Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Baking with Ralph's

Last couple of weeks Surfa's has been out of pizza flour, so I've been baking with the next best thing: Ralph's Bead Flour.  At $2.99 for 5 pounds, you can't beat the price.  True, it doesn't have the elasticity and extendability of the Giusto's flour that I prefer, but it's much better than any other brand-name bread flour I've ever tried.

In fact, I'm eating some leftover Ralph's-crust pizza right now; the crust is slightly chewy, but a bit heavier than the Giusto's-flour crust, but the color is wonderful and the flavor is pretty good, too! 

It seems that crusts made with the Ralph's flour benefit from extra-long, retarded ferments. My latest batch was (accidentally on purpose) refrigerated overnight due to a last minute baking-related schedule change.  It also seems to handle heavy toppings very well.

Give it a try if you can.