Meet the Miller: Nan Kohler

Photo kindly contributed by Nan Kohler

Related post: Sonora White Whole Wheat Jelly Roll

What does a sprawling modern American city like Los Angeles have in common with the tiny age-old Southwestern France village my paternal ancestors hail from? I bet you'll never guess. Are you ready to give votre langue au chat (literally "your tongue to the cat," in other words give up guessing)? Yes? All right, then I'll let you in on the secret: both feature a mill!
I grew up hearing stories about the moulin du village (the village mill) and how my great-grandmother loved to walk over there to forage for watercress in the nearby brook and tailler une bavette (have a long chat) with the miller and his wife (who belonged to another branch of our family)* and maybe some friends and neighbors before hiking home along the dusty road, a bag of flour on her shoulder, ready for the forthcoming baking day. As a descendent of this strong and congenial woman and as a baker who mills most of her whole-grain flours herself, I was emotionally ready for some serious pangs when we finally visited the old place (with my parents no less) at the end of a parched summer ten years ago.
I am sorry to report that I felt no pangs (at least none that were bread-related.) The mill was still standing. A valiant effort had been made to salvage parts of it after decades of  neglect and disrepair but it had become a résidence secondaire (a weekend home) and the millstones had morphed into fenceposts. Also, the road between the mill and the village had been paved. Not that anyone would have hiked it carrying a bag of flour...

In Los Angeles by contrast, the mill is brand-new...

... you can park at the door (no schlepping necessary)...

...and the miller is alive and well, eager not only to grind the best local grain she can get her hands on (preferably from old varieties) but also to place the mill at the center of community life once again. Nan Kohler's urban flour mill, Grist & Toll, has only been in operation for a few weeks but it has already attracted a lot of attention, not to mention customers: right now she can only open for retail three days a week (on Closed days, she mills her flours) but as soon as she finds help, business hours will be extended.

Nan drew inspiration for the name of her mill from her research into ancient rural practices: "Grist and toll are two very old milling terms that sort of sum up how wheat traveled through potentially many hands before it showed up as a loaf of bread or baked good on a family table. Since the beginnings of civilization, wheat has been grown and milled to produce life-sustaining bread. Flour mills were natural epicenters in growing communities, to which local and distant farmers would travel with their “grist” or grain harvest. Once the grist had been milled, the miller would take his “toll”, an agreed upon percentage of the flour, in lieu of wages. Depending on where and in what time period you lived, many tolls could potentially have been taken along the way - the local baker at the community oven was allowed to keep a portion of each loaf before baking in order to create a loaf for his family, and in France there were separate bolting facilities, or sifting houses, who would receive the single pass flour from a mill and sift it to create the more refined pastry flours; they were allowed a toll as well."

On opening day, in November 2013, Grist & Toll drew a lively crowd of bakers, interested not only in showing off their breads but in trying out the mobile wood-fired oven Michael O'Malley, an artist, professor and fellow serious home baker, had built for himself and brought to the parking lot for the occasion. A variety of breads were baked and devoured and from what I heard, the mobile oven will soon be back by popular demand, possibly on a regular basis**. Recalling my Dad's memories of the village oven and of the six-pound miches his grandmother used to bake in it every other week, now I am feeling the pangs, moved to the quick by the notion that a way of life he had thought forever gone might be making a comeback a world away and a century later...

