Disclaimer - Before we get into the test, it's worth mentioning that we are not connected with any flour vendor mentioned on this web site. We can't tell you where to find any of these flours outside our own home town, and we have no idea why the vendor discontinued your favorite flour, or why your favorite recipe is no longer on the back of the package. And now... here's the review of this flour.....

Where we bought it: At Rocky Mountain Milling's plant in Platteville, Colorado

What we paid for it: About $25.00 for 50 pounds

Protein content: 11.6% (I think)

Interesting Vendor Story: Rocky Mountain Milling only deals in organic flour, and many commercial bakers love it. I tried this flour, and felt it was great. However, the question is... is it THAT good?

Since we purchased our Alpine flour, Rocky Mountain Milling has discontinued this flour. They suggest the use of their Timberline flour instead. We have also used Timberline and feel that they are very similar. Rocky Mountain milling says that Timberline is "An old world style, high mineral, organic wheat flour specially milled from a blend of hard red spring and winter wheats; uniquely crafted for artisan breads; also effective for creating and feeding your levain-chef (natural fermentation)."

Our first impressions : This is a nice handling flour.

Any special reason we're testing this flour: Because we liked it in the past, and we want to see how good it really is, compared to other flours.

How'd we screw up the tests this time? It was NOT a good day. We made the doughs too dry so they didn't rise as well as they should have. And then after our tasting, we lost the tasting notes. We're going to re-run the tests. *sigh* We have some pictures, and some general notes.

Conclusions: We need to re-run this test. Sorry....

The Breads

Bohemian Rye The Bohemian Rye was too dry. We should have added more water. The taste of the bread was OK, but not especially memorable.

Ciabatta is a favorite bread. This bread was uncharacteristically heavy. Despite this, the bread tasted was OK, but not very tasty. It is not as open a crumb as typical... but that is due, at least in part, to the fact the dough was too dry.

Sourdough Pan Bread - A celebration of sour, often at the expense of other flavors is what I usually expect from this bread. This bread had a nice crust and crumb, but wasn't truly memorable.

Three stage French bread more than most of the breads in this group suffered from being too dry. This led to the bread being quite tasteless.

Hydration Pictures As discussed, we took pictures at 60, 80, and 100% hydration. {Stuff about this flour}

Rocky Mountain Milling Alpine Flour at 100% hydration

Rocky Mountain Milling Alpine Flour at 80% Hydration

Rocky Mountain Milling Alpine Flour at 60% hydration