FUll Strength Vs Superlative

[SoulButter]

What is the difference between these?

 

[pizzasean]

Hi SoulButter,

I believe these are essentially the same flour but I think the Full Strength name is more common on the east coast. Out on the west coast you can find Superlative in my experience.

If you google “full strength flour data sheet” and “superlative flour data sheet” you’ll be able to compare the technical info on these flours and see that they’re very similar or exactly similar.

Hope this helps!

 

[smiling_with_hope]

Full strength is bromated and superlative is not as you can’t get bromated flour out west.

 

[pizzasean]

I defer to Walter’s experience - I suspect that in practice you’ll mostly see bromated Full Strength and unbromated Superlative flours and that might be a handy reference.

But it should be noted that General Mills does make an unbromated Full Strength as well as a bromated Superlative. These products may not be widely available or popular in certain markets, but are all on the general mills site.

 

[Steve]

I’m getting a bag of full strength today, we usually use all trumps, unbleached, u bromated. Mix for 11 minutes. Do I need to alter my recipe at all for full strength? Looks like from their site I need to possibly mix another 1-3 minutes

 

[clownhair]

out of curiosity why are you going from all trumps to full strength? Your using a spiral mixer right? Is that 11 minutes just on speed 1 or is that in total between the two speeds?

 

[Steve]

Looking at their flour chart, it says All Trumps is for a thin crust pizza. Full strength says it’s for a thick crust. Trying to get the best rise possible. Spiral mixer speed 1 2.5 minutes, speed 2 for 8 minutes. 30 seconds in reverse before speed 1 to incorporate ingredients

 

[clownhair]

I don’t have the pedigree of some in regards to flour and dough etc… but I have done a massive ammount of experiments with all sorts of different flours and really never found a need to change the mix time. The difference in those flours I believe is mostly in the protein content which means the full strength should produce a less chewy dough.

 

[Steve]

I’m going to give it a try with all my normal mixing times and recipe and see how it goes.

 

[clownhair]

Please share your impression on the difference between the two when you get a chance.

 

[Steve]

I will. I didn’t end up doing the batch yesterday, my dough was a little far ahead of what we needed. We did the batch this morning and it seemed a little softer but I’ll let you know in two days when it’s proofed

 

[clownhair]

Did you have any impression from the full strength dough? BTW do you find your spiral adds a significant amount of heat to your dough? I have a mecnosud spiral and it mixes super well but does add a decent amount of heat.

 

[Steve]

First bag went well, but I ordered some more to see how it holds up for days 4, 5, and 6 if for some reason it goes that far out. Ended up gone after day 3. Seemed like it had a good rise, at least equivalent to the all trumps. But it seemed to have a better crust with a fluffy inside, which you were right about, less chewy. I’d say our finished dough temp after mix is about 80 degrees. It’s hard to say because we do add ice to water to help keep the temp down but we did this back with a planetary as well. I’ll let you know how the next few bags go