Nan Kohler's Triple IV whole grain flour

Nan Kohler's Sonora whole grain pastry flour

A miller's flour is only as good as his or her grain and, be it wheat, rye or spelt, Nan Kohler is very particular about her grain. In fact her love of grain dates back to the days when she was still a pastry chef and owned a baking business: her style wasn’t the "overly sweet sugar bombs," as she puts it; she needed diversity, wanted to taste the chocolate, the vanilla, the butter. Always on the lookout for new ingredients, she started to incorporate alternate grains (whole wheat pastry flour, spelt, oats. etc.) in her pastries, combining them with sweet butter to discover new flavors and she soon fell under the spell.
On a trip to Paris, by the sheerest of coincidences, she became acquainted with another LA resident and grain aficionada, TV screenwriter and producer Marti Noxon who is today her business partner. A talented cook and baker, Marti is a methodical woman who likes to broaden and deepen her knowledge of food by devoting each year to a different topic. The year Nan met her was the Year of Bread.
Talk about karma! Nan had just watched an old recording of Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth, more specifically the episode where Ruth Reichl goes to Bath and makes bread with Richard Bertinet. She had found herself mesmerized by the part where Bertinet takes Ruth to Shipton Mill to meet owner John Lister, a former anthropologist who came to milling because he wanted "a life where he was doing something real." She listened as Lister explained that every baking process needed a different type of flour and heard Bertinet say: "A good baker will make good bread with a good miller."That's all she remembers because after that the only thing she could think of was: "Why don’t we have that in LA? Is it even possible? Do we even grow wheat?"
Marti and Nan had a girls' night out to discuss what interested them in baking. It soon became obvious that they were both passionate enough about it that delving deeper into the matter was warranted. Nan started researching: she met with Janice Cooper, Executive Director of the California Wheat Commission, attended the 2012 Kneading Conference West (now The Grain Gathering) where she met Mark Stambler, founding member of the Los Angeles Bread Bakers, and Dr. Stephen Jones, Director, Washington State University Research and Extension at Mt Vernon, and one of the nation's foremost grain specialists. Dr. Jones helped her connect with local farmers who wanted to bring back landraces and Mark Stambler directed her to passionate bakers eager to make bread with local flours.
Through Janice Cooper, she became acquainted with Tom Shepherd of Shepherd Farms who farms in the Santa Ynez Valley north of Santa Barbara: she now buys all the wheat he grows, this year Triple IV, Red Fife and a bit of Glenn. Tom dry-farms his grain, which means that the yield is lower but the quality top-notch. In a state where land is very expensive and the cost of water outrageous, the biggest challenge is to put together a sustainable grain-growing structure. He and other like-minded farmers are therefore hugely interested in California landraces which are adapted to the drought. Nan is a firm believer in landraces: "California is operating at a wheat-loss. We grow wheat but we export so much that we cannot feed ourselves and we are losing control of our seeds. We aren’t thinking long-term. We need to try and stop this trend."
Further north, other California farmers are working towards the same goal within the framework of the Mendocino grain project. Closer to home, the Los Angeles Bread Bakers (LABB) have been trying to grow wheat and spelt in Agura Hills, northeast of the city. Their efforts failed last year (I followed their farming adventures on their blog, at first with great excitement then with a feeling of doom: Hoping to share the wheat, Reporting sheepishly, 3rd week of April,  Slim Pickens and Harvest is done). LABB lost a battle but it didn't lose the war. As Nan puts it, "Where we plant needs to be tended to. Someone needs to be farming there. The plot we chose last year was in the middle of a residential area, which made it appealing to wildlife (deer, squirrels, birds) and there was no farmer to watch it. Also, too many seeds were planted too shallowly." We live and learn. Even though LABB hasn't embarked upon a new experimental wheat planting project this year, it continues to be supportive of and actively involved in attempts to jump-start a local and sustainable grain hub in Southern California. Meanwhile it is calling for bakers to grow grain at their front door (presumably so that they can keep an eye on the crop).
Grist & Toll currently carries two wheat flours, Triple IV and Sonora. Hard red winter Triple IV contains 12.5% protein. Originally grown as animal feed, it was found to have excellent bread-baking properties and is now grown for artisan baking. Soft Sonora white wheat is lower in protein (11.5%): it can be used both for pastry and, with careful handling, for bread. "Interestingly," says Nan, "at one point in California's history, Sonora was about 80% of all the wheat planted up and down the state. Today only a handful of growers are trying to revive it, mostly in Northern California. I am able to purchase and mill Sonora because of a connection my friends at Hayden Flour Mills made for me, so it is coming from Arizona. However, there are two farmers who have just planted this year closer to our area - in Santa Barbara County and Kern County, so I hope to have a California source later this year.  As an aside: purchasing some grain from Arizona helps our whole movement. Arizona, like Northern California, is ahead of us in successfully growing some of the landrace wheat varieties. By purchasing some of their grain and helping their farmers pull through and sell what they have grown, I hope I am adding to their demand and encouraging those farmers to plant again and perhaps even increase their plantings." Think locally and act regionally! I like Nan's thinking...

Once her grain sourced, Nan had to find a mill. Easier said than done. She travelled to Maine to meet with the organizers of the original Kneading Conference and to Arizona to consult with Jeff and Emma Zimmerman of Hayden Flours Mills.  She conferred on the phone with Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills from she received advice and encouragement. It soon became clear to her that artisanal milling equipment was no longer manufactured in the United States, largely because our society had allowed the craft of milling to die off. Only one American company, Meadows Mills, was still making a smaller mill, but their only possible option had vertically placed milling stones and Nan was on the hunt for horizontal ones: milling can generate a lot of heat and because heat is detrimental to the living organisms and nutrients present in the grain, she wanted the added control that horizontal stones would give her in slowing the process down.
There were more choices in Europe where several bakers still mill their own flours and after careful research, Nan finally settled on a 2,500 lb Osttiroler Getreidemühlen, made by an Austrian company which had remained in the hands of the same family for more than 75 years. She loved the wood which helped prevent the flour from overheating, the horizontally placed stones and the gleaming good looks and, as an added bonus, once the mill delivered and set up, her husband, Chris Kohler, found a way to attach a motor to a variable frequency drive, so that she could slow things down even more.

Photo kindly contributed by Nan Kohler

Nan has a sifter and plans to make hi-extraction flour. She also plans to install ovens in the kitchen for testing and recipe-development. "It is essential for me to understand the flours I sell, to be knowledgeable about their characteristics, to know for instance that Triple IV requires 90% hydration; that Sonora is even thirstier, that it is good for pastry because low in protein but that you can make very good bread with it, etc. Before I opened Grist & Toll, I milled my grain at home. My first mill was a Jansen. As soon as I started milling, even generic wheat, it became obvious how much more interesting the flavor was."
The biggest challenge in becoming an urban miller in Los Angeles was undeniably dealing with the city. "There is an unbelievable lack of enthusiasm at city level, especially in the Health Department, for encouraging businesses that are different. Which meant I had to go to lots of meetings, bring tons of pictures, talk the process through and through. It took forever." That in spite of the fact that at city management level, they loved the idea: they knew it meant lots of interaction with other businesses and with schools. Indeed several schools are already planning to grow wheat so that it can be milled and baked. "Those are important and sustainable things to preserve."
They are indeed and Grist & Toll appears set to play a big role in promoting local grain and keeping village life alive and well in the greater Los Angeles area. Kudos to the miller!

