interesting is in other grains. They aer the only producer I've seen with products in supermarkets that go beyond the obvious wheat flours.

Spelt - this is an ancient wheat varient, it's a wholemeal flour and is very different in temperament to modern wheat. If it rises too much, as it can, then it just falls apart, so it really does need leaving to rise twice. The packet includes a very nice recipe for a Roman loaf (no mention of the source of this sadly). What you get is a brown loaf with a terxture more dense than is usual for modern wheat, and a slightly more sour flavour. It is very pleasant indeed and goes well with a spoonfull of honey in the mix.

Rye - Most of the recipes for using rye come from northern and eastern Europe. It's quite a challenging grain to work with, and if you are new to bread making, I would leave this well alone for the time being. The dough is very sticky, needs to rise slowly and be knocked back before a second rising, and the whole thing needs to be cooked at about half the temperature you'd use for wheat - cook rye at gas mark 7 and you get a crispy layer on top, a big air bubble, and a stogy layer underneath, none of which is good for anything other than feeding the birds with. I wouldn't recommend putting this in a bread machine unless you have a specific program that covers rye.

For best effect, mix rye with wheat - half and half works quite nicely, although still needs that slow rise and gentle bake. One quarter rye to three quarters wheat gives the best effect - you get all the rising capacity of a wheat loaf with some of the flavour and squidgyness of rye. This is fast becoming my loaf of preference.

I gather they also do buckwheat, but I haven't been able to track this down yet as my local sainburys isn't stocking it.

Speciality flours are more expensive than ordinary ones, depending partly on where you buy them, but you can expect to pay at least twice the price of wheat, which tends to cost about 80p per kilo in supermarkets.

My one gripe about Dove Organics is that they don't seem to have a website - or if they've got one, they've hidden it so well that I haven't been able to find it. I'd like to know a bit more about that, and find out if they are doing any other grains. I 'm also after a source of barley flour, so if anyone knows where I might be able to get some of that, an email would be much appreciated.

To sum up, if you are a pracitised bread maker, these speciality grains make life, and bread, very interesting indeed. if you aren't experienced, stick to the wheat until you are confident. I'd strongly reccomed investing in a good bread book - Tome Jaine's ' Making Bread at home' is pretty good, although it doesn't cover baking with spelt. 

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