Shepherd's Grain Flour Evaluations

This details my recent baking comparison of Shepherd's Grain flour with my current standard bread flours (Harvest King/Better for Bread-General Mills, Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat and Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread flours). I'm assuming a little knowledge of bread making here and have decided to create an upcoming post outlining some of my "normal" procedures for (small & large) dough batches of 3 to 16 pounds mixed by hand and using the no knead method.

When I was returning home this fall from Vancouver, B.C., I stopped at a Whole Foods store south of Portland, Oregon to stretch my legs and see if there were any new interesting products on the shelves. Lo and behold, there was a lady giving cookie samples away promoting Shepherd's Grain flours. Always a sucker for any baking goods presentations (especially ones passing out good cookies), I had a wonderful chat with Lori Lusetti and we talked about my WFO and retirement project of baking breads for my friends and the neighborhood. I loved the concept of smaller grain farmers being connected with the milled flour by code on the bags. It turned out Lori was not just "pushing cookies" but was involved in promotions and sales for Shepherd's Grain. I wanted to know where I could buy some of the flours in 50 pounds sacks, but she said she’d send me some whole wheat, wheat (all-purpose white), and a high gluten wheat to try out first.

Baguettes benched and resting before final shaping.
The small plastic cups contain Asiago cheese for stuffing
half of the baguettes. Small piece of dough is for my dinner.

My normal whole wheat breads are supplemented with a high gluten flour and my baguettes use an all-purpose flour, so her samples were going to work out very well. The baguette uses a levain created with my sourdough (Chef Bill…doesn’t everyone name their starter?) and a refrigerated (retarded) poolish made with a small amount of commercial (Red Star) instant yeast (IDY). As an FYI: I tried to be consistent how each dough was mixed and handled, but it’s impossible to do a perfect duplication for a side by side dough/bread bake comparison. I like to run my prep room cool and for this baguette and whole wheat bake the room was 65°F with 50% humidity. Here's a couple pictures of my prep-room work surfaces.


I have been using Better For Bread (General Mills...packaged as Harvest King in the 50 pound sacks I use) for my baguettes for years after doing several side by side tests with other flours. I also have been using the Harvest King for pizza dough since I did some taste/texture testing against Caputo 00 flour and Bob’s Red Mill several years ago. (I will be trying the Shepherd's Grain low-gluten in the near future against the Harvest King and see which one I will prefer.)


*****

Billy Baguettes 

(pdf for batch at the end of the post)

I mixed up two batches of dough (just 3 loaves projected for both). Each batch had two components as I noted earlier, a levain and a poolish. I always employ a 30-45 minute autolyse in my doughs and all mixing is done by hand. After a 45 minute autolyse, I mixed in the natural yeast (Chef Bill) and commercial yeast respectively. The poolish with the IDY was covered then put into the refrigerator for an overnight, retarded pre-ferment, while the inoculated levain stayed covered on the counter in the prep room.

The next morning, I pulled out both the poolish tubs from refrigerator and let them come to prep room temp for a couple hours (I’d bumped the room temp up to 65°F). I then combined the levain and poolish and mixed in about ¾ of the remaining flour. After the dough and flour had been combined, I add the salt and mix it in the wet dough. (Rule of thumb is that the dough should be about 70-75% hydration so the salt will completely dissolve and evenly disperse when mixed.) After the salt is incorporated, I mixed in the final portion of flour.

Note that I was baking a large batch of  "regular" baguettes
in addition to the six test loaves...gotta love that blue tape!

The covered dough was folded twice during its two hour bulk fermentation. Dough masses had a last stretch & fold before being benched in 405-410 g pre-shapes and allowed to rest for 40 minutes before being shaped and placed in a couche (dusted with rice flour) for final proof.

After 45 minutes, the loaves were loaded into a 575°F oven for 17 minutes and an internal loaf temp of 205°F. I gave a light flour stripe to the baguettes made with Harvest King (HK), so I could clearly distinguish them from the Shepherd's Grain (SG) baguettes.

My other baguettes had been baked, so now it was time
to put in the six test loaves...still 575°F

Three baguettes made with Shepherds Grain flour
are those closest in the picture.

I gave one baguette made with each flour to two neighbor families. Of course I kept one set for my picture taking, visual comparison, and tasting.

Baguette Verdict:

Both sets of bread had good oven spring. The HK baguettes were a bit darker out of the oven. Possibly a slightly higher content of sugars in the dough. Cutting into the loaves, it appeared the HK loaves had more and larger holes in the crumb. I actually liked the tighter crumb of the SG loaves which gave a nice mouth feel (and helps avoid the dreaded drop/drip-through of toppings – I guess you could say it isn’t quite as good a diet bread as the HK). I noticed that the SG baguettes seemed more moist as did the other taste testers. Both baguettes sliced cleanly and toasted well. Half of my neighborhood testers liked the SG best and half thought they were both equally good.

Shepherd's Grain bread in on the left.

Shepherd's Grain bread on left, notice larger holes in
the crumb of the Harvest King (right side).

I will be using the SG wheat flour in the future.




*****

Whole Wheat

(pdf for batch at the end of the post)

My whole wheat loaves are made with the addition of a high gluten flour to supplement/support a good rise in the bread. Normally I use Bobs Red Mill (BRM) Whole Wheat and their Artisan Bread (high gluten) flours. For this bake, I made 2 loaves normally and 2 loaves using SG Whole Wheat and their High Gluten flours.

This was my standard (no sourdough) whole wheat formula. It’s very moist and a good keeper. The addition of potato in the dough is what helps the baked loaf stay moister longer and the Lyle’s Golden Syrup has a wonderful flavor profile that enhances the whole wheat “taste experience” (IMHO).

As with the baguettes, the whole wheat bread is mixed and allowed a 45 minute autolyse before the first yeast (IDY) addition. After the yeast was mixed in, the doughs were put in the refrigerator for the overnight, retarded pre-ferment. The next morning, they were brought out into the prep room to come to room temperature.

Dough at room temperature, remaining
ingredients (mis en place)
weighed out in little stainless steel cups.

I like to weigh my flour into different areas of the container.
That way, if I get interrupted, I can see which components
have been already added. As a bonus, if I overshoot my target
weight, it's easy to remove the (correct) extra flour.

As with the baguettes, I withheld not only the salt but the melted butter and added ¾ of the remaining flour (and the remaining ingredients). When mixed, I added the salt, mixed again until dissolved and distributed, then added in the last of the flour. I let the dough rise through two stretch & folds in a 75°F proofing box. Next, I added the melted butter for a final mix into the dough. One more rise then I benched & did a final shaping into oval (semi-batard) loaves and placed them in a cloth lined basket. All four loaves were put back into the proofing box for a final rise of 1.5 hours. Loaves went into the 550°F oven with a light flour dusting on the SG loaves and my dragonfly stencil (in cocoa powder) on the BRM loaves. The loaves were in for 25 minutes then, because the oven was a bit too hot for whole wheat breads, I moved the loaves off the oven cooking floor onto inverted sheet pans with an aluminum foil cover to keep them from getting too dark. The loaves took an extra 10 minutes to come to 200°F internally when I pulled them from the oven. As with the baguettes, both the SG and BRM loaves exhibited excellent oven spring.

Verdict on the Whole Wheat

Upon cutting the loaves in half the next day, I thought both bread versions had extremely similar crumb structure. The SG crumb had a light, wheaty aroma and a little softer chew than the other. I also thought the SG crust has a bit of sweetness to it as I savored the bite. I was surprised that I couldn’t smell much coming from the BRM loaf although I did like the distinct crust/crumb interface.

I'd already started taste testing the baguettes, but here are (most) of the test loaves.
Shepherds Grain loaves are on the left side.

A bite that included some crust presented a very nice textural contrast while chewing it. That said, there was a slight bitterness that lingered a little too long for me. Toasted, both breads had a great crust crunch although I thought the chew was more pronounced and lasted longer with the SG loaf. Both breads finished with a nice and pleasant wheat aftertaste.

Shepherd's Grain loaf is on the left, Bob's Red Mill on the right. As far as I'm
concerned, both had excellent crust, crumb, flavor, and mouth feel.

I cut each of the remaining loaves in half and gave them to three neighbor families (half of each test loaf). My neighborhood taste testers were split...which was certainly a valid result. One set of folks  favored the BRM and the other liked the SG bread...both said the breads were so good they really had a tough time choosing. Another taster liked the SG best, but really couldn’t say why...  “it just tasted better” and the other just could not pick a favorite.