Photo kindly contributed by Nan Kohler

*As I said we were with my parents on that particular visit to my father's childhood lieux de mémoire (literally, places of remembrance). He explained that this other branch of our family had held the exclusive right to all the mills in the valley for generations (they didn't own them, just operated them), a fact that he was immensely proud of. He also said that in ancient times, the village mill hadn't belonged to the miller or even to the village but to the seigneur (the lord) who owned the local castle and paid the miller a salary. This state of affairs may have changed at the end of the eighteenth-century after the French Revolution. I wish I had thought of asking... What I do know is that from the fourteenth century on, millers weren't allowed to be bakers as well, probably because it would given them too much economic heft.
** Michael O'Malley is bringing his mobile wood-fired oven back to Grist & Toll on February 9. For more info, read here. 

Sonora White Whole Wheat Jelly Roll

West/Southwest meets North/Northwest, white Sonora wheat meets red kuri squash. Made with 60% Sonora white whole wheat pastry flour (bought at Grist & Toll in Los Angeles, California, from grain grown either in California or in Arizona) and 40% white whole wheat pastry flour (bought at Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill in Burlington, Washington) from grain grown in nearby Lynden, this sunny cake is a regular melting pot, all the more so as it is filled with jam made last fall from our Northwest bumper crop of red kuris.

The Sonora accounts for the pale yellow and the red kuri for the bright orange, and together, they make for a soft texture and complex taste. They may overshadow the less assertive Northwest white but then, sorry, Lynden grain, this time you were invited in a strictly supporting role as, right or wrong, I wasn't sure the Sonora would have been up for a roll with macho kuri jam without your help. But fear not, your turn to shine will come again...

Ingredients

*   I used two different flours because I wasn't sure that the Sonora flour would be strong enough for a jelly roll if used by itself

** I used grape-seed oil

*** Or any medium-soft jam or jelly

For those of you who are using BreadStorm (including the free version), please click on this link to import the formula.  For more on BreadStorm, you may want to read this post.

Method
For the instructions, please refer to the first five steps of this King Arthur Flour recipe (from which I adapted the list of ingredients).

If there is any red kuri jelly roll leftover, you might want to squeeze a sweet orange (such as a Cara Cara navel) over the whole thing the next day, let the crumb soak up the juice for a couple of minutes and... I'll say no more, you'll know bliss when you taste it.

Scott Mangold: Test-Baking with Local Wheats

Related posts:
Kneading Conference West 2012
Naomi Duguid: Bread Over Time
Andrew Whitley: Bread Matters

This year as last year, it was tough to make a choice between all the workshops, lectures, roundtables and demos offered at the Kneading Conference West and on that gorgeous Saturday morning (the last morning), I would especially have loved to attend one of the events taking place in the outdoor tent area instead of hanging out in the lobby kitchen, which is where Scott was giving his demo. But local grains were calling and local grains I picked!
I am glad I did. Sott gave us useful pointers which I am happy to share here.  I took copious notes and so did my friend and fellow SHB/bread blogger breadsong who was sitting next to me. When she heard I was going to write up the class for this blog, she very kindly sent me her notes. What follows is an amalgamed summary of what we both wrote down. Thank you, breadsong!
The whole wheat Scott Mangold is currently baking with at Breadfarm, his beautiful bakery in the Skagit valley, is milled nearby at Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill but it is grown in Whatcom county. Stephen Jones, Director, WSU Research and Extension Center at Mt. Vernon, is seeking to grow locally flavorful wheat that could be used by bakers and Scott hopes to be able to make a Skagit Valley bread one day. Meanwhile he tries the flours he can put his hands on with varied results: local wheats are inherently inconsistent. Even when working with them as individual varieties, there will be variability in flour performance because of the climate and the weather.
For this morning's demo, Scott picked Camas Red Fife (12.8% protein), Renan (a standard French varietal, 12.3% protein), Hedlin Farm's Bauermeister (10% protein - last year's crop as this year's is fairly low in protein) and Red Russian (14.6% protein).

Scott describes the in-bakery test bake system that he has devised for himself: when he gets his hands on a new flour, he always begins by taking a small amount which he mixes in a straight dough, then ferments and bakes. The process never varies, which makes later comparisons much easier. He strongly recommends that we too, at home or at the bakery:

• Take detailed notes about times, temperatures and water amounts
• Rely on feel: as the flour absorbs the water, the dough feel may change. You may have to adjust hydration to get the consistency you are looking for (keep notes on the amount of added water)
• Make note of the dough temperature at the end of the mixing

As bakers, we need to keep in mind that:

• Flour is at its best within 24 hours of milling. After that, it needs at least two weeks to oxidize properly
• When protein is concerned, quality trumps quantity: The speed of dough development correlates with the quality of the protein: glutenin provides elasticity and gliadin extensibility. Spring wheat has higher levels of protein but these proteins are organized in a less compact way. Winter wheat's dormancy period during the growing season makes for a better perfoming protein
• The quality of the protein is what determines how long the dough needs to be mixed. When gluten develops poorly during mixing, use the stretch and fold technique

What goes on in a dough

• Yeast consumes sugar and produces gas (the warmer the dough and/or the more leavening it contains, the faster it happens)
• Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce lactic and acetic acids.  If using a pre-ferment and a long fermentation, acidity is produced even in yeasted breads. Acidity strengthens the bonds of gluten. The colder the dough, the slower the production of acidity
• Enzymes are at work: amylase converts starch to sugar and protease weakens the gluten. Enzymatic activity is less temperature-dependent and more time-dependent
• These three phenomena are "happening in a dance together"

