Adventures with flour

[ksmith]

Since the Palmer House Brownie Debacle of a year or so ago--I used regular all-purpose flour instead of cake flour and wound up with fudge soup that bubbled out of the pan and all over the inside of the oven--I've been on the lookout for various types of flour, and buying them Just In Case.

Problem is, I buy the flour, then forget I have it. I cleaned out cupboards today, and found half a box of cake flour, a small unopened bag of pastry flour, and some whole wheat flour. The cake flour was within expiration dating, but the whole wheat and pastry flours were past it. I didn't want to dump them, so I decided to experiment. I made my usual banana bread, but instead of 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, I used a cup of pastry flour and a half cup of whole wheat. Just to see what would happen.

It was interesting. The batter was much lighter. The bread baked in a little less time, maybe ten minutes. The crumb was much smaller and lighter, and the bread was much more like a cake. I wonder how much lighter it would have been if I had used 100% pastry flour?

I bought the Constantine DVD months ago, and finally watched it tonight. Watched the credits right to the end, and caught a final scene that has always been chopped when the movie runs on AMC. Not a vital scene, but something that was nice to know.

I also watched the outtakes with the director's commentary, in which he explained why the scenes were cut. One actress had 99% of her part excised in order to set up John Constantine's character differently. The other scenes were cut because they slowed down the story too much and the info they conveyed had already been given out in other scenes. It was...educational. A point that bears repeating. It's the story, not the scenes.

In other news, the day was hot and very muggy, and no condensation collected on the ceiling thanks to my ceiling fan. *w00t!*

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Hurray for the ceiling fan's effect on condensation.

Hurray for the experimentation with flour. Whole grain flours are the only ones I worry about with aging (apart from flour weevils getting into any flour and making it their happy home.) The white flours have had the bits with natural oils removed, so there's nothing to "spoil."

Aged whole wheat flour, though...easy to tell when it's gone "off"--it starts smelling stronger. It keeps for years in the freezer (dry cold doesn't bother it)--I used to keep five-pound sacks of it (when I couldn't find a source for bulk) in the freezer and pull out one sack at a time. If you have a sack go south on you, take it out to the garden and mix in with a high-nitrogen fertilizer and then the soil, or sprinkle and mix with your compost pile if you have one.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I smelled the flour, and it smelled OK. It was in a cool dry place. I should smell it again and make sure. I would have expected an unpleasant smell, like rancidity or mustiness.

Very happy about this ceiling fan. It means I can delay the roofing vent expenditure for a month or two.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

If your banana bread turned out OK--and it did--then the flour's fine. The problem with it is not that it'll make you sick but the bread will smell and taste less than great (how much less depends on how bad the flour is.) I found a glass jar I knew existed "somewhere" finally, and had to throw out its contents--I knew, as I was looking, that it must be nearing its demise, and sure enough it was.

And you're in a much cooler climate--I expect you can get months more shelf-life out of a sack of whole wheat flour than I can. I store whole wheat only in the air-conditioned part of the house now. In the kind of heat we've had, it will go off much, much faster.

The sniff test is infallible...it should smell the way it did when you first opened it. It's a little stronger smell than white flour, a tiny bit of sweet nuttiness (which comes from the fresh oil, as in a nut). As a test case, you can put a cup of it into a jam-jar with a lid, leave it a year or two and then smell it. It's not a sickening smell, even when it's gone--it's a strong oily smell, though, and not what you want your bread smelling or tasting like.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I would have also thought that if the flour had gone off, anything baked with it wouldn't come out right, and it would taste off. But maybe I'm wrong...

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Yup. Exactly right. But then it's a waste of the other ingredients, too. So if I haven't baked with it in a month, I always give the flour the sniff test first.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I sniffed it again, to make sure. There's barely any smell at all. A good thing, given that the Use By date on the bag is, *sniff*, Sept08.

Now, I have learned the hard way that I really need to start checking the dates of things. Every grocery store I have visited, regardless of the chain involved, has had stuff on the shelves that is out of date. Sometimes, waaaay out of date.

But I fear this one may be mine. I buy the stuff, and then the time just flies so fast.

I need to start baking bread, or something.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

But see, it's still good. As long as you don't sit it out on the deck in 90F humid air, it'll be good for awhile longer (though I wouldn't push it too far. Stick it in the freezer or bake something with it.)