Again, as with the all-purpose wheat, I’ll be switching to Shepherd's Grain. It’s a competitive company that provides not only an excellent product selection but allows you to actually learn about the farmer(s) who have raised and harvested the grain. I found out that my local store has been filling their bulk whole wheat flour bin with Shepherd's Grain from GloryBee Wholesale Flour Suppliers and is able to order both the high-gluten and low-gluten (all-purpose) flours in 50 pound sacks for my baking needs.

 Baguette formula (levain & poolish - 3 loaves, indirect fermentation/no knead)

Whole Wheat formula - 2 loaves, rustic bread/indirect fermentation


FYI: I followed the code on my Shepherd's Grain bag and found that Mark & Becky Sheffels grew the wheat used to make the flour for my baguette testing. Their farm location is four miles west of Wilbur, Lincoln County, Washington. Thank you Mark & Becky for providing not only a great product but a connection to good sustainable farming in the Pacific Northwest!

Clog Your Arteries with Pesto Shrimp, Five Cheese, Pork Belly Mac & Cheese

So while wandering around Nye Beach on the Oregon coast last month, specifically during lunch and dinner hours, my eyes kept lingering over mac & cheese restaurant menu items. To me, it’s truly one of the best comfort foods served in America...and many places in the rest of the world. I decided that for the upcoming SciFi movie night with “the boys”, I’d make a WFO variation of a Basil-Shrimp mac & cheese that Susan had made several years ago. My variation included different (and more) cheeses, smoked pork belly chunks, and a finishing layer of panko & butter to form a crunchy top. Since smoked pork belly chunks (lardons) are not standard items available in grocery stores, thick cut bacon will work...but real pork belly, smoked and crisped up at home is a whole new level of yum!

I had previously purchased a 10 pound side of pork belly, sealed up 2 pound portions in vacuum packs and cooked them in my Sous Vide. Lots of information on the Internet regarding times and temperatures for pork belly. I chose to use a 24 hr at 165°F (74°C) cook for my “pork packs”.  I opened one of these pre-cooked packs for use in this batch of Mac & Cheese, sliced it and then smoked the slices a bit in my oven prior to cutting & lardon crisping.

Here’s the modified recipe I used for this batch of cheesy, shrimpy, pesto-y, pork belly heaven.

Mac & Cheese Core
1 lb shrimp, peeled with tails remaining (on 4-6)
8 oz dried Penne pasta
1/4 cup of melted butter
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup cream (half & half works great)
8 oz of grated cheese (2 oz each of Gouda, Fontina, Provalone, & Pecorino)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 TBS pine nuts (optional...but really good!)
2 TBS good quality basil based pesto
Pepper to taste (cheeses & pesto will provide significant salt)

Topping
2-3 oz of smoked pork belly, chunked into lardons (again, a good thick bacon will work well)
2-4 thin slices of Provalone
4-6 reserved shrimp (see below)
3/4 cup Panko
½ cup grated Parmesano Regiano
½ stick of butter sliced (used to dot final topping)
Optional, some fresh basil leaves, Chiffonade or Julienne cut.





The wood fired oven temp was too low from yesterday’s bread bake (still about 250°F) so I used my charcoal chimney to light up some lump charcoal. My target temperature was between 350-375°F.

As the oven approached my target temp, I put in a little Tuscan grill over the coals and nestled in a small iron frying pan loaded up with hardwood pellets (Cherry, Beech, and Sweet Pecan mix).

While the pork belly got a little smoke added in the WFO and the oven got some extra BTUs pumped in, I started prepping the rest of my over the top creation.

First I made sure I had all my ingredients assembled (mis en place) or at least visible.

Prep & Assembly:

Clean shrimp (reserve 4-6 with tails for topping presentation). Pat all shrimp dry and chop into bite sized pieces. Set aside.

Butter a 2 quart baking dish and have a large bowl available for mixing the upcoming items.

Heat a medium sized skillet.

