Grains
WE ARE CHEFS AND BAKERS WHO OPENED A MILL TO MAKE THE BEST PRODUCT POSSIBLE.
As a chef-inspired brand, you can taste our obsession with flavor, quality, and performance. We select which varieties of wheat to plant and curate our blends with the same care as a vintner making wine.
Flavor
Like all plants, wheat tastes different depending on the varietal, the region, and the soil in which it's grown. Each of our grains have tasting notes influenced by their type and origin, imbuing even the most humble pastas and breads with complexity and elevated flavor.
performance
We seek to elevate a chef’s craft and to inspire a baker’s moving meditation. Everything we mill is rigorously tested by our chefs in our kitchens first. We’re not just bakers, we’re chefs. We push our grains as far as they will go so you have the confidence to innovate in your kitchen.
process
As has been done since the start of civilization, we mill our grains on a stonemill. Our American made, hand-dressed granite stonemill keeps the grain cool preserving nutrients, flavor, and character. This simplified approach produces a fine flour with minimal processing, yielding nutrient-dense whole foods.
ORIGIN
Our grain is sourced from farmers dedicated to sustainable practices of the highest caliber. Each variety of grain we mill into flour, seeks to tell the story of a place and time, bringing a much needed perspective to such a simple ingredient. Preserving the integrity of the grain is tangent to quality.
GRAIN GLOSSARY
Ash: The amount of the bran and germ present in the flour, as a percentage. Type 00 flour is generally 0.5-0.65% whereas the flours we produce contain anywhere from 1.2-1.4% generally, and whole wheat flour up to 2.4%.
Bran: The outermost layer of a wheat berry, containing flavor, digestible fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Germ: The embryo of the wheat berry, containing essential minerals, fats, and vitamins for the growth of the plant. Retaining the germ develops of a more nutritious flour.
Falling Number: The enzymatic activity of the flour. Represented as a time in seconds, flour is mixed into a slurry and kept at a specific temperature to instigate enzymatic reactions, such as protease. As enzymes digest the flour slurry, the viscosity thins and a rod will “fall” to the base of the container. A higher falling number suggests lower enzymatic activity, as it takes longer for enzymes to act.
Extraction: Expressed as a percentage, the amount of the wheat retained during milling. 100% extraction is whole wheat flour, whereas anything less would indicate sifting. Our flours are not conditioned, and our extraction is between 80-85% ideally for our sifted flours.
Protein: The relative amount of structural proteins present in the wheat. More of a measurement of Nitrogen, and doesn’t often indicate protein quality. Compositionally, proteins change depending on climate and variety, but as a general rule, higher protein percentages tend to withstand enzymatic action longer than lower protein percentages.
Wheat Berry: The seed of a wheat plant. It is milled finely to make flour, sprouted to make wheatgrass, or coarsely ground to make bulgur or porridges.
grain
index
Every variety is unique.
rouge de bordeaux
CLASS: Red Spring Wheat
FARMER: Michael and Sarah Jones, Jones Farm Organics in Hooper, Colorado
PROTEIN: 11.7%
FALLING #: 352
EXTRACTION: 80-85%
IDEAL USES: Cakes, Muffins, Enriched Breads, Pan Doughs, Banana Bread, Cookies
CONTENT: 100% Stone Milled Whole Wheat Flour
ABOUT: Our variety is a deep, red-hued wheat, and mills into a deliciously nutty flour, mild in tannins but full in aromatic volatiles and proteins beneficial for full-flavored baked goods. Our bakers love the color it brings to their breads.
White sonora
CLASS: Soft White Winter Wheat
FARMER: Michael and Sarah Jones, Jones Farm Organics in Hooper, Colorado
PROTEIN: 11.2%
FALLING #: 406
EXTRACTION: 100%
IDEAL USES: Cookies, Pastry, Muffins, Tortillas, Pasta
CONTENT: 100% Stone Milled Whole Wheat Flour
ABOUT: Sonora Wheat was the first wheat grown in the US, brought north from Mexico, gaining popularity as the original Flour Tortilla wheat. Generally a more brittle protein composition, with a buttery and mild flavor. Works wonderfully for tortillas and pastas, Sonora also finds a use in making breads and baked goods more tender.
