Tale of five flours

Performance of Selected Guistos  and King Arthur flours for simple rolls.

 Guistos, from San Francisco makes several type of flours for the baker.  I did a little comparison of a few of their flours along with king Arthur Bread flour and  Nashes organic hard red wheat.

Flours compared

1. Guistos organic Bakers choice
2. Guistos Keith's best unbleached 
3. Guistos artisans malted bread
4. King Arthur Bread 
5. Nosh's organic hard winter wholewheat

Methods

I mixed up 5 small 250 gram dough balls all under the same environmental conditions and at the same time.

The ambient temp was 70 deg F.

I choose moderate hydration of 65%

2% salt, 1% instant yeast.

I mixed all small dough balls for 5 min each by hand

Fermented them room temp for 3 hours , shaped them into small rounds , and baked them all together at 450 deg F for 10min then 425 for another 15 min 

Results

All the flours had a similar feel and look  with the exception of the bakers choice which had a more cream color to it

Right off the bat I could tell that Keiths best and the artisan flours were less thirsty , in fact the artisan flour felt to me the way caputo 00 flour mixes. Guistos Bakers choice and the King Arthur were the most similar but King Arthur was more thirsty making a stiffer dough. The most slack dough was with the artisan blend. Of course the stiffest dough was the Nashes whole wheat water hog. Another reason to remember you cannot substitute WW in recipes for regular flour unless you up the Hydration at least 10%

Mixed up ready for kneading

After 5 min of kneading

Kneading response

I had to use slap and fold methods for all except the Whole wheat , and the last couple minutes with the KA flour. I worked each one for five minutes and did a quick check of gluten development

Here is how they looked before baking 

 

 Baking 

They all baked up about the same , the only noticeable difference was with the Artisan flour which gave the best spring. Even the Brick like 100% Whole wheat at 65% hydration looked pretty good.

 Crumb and taste

Well, they were all pretty close. the KA had the tightest crumb and the Artisan the lightest.  As you can see from the crumb shots below - there was not much difference.

Taste wise , the KA and the Bakers choice had the most toothieness, the Keith's best had a slight sourdough taste - (expected because it contains ascorbic acid)

Not to waste any fresh bread

I made a pulled pork sandwich choosing the artisan roll, and my wife made a veggie burger with the bakers choice roll. I froze the rest . and the dogs got a little too. 

 Conclusion

All the guistos performed slightly lighter than the KA and were less thirsty. So you would need to adjust the hydrations if your used to KA for example. I think the Artisan was quite nice but I am not sure it justifies the additional cost of it.  for the Keith's  best, If I want a flour with ascorbic acid , I will add my own or use a SD starter. Also Keith's best says it has other "enhancements" but does not say exactly what enhancements ? 

Next Steps

Use the flours in a  couple full complex breads with preferments

Try the Guistos 00 flour in my pizza oven compared to Caputo 00.