So which sounds more appealing, a slice of bread from the best home baker you know or bread from a lab?
The flavor in your baked goods is
limited to the added ingredients if you normally use commercially milled flour, basically just starch
(endosperm of the wheat berry -Anatomy of a Wheat Berry); as opposed to building and blending flavor with real whole grain flours, each with their unique characteristics.
Commercial bakery products have conditioned us to expect uniform outcomes in baked goods. This works for them because the ingredients have little personality and the conditions are completely controlled; A near clinical environment for temperature, humidity, oven calibration etc. So, when you run to the store to buy a loaf of packaged bread, you don’t look to see which one looks best, they’re all identical!
Not the case with homemade from freshly milled whole grains. Each loaf of bread will have its own character based on temperature, humidity, specific grains used, amount of liquid, which sweetener or oil (if any) you add, and time to develop flavors. In other words, the exact same recipe, even with the “usual” grains, will likely turn out a little loftier, more of a certain flavor forward, with each baking session and that is the reality of non-clinical baking.
We have also been conditioned to like the appearance of baked goods made with white commercial flour. This one is hard to get some people past. For me, all I see is lack of nutrition when I see white flour-based baked goods. Personally, I want to eat for nutrition and I don’t believe taste or appearance has to be sacrificed to do that. Although whole grain baking may look somewhat different, it is appealing, through a new lens of taste, health, and nutrition. No one has ever turned down a piece of my freshly baked bread or a polenta chocolate chip cookie! Nor has anyone ever spit anything out or not finished their goodie, unless of course they were too full from all the satiating nutrition!
Are you ready to try freshly milled on your next baking session?