Where we bought it: The Super Wal-Mart in Salida, Colorado

What we paid for it: Around $5.00 for 10 pounds of flour

Protein content: a rather high 15%

Interesting Vendor Story: Wheat Montana is a family owned business that prides themselves on producing a quality product. They also own bakeries, so they know what bakers want.

Wheat Montana says this about Prairie Gold: "This flour, ground from our Prairie Gold wheat, is so versatile it can be substituted for white flour in most recipes. 100% whole wheat flour. Chemical Free."

Our first impressions : This flour is sealed in a plastic bag to keep it clean and pure. A twist tie is included so you can re-seal the bag. We wish more flours were packaged this way.

The flour had a very distinct golden color - perhaps that's where it gets its name.

The doughs this flour creates are dryer than those made with many other flours. In every recipe we wound up adding anywhere from 1/2 to 1 cup of water to get a dough that was as liquid as it should be. This was even true when we measured the flour by weight in the Three Stage French Bread recipe.

Any special reason we're testing this flour: Wheat Montana's Prairie Gold Whole Wheat Flour has been much talked about in different baking newsgroups. We're told it's the whole wheat flour for people who don't like whole wheat flour. It has enough protein to make you able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, and surely, it's the flour that Garrison Keillor's semi-mythical "Powdermilk Biscuits" are made from.

How'd we screw up the tests this time? Because this was our first flour test, we messed up, and we didn't test all four bread recipes with this flour - we managed to skip testing the Simple Sourdough Pan Bread. We have more on hand and we'll perform that test soon.

The Breads

Bohemian Rye The Bohemian Rye was quite overwhelmed by the whole wheat taste of the Wheat Montana Prairie Gold. The rye and caraway tastes were very much in the background. We added about 1/2 cup of water to this recipe to get the hydration where we wanted it. The bread had a very nice tight crumb, good crust. It was a nice bread, but it was more a whole wheat than a rye bread.

Ciabatta is a favorite bread. It should be light, have nice big holes, and absorb 23 times its weight in oil. We added about 1/2 cup more water than the recipe called for to get the hydration where we wanted it. The taste of the bread was delightful, it had a wonderful crumb, it tore easily, and was wonderful with flavored olive oil. The only drawback was the bread didn't have the big holes were hoping for.

Simple Sourdough Pan Bread - Sorry, we didn't have our checklist ready, so we forgot to make this bread. We will be re-testing Wheat Montana's Prairie Gold and we won't forget next time.

Three stage French bread should be a dense flavorful loaf, with a rich complex flavor. We really liked this bread, although we had to add about a cup more water than the recipe called for. The bread had a great crust and crumb. The flour was a nice compromise between white flour and "real" whole wheat flour.

Hydration Pictures As discussed, we took pictures at 60, 80, and 100% hydration. The mixture was felt and handled like a dryer dough than the numbers would indicate.

Wheat Montana Prairie Gold at 100% hydration

Wheat Montana Prairie Gold at 80% Hydration

Wheat Montana Prairie Gold at 60% hydration