Enzymes

• Amylase is activated in the presence of water and breaks down complex sugars to produce simple sugars that the yeast can feed on. Amylase activity is measured by the flour's falling number  (an information which is seldom to be found on the bags of flour available to home bakers). A high falling number (ex: 400) means that the flour is a slow mover and will be good for long-fermented doughs. A low falling number (ex: 250 or less) means that amylatic activity is high. Amylase brings a nutty flavor to the bread
• Protease's role is to denature protein: it helps increase the extensibility of the dough by softening a strong gluten. Salt is a protease inhibitor and is good for a loose dough which it helps tighten
• Using more pre-ferment or a riper pre-ferment to boost acidity will strengthen protein bonds. You can adjust the temperature of the pre-ferment to influence the level of acidity 
• Protease activity and amylase activity go hand in hand: they increase with time

Pre-ferments

When we use a pre-ferment, we are extending the time when the flour is wet, thus increasing enzymatic activity and acidity: we allow the amylase to break down more complex sugars into simple sugars that the yeast can feed on and the increased acidity counters the increased proteolytic activity (the weakening of the gluten by the protease)

• Poolish (liquid pre-ferment): when it is ripe, its surface will dome and it'll be bubbly. An upward "curl" will be visible at the edges. As it continues to ripen, the surface will become concave and sink in and it will show lines. The poolish is then at its prime
• Biga (stiff pre-ferment): use a poke test. Use it when it feels the same as a fermented dough ready to shape or bake

Soakers

• Whole-milled wheat yields a flour which contains much more active enzymes
• Peter Reinhart's technique (epoxy method) when baking with whole wheat is to let the processes happen prior to the mixing by using a soaker
• A soaker is basically a long autolyse: it allows for enzymatic activity in the absence of fermentation and acidity. The protease acts on the gluten and the amylase creates sugar which is not consumed by yeast since no yeast is present
• In a nutshell, a soaker yields more sugar, uses more water and makes the dough weaker. If you suspect that the dough will be too weak, use salt in the soaker

Autolyse

• Do an autolyse: the autolyse allows for full absorption of the water into the flour, facilitating the bonding of the protein molecules and the development of the gluten. It also jumpstarts enzymatic activity. At the bakery, Scott uses a modified autolyse, soaking flour and water overnight in the walk-in. Then in the morning he uses 15 or 20% of this autolyse in each mix without doing a new autolyse for each. He learned the technique from Jeff Yankellow who used it for Team USA 2000
• Hydrate the autolyse at 70% (in regular baking, whole wheat would require a much higher hydration, maybe 85%, as it loves water)
• Let the autolyse rest 20 minutes

Mixing

• Add yeast, disperse in the mixer and let it incorporate for a few minutes before adding the salt (salt is a tenderizer and breaks down protein)
• Periodically evaluate the development of the dough in the mixing bowl (windowpane test)
• If the proteins are not strong enough, you will weaken the gluten if you continue mixing. Use more folds
• Don't mix too fast: it weakens the dough
• Stiffer doughs generate more heat during mixing
• Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a strengthener for weak doughs
• Desired dough temperature for these tests is 75°F at the end of the mixing

Fermentation and proofing

• The more time for fermentation, the more alcohol (and flavor) is produced: flavor results from a combination of sugar and alcohol. If the yeast consumes all the sugar, you'll get a flatter-tasting loaf

Evaluating the dough

• Scott is following the method devised by Cliff Leir of fol épi bakery in Victoria, BC, to evaluate the dough as it comes out of the mixer: he takes two ounces of each mix, forms small boules and leaves them to sit, covered, next to each other so that he can compare the rise to spread ratio of each and assess proteolytic activity (degree of gluten weakening by protease)
• For each dough, after 30 minutes of bulk fermentation, check to see how quickly it is fermenting and how is the gluten handling the fermentation. Do a tug test: what is the dough's resistance? Test elasticity: does the dough stand up or fall back down after being tugged (standing up is a predictor of good loaf volume)? Is the dough trapping gas? Stretch another gluten window and see how the gluten is holding up/developing. A good gluten window will be hard to break at that stage
• After 45 minutes of bulk fermentation, check the dough again: how is it inflating? Do a poke test (as you would for a proof test), does the dough push back? If the dough holds your fingerprint, it could mean that the gluten is strong enough to hold down the rise; the gas produced by the yeast is being held tightly; there will be more pressure in the loaf and smaller holes in the crumb. Does the dough feel sticky or release water?

Note: The dough may be fermenting but could be releasing gas if it is porous (it happens when gas is escaping but you don't see any holes in the surface of the dough). When it is time to shape, check to see if the dough is collapsing. If the proteins are breaking down, you will have small holes and a homogenous crumb.

