Pillsbury Bakery A Patent Flour

[daisy]

Tried to research the “A” in this flour. Could not find anything, can anyone tell me what the “A” stands for. Asked my supplier for a sample of another type & brand of flour, sent this as a replacement instead, said it was compatible to what I was wanting a sample of, because their shipment of the sample was not is stock yet

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Daisy;
I’ve checked all of my references but couldn’t find anything referencing Bakery A Patent Flour. Maybe it was a Bakery All-Purpose Flour? Patent is in reference to the type of flour. It is the most highly refined wheat flour (highest grade). Most bakery grade flours are referred to as Baker’s Patent Flour or Long Patent Flour. I’ll check further into this for you.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[daisy]

Thanks Tom, my original request from my supplier was suppose to be a bakery bread flour on their product match card I have for “flours” I was requesting a flour on their match “premium patent protein level 12.3%-12.9%” and they said the only match to that was the one I mentioned (Pillsbury Bakery A Patent) their match was their Sofo brand “Bellissimo Italian Bakery” at which they did not have in stock yet, it is suppose to be a new flour for them ??. As to my suprise when I opened the bag the flour did seem alot more refined grain than a sample bread flour that I picked up at our local Sams Club.

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

FYI…an interesting site for flour research…

http://www.professionalbakingsolutions. … p=Category

Is the link I believe for the flour under disussion…

I, too, once upon struggled with a flour selection…tried several, several times…

But once upon a time I sold food supplies, and all my busy bread bakers used All Trumps and cried when the price rose…

I stopped playing around and stayed with the All Trumps…

Plus, I don’t think the average customer can tell one way or the other…

Too often, restaurateurs get caught up in the minute details, whilst losing focus on the overall picture…I know I’ve been guilty of that many, many times…

A good product & a good experience are the desired end result…imho

 

[daisy]

Only reason trying to get the correct flour & protein level is for my square deep dish also known as “detroit style pizza” was told to acheive results as same was to use bread flour with protein level % of 12-12.8. Just experimenting with different brands of flour is get correct tecture

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Daisy;
You’re not going to see much, if any difference in preformance between any of the bag names I’ve listed, including the Bakery A Patent. But, with the lack of treatment, the Bakery A Patent flour could pose some problems with extended fermentation time or extended time in the cooler, as this is where things such as bromate and especially, ascorbic acid become beneficial. At lot will depend upon how you are amnaging your dough, and for how many days. I’ve got an e-mail out to my contact at G.M. to get additional information that I’ll share with you when I hear back.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[daisy]

Thanks Tom
I made a small 5lb batch yesterday with the “patent A flour”, weighed out ind. balls, put into pans, and let rise 1 hr, pushed back down to form into pans, let rise another 1hr to 1 1/2, par baked off them made a pizza this morning to taste, honestly it was suprisingly good, used 10oz for 8x10 pan got a 1 1/2 to 2 inch rise out of final product, was light airy not dense like the bread flour I tried at first, I used same measurements in both recipes and treated both the same as far as prep & baking, just really curious as to what the “A” stands for in the label. THANKS again & will hear back from you when you get an answer

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Daisy;
I got the word back from G.M. that Bakery A Patent flour has no treatment at all at the mill, hence it would be referred to as a “green” flour. In short, it is wheat that has been milled, with the bran separated out, and malt added, then bagged. The flour could potentially exhibit some issues with strength with extended fermentation time either at room temperature or under refrigeration. As a green flour you might also see some inconsistencies in performance until the flour gets some age (about 30-days) on it from the date of milling. Since this is a bagged flour, and it is going therough distribution channels, it might have 30-days of age or more on it by the time it gets to you so this might be a moot issue. Best to check the milling date which should be printed on the bag just to be sure. The Sperry Organic flour, or any other organic flour would probably be a pretty good match for it, plus you could also say “Made with organic flour”.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[daisy]

Thanks for that info Tom, very interesting to know that, like I had said this was just a replacement sample bag until my supplier gets their stock of “Italian Bakery” premium patent flour w/protein 12.3-12.9% in. Seems though that this Pillsbury flour would not be considered as a bakery bread flour, wonder how my supplier got that cross referenced as being the same or compatible, they must of just went off the fact that I told them I was looking for a certain protein level, all I do know is that they told me the protein level in the pillsbury was 12-12.2% & I had told them I want a flour with a protein level between 12% & 12.8%, this must have been the only thing they had that closely matched.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Daisy;
I would agree with you. Food vendors are just that, they sell food and restaurant supplies. Because they sell so many items they can’t be expected to know a lot about everything that they are selling, so they refer back to their cross reference charts to find a match for something, and in this case it was protein. Even with the information provided on the flour, it only references protein content and malt, very few suppliers would know that this might not be the best bread flour unless they had some experience with it from their accounts, so he is going only by the numbers provided to him. But now you know more of the story than you did earlier this morning. By the way, that goes for me too.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor