Dextrinizing flour

[pufin3]

I've recently started making fresh pasta/ramen noodles using a pasta machine.

Lots of recipes out there.

I always use 'dextrinized' AP flour to make rouxs. The result is a very smooth silky sauce/gravy.

I just made spaghetti using Thomas Keller's recipe using dextrinized AP flour. The result was excellent.

Has anyone experimented using various flours which you have dextrinized first? Like 'bread flour' for instance? Or Durum Semolina?

 

[Deryn]

Do you mean you just browned the flour before using it in your recipe? How? In the oven on a baking sheet for how long? Or in a pan on the stove top to what degree of brown-ness? I had never heard that term 'dextrinized' before (thanks .. learned something new! though I am sure it is something I 'should' have already known) but I guess that when I pre-baked the baking soda for ramen noodles that is exactly what I did. Didn't do the flour too though.  

[Lisa Shock]

Dorie Greenspan had a shortbread recipe on her blog a while back that was very good. I keep meaning to roast more flour and test it in various recipes and I keep forgetting!

[cakewalk]

I have a couple of recipes that call for toasting the flour before using it, but it's done on the stove top rather than in the oven. They're both for Arab ghoryebeh (sp) type cookies, and both from the same book. I had never heard of this before, and I've never seen another recipe that does this. Nice to know there's a name for the process. The cookies are great, although I suspect that a cup and a half of toasted ground sesame seeds adds something to the flavor in addition to that toasted flour.  I've never tried toasting the flour in a recipe that didn't call for it, just to see what the flavor difference would be. But it's an idea ...

[pufin3]

Thanks for the replies.

I put 6 C AP flour in a large glass lasagna dish and put it in the oven set at 200 F for an hour.

The flour did not 'brown'. It turned very slightly a light golden color.

Barely different from the flour color in the bag.

Today I'm dextrinizing 6 C 'bread flour' and will make Italian spaghetti tonight.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

[andiesenji]

I've used "toasted" flour for decades, for rustic breads - for ryes and seeded breads.  For oatmeal breads I toast the oatmeal too.

I generally use up to half toasted flour and half "raw" bread flour.  Occasionally I use 2/3 toasted and 1/3 raw.

You do have to add some vital wheat gluten - if you are using all toasted because the heating will degrade the gluten and the crumb will be too tight and crumbly.

 

It works really well with high hydration and with extended fermentation in the fridge doughs. 

 

I toast it in a large skillet - stirring constantly with a wooden "spatula" with a broad, flat end.   I keep a spoon full of the raw flour next to the skillet to check the degree of toasting - I aim for an old ivory shade or ecru.  

 

I also toss in a couple of tablespoons of diastatic malt powder for each pound of flour after toasting.  This will counter the slight bitterness that develops along with the toasty flavor.  

 

If I am planning to use several whole grains - wheat, barley, spelt, etc., along with seeds ..  I toast the whole grains and then grind them in the Nutrimill.  Then I mix in some raw bread flour - you can use all purpose but as I buy a lot of bread flour, I usually have more of that.  

 

I have tinkered around with toasting soft wheat flour - Odlums cream flour - and Odlums wholemeal flour to make some of the "wholemeal biscuits"  (a cake-like cookie)  made with lard and which specified toasting the flour in the original recipe given to me.  

One recipe called these "lardy cakes" and now that I am trying to locate the recipe, can't find it.  

One of the baking journal sites discusses roasting flour for baking but I have been unsuccessful in finding that also.  I have thousands of bookmarks and right now the "search" function is letting me down.  

More later.