Get your well salted pasta water boiling.  Add the Penne pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, briefly toast the pine nuts in the heated skillet and set them aside. (Watch ‘em carefully, they are expensive and burn easily! 😢)

It's been about 45 minutes of heating & smoking in the oven so, Retrieve your smoked pork belly.
(I love the sound of that phrase...it should be on a billboard or the motto for a BBQ joint.)

Move the coals & Tuscan grill to the side of the oven, making room for the casserole dish.

Cut pork belly into bite sized chunks (lardons). Crisp lardons to caramelize outside faces then reduce heat. If your bacon or lardons are very fatty, remove all but a tablespoon or so of the hot fat before adding the shrimp and garlic. Briefly heat all shrimp and minced garlic in remaining hot pork/bacon fat. Set aside the full shrimp pieces (with tail) and lardons. Remove skillet from heat so chopped shrimp and garlic stop cooking.

Check the pasta, your goal is firm al dente, reserve a cup of cooking water and drain pasta. Transfer the drained pasta into your large mixing bowl.

To the pasta, lightly mix together the chopped shrimp pieces, garlic, and flavored pork fat. Next, add the toasted pine nuts, butter, eggs, cream, grated cheese, pepper, and pesto. Toss to mix evenly.



If the pasta mix seems dry, adds some of the reserved pasta water. The mixture should be a little soupy as it will firm up substantially during the bake. Transfer ingredients into the buttered baking dish.

(I advocate using a mixing bowl instead of trying to combine the ingredients in the final baking dish as I was trying to do for the photo...)

Mix panko and grated Parmesano Regiano together.

Place crisped lardons or bacon over the top of the pasta mix.









Lay Provalone slices over the crispy pork yums and then set the reserved shrimp (with tails) on top.

Lift each shrimp tail up slightly and sprinkle Parmesan/panko crumb mix around it, so the tail remains slightly up and exposed. Do the same with the other "tailed" shrimp. Your goal is to use all the crumb/cheese mix and have the shrimp tails lifted slightly up from the topping.



Dot with butter.

Bake, uncovered, until heated through and topping has browned in places. This should take between 40-45 minutes depending on your oven and temperature. Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes.


Before serving, sprinkle top with fresh basil if you wish (chiffonade cut works best IMHO--note that I was too lazy to add it when I made this).

I like to serve hot pasta dishes on top of a bed of fresh, baby spinach...helps me to view (rationalize...irrationalize?) this caloric overload of tasty, decadent heaven as somewhat healthy.



Serves between 4-6 (depending on how hungry they are...or how much you’re willing to share).

I was told that in many cultures (not America) that you should leave a little food on the plate to indicate you are full and that the chef has done a fabulous job of not only preparing the food but portioning it properly for the meal and the guest.
So here's my token effort at self-congratulation.

By the way, the SciFi movie we watched was Rampage and nobody left hungry (as far as I know) or needing more entertainment.

Brats, Beer, Bread, a Board, and a Beach

As soon as I returned to Roseburg, I went to an Octoberfest on Sunday for the Umpqua Valley Brewers Guild as a guest of Diane & Peter Griffin (and at their home). It sure is great to have an in with a great beer brewer like Diane. I got to sample several good beers and was happy to help cooking the Brats which had been “marinating...like the rest of us” in beer.

Diane and her friend Rhonda had made an enormous number of sauerkraut balls...fried, delicious with homemade sauce, and filled with cheese. Next came the Brats served with two kinds of red cabbage (one vegan, one traditional), and two types of potato salad. Everyone had brought some tasty item for the meal or dessert and I tried them all...with no regrets (after all, that’s the purpose of spandex!) Sorry, no pictures...my fingers where fully occupied with plates & glasses full of tasty treats and adult beverages. I also am very fortunate that I live just down the hill from Griffins and had walked to the event so I could walk (sorta) home and burn off at least two bites of my afternoon of feasting and beer "tasting".

I spent most of the following week at home trying to catch up with my house chores, yard work, and paperwork. The weather has been too good to work on my deck consistently...it's been much more fun to do "anything else". I got the front stairs rebuilt before I went to Vancouver and Jim’s hip replacement. I had planned on only needing to replace three or four boards (on the stairs...not Jim) and figured it would just take a couple hours. Started to work on the boards and found that most of the under-structure had not used pressure treated, outside rated wood and needed serious attention (i.e. replacement). There was only one word for how I felt about the extra work I that I had to invest on the stairs and it doesn’t rhyme with fudge. I finished up in the dark the night before I left for Vancouver...and the Malicks thought I was happy just to be in B.C.