Variables in fermentation and proofing

• Rapid fermentation/slow proof: the yeast is running out of sugar. Next time, reduce the amount of leavening and use a soaker instead of a pre-ferment
• Rapid fermentation/fast proof: enzymatic activity is high. Sometimes the dough will get wetter and softer. Next time you might want to decrease hydration. Do not use a soaker
• Slow fermentation/slow proof: low amylase activity. Use both a pre-ferment and a soaker but decrease the amount of leavening in the pre-ferment to give yeast more time
• Slow fermentation/fast proof: very rare. Sometimes it is a good thing, but if it isn't, just don't use that flour again

Compensating for flour deficiencies based on test results

If the flour contains a high percentage of protein, next time:

• Do an autolyse
• Under-mix (a web of gluten is a lot like thread count on a sheet: the less you mix, the fewer the connections between the strands)
• Stretch and fold (more frequently)
• Boost acidity by using a riper pre-ferment or more pre-ferment
• Increase hydration
• Bump up proteolytic activity by not salting the pre-ferment or soaker

If the quality of the gluten is poor, next time:

• Reduce fermentation time
• Increase leavening
• Pre-ferment a greater portion of the flour
• Bump up acidity: use pre-ferment when at or past its prime
• Stiffen up the dough by decreasing hydration (but you'll lose some flavor)
• Don't use a soaker

If dough is hyperactive, next time:

• Decrease the amount of leavening in the pre-ferment
• Decrease fermentation time

If poor rise and no color out of the oven, next  time: 

• Give amylase more time (use a soaker)
• Increase the quantity of pre-ferment (giving more time to amylitic activity)
• Extend fermentation time (more folds), so that the amylase has more time to cleave the sugar off the starch

The results of the testing are mostly relevant to those of us who have access to the same flours as Scott. But just to give you an idea of the conclusions he was able to draw for himself in case he wanted to use these flours again, here is what he found:

• Camas Red Fife: Seems fine for baking purposes. Add water. Use an unsalted soaker. Use a pre-ferment (small amount). Decrease the yeast and increase fermentation time
• Renan: Increase hydration to make the dough softer. Increase the amount of sugar available to the yeast by using a soaker with salt and a pre-ferment
• Hedlin Bauermeister: Slow it down by half, do more folds, bump up acidity by using a ripe pre-ferment and maybe use a soaker
• Red Russian: Bump up acidity by using a ripe pre-ferment. Do not use a soaker

Such pointers are what we are looking to get out of these tests. Scott is encouraging: "It is a lot of information to wrap your head around but once you see the various adjustments that can be made, it is fairly straightforward."
He adds: "We have years of work ahead of us here in Western Washington. We need to find wheats that are resistant to rust while looking for flavor and long fermentations. We have a miller but no storage capacity (such as the grain elevators in the Midwest). The miller could conceivably make a blend of local wheats but his mill isn't equipped to mill white flour. Also, our customers do not buy lots of whole grain breads, so we cannot completely switch over. But we would still like to use local wheat, so we need to find a solution."
Right now grain is mostly grown here as a rotation crop and sold to Asia as pastry wheat. Farmers usually lose money on it but it is good for the soil. If they could make money on grain, they could grow more. They would make more money off of the commodity market. As for the baker,  he would get a better product than when he buys from the Midwest something that was milled last year and doesn't offer good nutrition.
There are ways to make white flour more nutritious, for instance going for a higher extraction flour. Cliff Leir (who mills his own flour) soaks the wheat for a minimum of eight to ten hours, which softens the bran. When milled, the bran pops off in big flakes which builds up in a catch sifter and the whole aleurone layer and germ make it into the white flour.

Results of the test bake

Blackberry Buckwheat Blossoms

When I met Fairhaven miller Kevin Christenson, he told me that buckwheat flour was his favorite and that he always added it to whatever he baked, mostly scones. I asked whether he might be willing to share a recipe but he demured. He said he was no baker, he just picked whatever scone recipe was on hand when he made breakfast for his family and replaced part of the all-purpose flour with buckwheat. So I started looking for a scone recipe I could use but most of the ones I found involved butter and since we are just recovering from the holidays, I thought, no butter, no, thank you, not this time.

 

That's when I remembered Plum Gorgeous: Recipes and Memories from the Orchard, a lovely book by Romney Steele which I couldn't resist buying last fall. Browsing through it, I found a recipe for butterless blackberry polenta muffins. Now my freezer is chokeful of blackberries I picked over the summer in the lanes around our house. I have already made blackberry jelly and blackberry frozen yogurt but I still have lots and lots. So why not bake muffins that would remind us of long walks in the hills along fragrant hedges? 
Except for the cornmeal which I bought in bulk at the natural food store nearby without checking where it came from (or if I did check, I forgot), I used all organic Fairhaven Mills flours. The original recipe calls for all-purpose flour and polenta or stone-ground cornmeal. I used the cornmeal as indicated but kept only one third of the all-purpose flour substituting white whole wheat and buckwheat for the rest. I also decreased the amount of sugar (we like sweet baked goods to be just on the cusp of enough sugar. The original recipe uses over a third more than I do. If you have more of a sweet tooth, by all means dial it back in.)
I don't know of any other wild berry that packs as much aroma and taste as Washington's plump blackberrry (the two varieties that grow in our neighborhood each have their own distinctive flavor). Since the berries go into the batter still frozen, they poach gently during the baking, becoming so marvelously juicy that they burst in the mouth with every bite.  As for the buckwheat and the cornmeal, they are perennial favorites. I have already made these muffins twice and we can't get enough of them. So here is to you, Kevin Christenson! Thank you for these beautiful flours. Next time I pop over, I'll bring you a batch... 

