I am continuing with my experiments with the wheats grown by Mark and Liz Lea at Green Acres Farm, Kemberton, Shifnal. Halfreda is being planted for Harvest 2021 as part of the Liveseed trials that Green Acres takes part in. Montana will also be planted for Harvest 2021.
This post should be read in conjunction with the previous experiments. I am using the same method of baking with wholemeal and extracted flour, using 70% hydration with both and using commercial yeast. For these two loaves I am using fresh yeast instead of easy bake.
Halfreda
Halfreda is a Swedish milling wheat that will be part of the harvest 2021 at Green Acres and forms part of the Organic Research Centre’s Live Wheat trials that Green Acres participates in. The grain used for this experiment was some of the grain that has been drilled for next year’s harvest so I have no data on protein or Hagberg Falling Number.
Performance
The wheat performed well, it showed poor extensibility after the first mix but developed good gluten and a good balance of elasticity and extensibility after the second stretch and fold. It fermented well and had even oven spring.
Taste
The crumb was good and the taste sweet and nutty, especially in the crust. It is a fairly bland wheat with a sweet smell. This flour performs well and will suit many bakers looking for a loaf that will suit most customers.
Notes
The Halfreda reached 32C when double milled with time for my Komo mill to cool between the coarse and the fine milling. When sifted through the coarse sieve it left 9g of coarse bran and 50g bran in total after the fine sieve. The extracted flour is at 90% extraction. The dough was mixed at 70% hydration for both the extracted and the wholemeal.
Montana
Montana is a modern German E wheat that has been trialled in the UK since 2014. The grain from this experiment comes from Green Acres’ harvest 2020.
Data
The data for this year’s harvest shows a high HFN of 362, however there were no noticeable problems when handling the dough that would suggest that it needed additional diatastic malt powder. The protein content of this grain is at 11.57%.
Performance
The dough handled well, it had a good balance of elasticity and extensibility as the dough was developed through the stretches and folds. It milled ad 32C using the double milling method. The mill was set the same as for the Halfreda with the Montana yielding a little more bran. 17g of coarse bran through the coarse sieve and a total of 77g bran after the fine sieve yielding an 85% extraction rate. The final loaves achieved a good even rise with a good crumb.
Taste
The final loaves had a good texture and a pleasant sweet taste. The Montana and Halfreda are similar in that they both produced neutral tasting loaves and were easy to handle, performing as expected and that would suit most customers.