The Friday after Octoberfest, I finally got to bake bread for the first time in a month and did 23 loaves for the neighborhood + 15 craisin/apricot buns for a dinner at the Yoders. Dan & Cheryl were the home stay volunteers for a delegate from the Ukraine, Liubov. Umpqua Community College has been involved with bringing professionals from the Ukraine to study and learn from comparable jobs here in Oregon. Liubov is a really interesting person and I enjoyed meeting her and another delegate, Pavlo (sp?). I was very amused when they announced that they were leaving in a couple days and had only the time after dinner to go to the one location left on their bucket list for this trip–Walmart! So Dan loaded ‘em up in the car and off they went...I wonder if the Roseburg Walmart knows it’s internationally acclaimed?

Realizing that I planned on going to Newport for the last weekend of the month, I decided that I’d better get to baking for the Community Cancer Center staff and my doctor’s office (best to keep them all happy with me!) So on Sunday I baked 17 loaves for the CCC and on Tuesday, I baked 16 loaves for the White Oak Medical Clinic.

One load out of the oven cooling, while the next is baking.

After the bread delivery to the clinic, I arrived home and determined that I had to get at least one board replaced on the front deck. Miracle of miracles, I actually got the rotten board out and replaced it with a new one before dark. I know it may not seem like a big deal to most people, but I’ve been thinking about this job for 7-8 months now and it was a relief to actually see something in the way of progress. (At the far end of the boardwalk you can just see part of the reconstructed front steps...but I don't think anyone can appreciate what a pain in the a$$ that job was!)







That last weekend of October, I headed over to Newport to walk the beach. Sunset was stunning that evening and the wind had almost completely stopped...just a perfect autumn evening.

My primary task for this trip was to place one of Susan’s memorial glass disks at Yaquina Head Lighthouse State Park. It was one of her favorite places to visit over the last several years and I certainly believe she would heartily approve of having a “little bit of herself” in such a beautiful spot. It was a gorgeous day as I cast off my flip-flops and walked down the beach to the lighthouse.

As I climbed up the path to the viewpoint, I was pleased to note a pair of Peregrine falcons hovering in the skies above Salal Hill. I don't mean to make it seem like a spiritual event, but I do feel they were like an honor guard watching over me as I thought about our last visit here together on the 8th of November 2018...less than a year ago. I placed a glass memorial disk containing a bit of her ashes and inscribed with her initials SHS (Susan Helen Stansbury) at the Northwest corner post of the viewpoint fence.

The spot where I placed the memorial disk is noted on the photo with a heart. I thought she would have an incredible view of the beaches, whales, birds, sea lions, and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse for as long as this hill existed.




On the beach, I ran across a live sand dollar--another memorable moment on this day's walk. I had forgotten how interesting they are with their little “underbelly” spines used to move through the sand. I placed it back in a little deeper water so the seagulls wouldn’t get a “free lunch” quite so easily.

 

One last look back at Salal Hill overlooking the lighthouse and I felt a surge of happiness that this was always going to be a special spot for "us". 

10/28/2019 - Susan's memorial glass rests at one of her favorite spots, Salal Hill.

The surf fishing was apparently quite good and I watched several surf perch caught while I walked back along the north beach to my motel. 

That day's walk on the sand (both North & South beaches) and then to the lighthouse registered 40,715 steps (20.45 miles) on my pedometer...my feet were tired, but my heals were soft as I headed for some dinner and a beer at The Chowder Bowl in Nye Beach.



So here’s the stats for the month of October:

548,027 Steps = 275 miles walked (85 miles while in Vancouver)
56 Loaves of bread baked
48 Castelvetrano olives (consumed with Hendricks Gin martinis)
26 Staples (removed from Jim's hip incision)
15 Craisin/Apricot buns baked
  4 Pounds gained (from Layne's fantastic cooking & cookies)
  2 Liters of Hendricks gin consumed
  1 Board (2x6) replaced in my front deck at home
  0 Lost/Damaged hip replacement patients under my temporary supervision
 ... Cookies (too many to count)

November 2018