Ingredients: (adapted from Plum Gorgeous)

• 80 g all-purpose flour
• 80 g white whole wheat flour
• 90 g buckwheat flour
• 90 g stone-ground cornmeal (or fine polenta)
• 70 g sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• zest of one orange
• 2 eggs
• 160 g whole milk
• 52 g extra-light olive oil (safflower or other vegetable oil can be used as well)
• 130 g frozen blackberries (+ 12 for topping) (do not thaw before folding into the batter)
• 1 pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C
2. Line 12-muffin pan with paper baking cups
3. Combine flours, polenta and baking powder in a bowl. Mix well. Add sugar and orange zest
4. Lightly whisk together eggs, milk and oil in separate bowl, then stir in the flour mixture
5. Fold in the berries
6. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Top with a blackberry if desired
7. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

The Blackberry Buckwheat Blossoms are going to Susan for Yeastspotting, her weekly roundup of breads and other baked goodies.

Related post: Meet the Miller: Kevin Christenson

Whole Wheat Cookies for a Washington Autumn

A walk in the nearby woods and My Italian Smörgåsbord's post about baking Holiday Tea Cookies with a small child were the inspiration for the crunchy treats my youngest grandson and I made on Saturday with local flour (my only variation was to replace all of the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour and since the flour was whole grain and therefore thirstier than regular flour, I had to wet my hands once or twice to make the dough come together). Thank you, Barbara, for the recipe which calls for two of my favorite baking ingredients, olive oil and honey!

And for those of you who might wonder, no, we didn't meet any bear along the trail but we could have, right?

Related post: Baking With Locally Grown Grains

Jeffrey Hamelman's Whole Wheat Scones

Related post: Baking with Locally Grown Grains

Having experienced first-hand during his apprenticeship in Ireland how light and flaky scones could be (nothing like the sturdy and mealy-greasy items that often pass for scones on this side of the pond), Jeffrey Hamelman resolved to recreate the recipe for his bakery in Vermont and while his version isn't likely to meet with the approval of the cholesterol police, it is still packed with wholesome nutrients since it relies exclusively on whole wheat flour. In case you are partial to scones, as I am, you are likely to be wowed if you try it at home.

If you are concerned about the amount of fat the recipe contains (Hamelman even advises using full-fat buttermilk if available), you can try taking out some of the butter, replacing some of the cream by more buttermilk, using a bit of sour cream, or mixing yogurt and buttermilk. I haven't tried any of these skinnier suggestions but I will once the fourteen scones still waiting for us in the freezer are gone. The number of scones the recipe yields depends upon the size of the scoop used to shape them. In class we used a scantily filled 2.5 inch scoop and we got 16 scones. At home I used our regular 2-inch ice-cream scoop and I got 22 smaller ones.

Jeffrey uses Vermont white whole wheat pastry flour. I used Fairhaven white whole wheat pastry flour which is sold in bulk at my local natural food store. Other sources can surely be found in other parts of the country. It will be interesting to see if they yield the same results.

Scones can be scooped out and frozen raw close to each other on a sheet pan (covered with plastic) then bagged once frozen. There is an almost imperceptible flavor loss but the convenience makes up for it. They should be taken out and put on a sheet pan (spaced properly this time) in the refrigerator overnight for baking first thing in the morning (although I know some bakers bake them directly from the freezer, presumably adjusting the baking time accordingly). Don't egg wash and/or top with sugar the scones you are planning to freeze (the dough would absorb it all).

Now for the funny part: I do not relish sweets and although I loved the scones we made during the class, they were a bit too sweet for my taste (I actually like savory scones best). But it was my first time trying my hand at the recipe at home and, contrary to my rebellious nature, I decided to follow it scrupulously.

In the best culinary school tradition, I did what we French call the "mise en place", that is to say, I scaled all the ingredients and got them all lined up in little bowls on the workbench. I mixed the flour and the baking soda, I incorporated the butter as indicated. I poured in the liquids with the egg and mixed until just combined. I scooped out all the scones: 8 nicely spaced on one half-sheet pan, 14 closely packed on the other. I egg-washed and pearl-sugared the ones I intended to bake right away. I reached for a plastic bag to cover the sheet-pan destined to the freezer and that's when I did a double-take: a hot pink bowl was sitting forlornly on the counter. It was full. Of sugar. I hadn't added a gram of sugar to my dough. Freud was right: the subconscious rules! My scones were going to be savory indeed.

Nothing to do at this point but go forward. So I went ahead with the baking. My scones didn't spread as much as the ones we made in class and I had to leave them in 5 minutes longer. I don't know if that had to do with the lack of sugar or with the different absorption capacity of the Washington flour or with my oven... No way to know. What I do know is that my first bite into a cooled down scone was very tentative... I had completely skewed the formula. Would it still work?

Ladies and gentlemen, the answer is a resounding yes. So my advice to you is to do as you please with the sugar amount. The pearl sugar and the currants provide enough of a sweet hint to make the scones attractive to sugar lovers (who can always lather them with jam or honey later on) without displeasing those of us who have less of a sweet tooth. Leaving the sugar out or reducing it could potentially be a sure way to make everyone happy in the family. Think of the smiles around the table on Thanksgiving morning!