Yecora rojo
CLASS: Hard Red Spring Wheat
FARMER: Dave Asbury
PROTEIN: 15%
EXTRACTION: 80-85%
IDEAL USES: Artisan Bread, Laminated Dough, Bagels, Brioche/Egg-Enriched Doughs
CONTENT: 100% Stone Milled Whole Wheat Flour
ABOUT: An early “modern” wheat, developed at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Yecora Rojo is a favorite flour of ours. High functionality allows Yecora to be used in a range of applications. It has a chewier texture with a nutty flavor, and a bit more complexity than more modernized wheats.
RYMAN RYE
CLASS: Rye
FARMER: Michael and Sarah Jones, Jones Farm Organics in Hooper, Colorado
PROTEIN: 9.5%
EXTRACTION: 100%
IDEAL USES: Rye Bread, Cookies, Pastries, Fermentation
ABOUT: This modern rye variety is mainly used agriculturally for forage, and fall/winter erosion control. The Jones utilize this rye as part of their regenerative cycle. Adds microbial diversity to doughs to boost fermentation, contributing fruity notes of plum and baking into an aromatic warm caramel.
Spelt
CLASS: Spelt
FARMER: Neolithic Grains, Wyoming
PROTEIN: 14.6%
FALLING #: n/a
EXTRACTION: 100%
IDEAL USES: Flavor Booster, Spelt bread, Pretzels, Cookies, Croissants, Pastries
CONTENT: 100% Stone Milled Whole Wheat Flour
ABOUT: Spelt is an older variety of cereal grain, identified by the attached hull on the grain that remains after harvest (wheat loses its hulls when mature). Introduced to the United States in 1890’s, it was originally cultivated in what is now Iran and possibly simultaneously in southeastern Europe. It was a staple of its day and is one of the very first wheats used to make bread. Different structural proteins but greater amounts of proteins in general; adds extensibility when blended with strong wheats. Tender but sufficiently strong in pastry applications. Ours has this incredible flavor, reminiscent of peaches and pizza when being milled. Noticeably nutty even in small amounts.
LANGIN
CLASS: Hard Red Winter Wheat
FARMER: Bryce Hediger, Golden Prairie Farms
PROTEIN: 15%
EXTRACTION: 80-85%
IDEAL USES: “All-purpose”, Artisan Bread, Laminated Dough, Pasta, Brioche/Egg-Enriched Doughs, Cookies, anything flour can be used for.
CONTENT: 100% Stone Milled Whole Wheat Flour
ABOUT: A hard red winter wheat grown in Northern Colorado by the Hediger Family. Golden Prairie Farm prides itself on the values it carries regarding sustainability, product integrity, and agricultural methods. Langin is a dryland wheat, meaning only water from the weather goes into the crop each year. Methods are applied in order to retain the greatest amount of topsoil, an integral component that aids in retaining water for the longest possible period of time. Langin is a wheat that exemplifies what expertise and dedication from a brilliant farmer can create. Flavor is mild but delicious, best described as adding complexity to whatever it finds itself in. Utilize in any recipe 1:1 for white flour, increasing hydration by 5% or as needed.
FUNCTIONAL
CONTENTS: Central Milling Special Blend
PROTEIN: 11.7%
ASH: 0.65%
IDEAL USES: Cookies, breads, crusts, pizzas, pancakes, and pastas
ABOUT: Our functional flour is a white flour provided to us from Central Milling. Our mills are unable to produce a low ash content flour like this one. The Functional flour is meant to aid in working with our stone-milled flours, which behave differently than traditional white flour.