On 24 Jun 2002 at 11:29, "Shirley Lipscomb"
<shirleyflipscomb@msn.com> wrote:
> I have just returned from a week long cooking class in Tuscany. It
> was a wonderful experience and the instructor was a great baker. We
> made a yeast dough daily using a variety of flours. One flour in
> particular was a flour with two 00 (zeros) and I have been unable to
> find it here. Does anyone know a source in the San Francisco bay area
> where I might be able to purchase Italian flour?
Not quite... however, there is an excellent article at The Artisan about
different flours, check out
http://www.theartisan.net/Flours_One.htm
Here's a comment from a recent discussion in alt.bread.recipes, a usenet
news group:
"According to Carol Field in 'The Italian Baker,'
'The Italian baker had five grades of grano tereno to choose from, although
they are classified not by strength and protein content like ours but by
how much of the husk and whole grain have been sifted away. The whitest
flour has the least fiber; the lower the number, the more refined and
whiter the flour, so that of the five categories, "00" is the whitest and
silkiest flour, "0" a bit darker and less fine, since it contains about 70
percent of the grain, "1" even darker; "2", darker and coarser yet yet, has
almost disapeared from Italy. Integrale, ... contains the whole wheat
berry...'
'If you were intent on reproducing Italian "00" flour, you could mix one
part pastry flour with three parts all-purpose, to make "0" flour, mix one
part cake flour with four parts all-purpose.'
'She says of bread flour, "Please do not substitute (bread flour) for
all-putpose flour, even if you are tempted by the promise of its more
expansive doughs, because it is much too powerful for traditional Italian
breads.'
"This book was published in 1985, so things may have changed a bit, but
probably not that much."
Hope this helps,
Mike
--
Mike Avery
MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com