Before baking

Ingredients (for 22 small scones):

• 545 g white whole wheat flour
• 136 g sugar (optional as it turned out. Can also be reduced instead of just taken out)
• 33 g baking powder
• 3 g salt
• 136 g butter, unsalted, diced, pliable
• 109 g currants, tossed in a little extra flour
• 60 g egg (1 large one)
• 204 g cultured buttermilk (full-fat if available. I made mine at home using full-fat local Guernsey cow milk)
• 289 g heavy cream
• egg and milk for egg wash
• Pearl sugar for decoration (optional) (I bought mine at Ikea)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 375°F/190°C
2. Dice cold butter and leave at room temperature until pliable/soft. Toss currants in a little extra flour
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and add the buttermilk and heavy cream
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the dry ingredients to combine
5. Add the diced, pliable butter to the mixing bowl and, using the first speed, paddle into the dry ingredients until pea-size
6. Add the currants, then the wet ingredients all at once to the mixing bowl. Still using the first speed only, blend until just combined.
7. Portion with scoop of desired size onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
8. Egg wash tops of scones and sprinkle with pearl sugar (if using)
9. Bake (with no steam) for about 13 minutes or until tops are barely springy (I baked mine for a total of 18 minutes).

Printable recipe

Jeffrey Hamelman's whole wheat scones are going to Stefanie (whose marvelous blog Hefe and mehr will be hosting this week's issue of Yeastspotting.)

Baking with Locally Grown Grains

"Baking with Locally Grown Grains", such was the title of the class I recently attended at the King Arthur Baking Education Center in Norwich, VT. Sponsored by the Bread Bakers Guild of America (BBGA), it was taught by Jeffrey Hamelman (whose Bread: A Baker's Bok of Techniques and Recipes figures prominently on the shelves of most serious bakers I know). Attendees were mostly professional bakers but there were also a few home bakers like me, so I didn't feel like the odd woman out. All of us were brought there by the common resolve to keep farms up and running where we live and work by spending our money in our community. As Hamelman aptly put it: "If you buy grain from the neighboring farmer, there is a good chance he'll become a customer at your bakery".

Many of us were also motivated by the desire to savor our terroir which, in this context, can roughly be defined as the taste of the place where we live. The flour used in the class came from grain grown in Vermont to which most of the participants wouldn't have access once back home but grains purchased from small farmers elsewhere in the country share enough similar characteristics that we can take the knowledge back to our bakeries and adjust our baking techniques accordingly to obtain the best possible results (at least that was my hope when I registered for the class and happily I left with the information I had been looking for).

Local grain can be used for more than making bread. Intent on making the point, Hamelman started the class by preparing a vegetable pie for which the mock puff pastry dough had been made with equal parts of Vermont white whole wheat pastry flour and white flour (from Gleason Grains).

On the second day, we made scones from local white whole wheat pastry flour. Based on a recipe Hamelman brought back from Ireland many years ago, they were simply the flakiest and lightest I have ever had and it was hard to believe they didn't contain a gram of all-purpose flour. I'll try and make them when I get home using Fairhaven white whole wheat pastry flour (Fairhaven Mill being the only source for organic grains and flours that I have discovered so far in my neighborhood). I'll post the recipe then. So stay tuned if you like pillowy scones!

Update November 20, 2011: the recipe can now be found here.

Hamelman reminded us that, in colonial times, Vermont was the breadbasket of America and that wheat, rye and barley grew in the Champlain Valley. But as nutrients were not put back in the soil, it took only 20 years for the land to be overfarmed. With the construction of the Erie canal, more agricultural land eventually opened to the West. Wheat growing became concentrated in the Midwest and in the Canadian prairies. At the same time, the invention of roller mills and the expansion of the railroads made it economically possible to bring the grain back East. One by one the small grist mills which had dotted the Vermont landscape (there had been one every three miles on every little river) became idle and disappeared. The Western farmers were not breeding for flavor but for yield per acre and for the ability to withstand hailstorms (which explains the preference for short stalks). Short stalk wheat was the main thrust of research and development in the wheat business for over 100 years and still is today.

But some local farmers are pushing back: Jack Lazor (from Butterworks Farm) is a case in point. (If you are curious to learn more about him and his wife, you may want to read this detailed article about them in Vermont's Local Banquet.)

I visited the farm a couple of years ago with a friend who is a baker and a long-time customer of the Lazors' and I was struck by their energy, dedication and inventiveness.

Anne Lazor offered us bottles of her kefir and it was so good that, ever since, the very first thing on my list whenever I get to Vermont is to find a coop and buy some. We bought bags of spelt and hard red winter wheat.

I brought my purchases home (back then, I still lived in the Northeast) and as soon as I started baking from it, I was hooked. There was simply no comparison, taste-wise, between the flours I could buy at the grocery stores and the flour I milled from Lazor's grains. The explanation is to be found in the varieties Lazor chooses to grow, which are typically more flavorful (and richer in nutrients) than the ones grown on an industrial scale.

For more information on the renewal of grain growing in Vermont, you may want to listen to this Vermont Public Radio talk.

But nothing is ever simple, is it? Buying grain or flour directly from a farm is tempting but it can have its pitfalls. In Vermont, many of today's old farmers were once fervent adepts of the back-to-the-land movement and they are still at it. Their philosophy is: "It's organic and we grew it. So it's good." Their milling is empirical and they don't sift, so that the flour isn't necessarily tailored to the needs of the artisan baker. However when they realize they can attract more customers by sifting a bit and also use the resulting bran for other purposes, they are more likely to adjust to the new demand.

The Northern Grain Growers Association was created with the help of the extension staff at the University of Vermont to foster a dialogue between the growers and beyond that, between the growers and the bakers. Hamelman was the first baker to join. Today Vermont farmers have a better understanding of the impact of their choice of grain varieties and milling techniques on the baking product and bakers are learning about farming life. On a much smaller scale, when seeking to buy grain from a local farmer who doubles as a miller, it is a good idea to tell him or her the baking characteristics you are looking for.

Don't hesitate to ask about grain health either. Lots of crops are susceptible to fusarium. Cereal grains are no exception. If infected, they get fusarium head blight which gives them a very distinct pinkish cast. They can neither be used as seeds nor turned into flour. Therefore Hamelman advises any baker buying directly from a farm to have a conversation with the farmer about testing for DON (deoxynivalenol). DON can develop in the field in most growing conditions in the United States. Any grain with a level of DON above one part per million (1 ppm) is considered unfit for human production. For more information about crop diseases, you may want to check your local library for a copy of Field Crop Diseases Handbook by Robert Nyvall.

If the farmer is also the miller, ask about the milling stones. Are they vertical or horizontal? Horizontal stones might be preferable to vertical ones (I forgot why but if you are interested, I can find out). Are the stones properly dressed? American hard red winter wheat tends to wear them out faster than other grains and very few artisans now have the required skills to maintain the stones.

But even flour skillfully milled from healthy grain can produce a poor loaf of bread. Weather conditions are a factor. If the weather is dry close to the harvest, then the crop will have a higher protein content. While some moisture is ideal to get things going, wet summers can lower the amount of protein in the grain.

All kind of enzymes can be found in cereal grains. Amylase is one of these enzymes. Its role is to convert starch into sugar. As bakers, we need ample amylase potential in our flour. If the flour lacks amylase, very little starch is converted into sugar, fermentation is very sluggish and the resulting bread will be poor. If it contains too much, the fermentation gallops along, too much sugar is produced, the dough is too wet and the crumb gummy.

There can be an excess of amylase when the weather is too wet (it can happen in the field before the harvest, so that the resulting crop is spoiled or contains so much amylase that no miller will take it). Labs use the falling number method to calculate the level of amylase.

There is an inverse relationship between the falling number and the quantity of amylase in the flour. Millers won’t buy a grain with a falling number of 200. The bull’s eye is 250. It is much more useful to know the falling number than the level of protein. When you buy your grain or your flour directly from the farmer, you have no clue what the amylase level is. If you buy from an organic mill, you can ask the miller. If using one of these 5-lb bags sold at the supermarket, you don't need to worry about it because the test will have been done at the mill and any amylase issue fixed through the blending of grains of different origins and the use of barley malt.

The falling number is usually quite high in whole wheat flour but this flour contains so many fermentable nutrients that it isn't a problem whereas a low falling number would be. Another thing to remember is that rye is even more susceptible to wetness and excess of amylase than wheat. If you need to know the exact characteristics of the grain or flour you are buying from a local source, you can always send a sample for testing to CII Laboratory Services in Kansas.

I mentioned taste before. Beyond the desire to save food miles and to help farmers survive in our community, pleasing our taste buds is often the main reason we turn to local flours (for which we usually pay a premium). For some of us though, access can be problematic. Jack Lazor mentions during the above-mentioned radio talk that he feels very fortunate to be living and farming in Vermont. He had recently been to North Dakota and there, in the land of wheat, there was almost nothing local to be had...

If you are lucky enough to have access to a local source of tasty grains and flours and eager to start baking, what should you watch for?

• One of the main principles when using local grains is that you need to process things fast. With Vermont flours, Hamelman likes to go for a one-hour-long first fermentation with three folds and he pre-ferments up to 35% of the total flour in the formula to compensate for the shorter bulk fermentation;
• Use a firm starter (to better control the fermentation process);
• Do not retard overnight;
• Don't try to go for a supermacho 85% hydration dough. Local grains are often low in protein and won't be able to absorb as much water as the store-bought flours you might be used to;
• When scoring, don't make a zillion cuts (it would flatten the bread);
• Local grains may have to go in the oven a bit underproofed;
• You may want to start them in a hotter than usual oven (470° to 480°F/243° to 249°C) and to lower the temperature progressively (receding oven technique);
• Steam the oven copiously, load the bread, steam again. Five minutes later (no more), open the vents (or, if you are a home baker, remove the steam-generating device from the oven).

If your local grain lacks protein:

• Do an autolyse;
• Watch your pre-shaping;
• Pay attention to the shaping;
• Reduce the fermentation time;
• Bake in a hotter oven.

Several of the bakers attending the class are already baking some of their breads with local flours but logistics frequently intervenes to prevent them from using more. There is no infrastructure for grain delivery in Vermont (taking advantage of his booming yogurt business, Jack Lazor couples his grain deliveries with his dairy deliveries and can thus supply King Arthur's bakery and other bakers but other farmers do not have that option).

White flour represents 99% of the flour eaten in the United States. But white flour mills are hard to come by. A regional one would cost about $10 million. Even if the money were to be found, how would the grain get to the mill? The railroads have gone the way of the grist mills...

I obviously don't know what the future holds for artisan bakers or for farmers. But I do know that I love the back-to local-food movement: when I was a child, my grandparents grew most of our fruit and vegetables and raised chicken, ducks and rabbits and I didn't even know it was a huge privilege to be fed that way. I took it totally for granted and complained when we overdosed on asparagus, strawberries or salsify. I never imagined our way of living and eating would one day follow the grist mills and the railroads and almost disappear... Any thing I can do at my modest level to make it come back, I will!