Pendleton Flour Mills Technical Information Booklet

[tinroofrusted]

I was at Restaurant Depot yesterday and noticed they have several different types of flour from Pendleton Flour Mills, which (strangely, based on the name) is based in Chatanooga TN.  I gather they bought a mill in Pendleton, Oregon.  Anyway, I visited the PFM website today and found a really interesting PDF booklet that has lots of information about wheat, flour milling, pizza making, etc.  I think that people who read this site would almost universally find this booklet interesting.  I'm attaching a couple of screen shots that you might find interesting. 

Has anyone tried out the PFM flours, and if so, how did you like them.  Their Mondako and Power (High Gluten) flours are said to work well for pizza.  

I don't think I have authorization to post link to other sites, so I made a tinyurl for it:
In your browser type in tinyurl.com/pfmbooklet and it will take you there.  


Best regards,

Tin Roof

[jrovito]

They sell Pendleton at our local Cash N Carry, and coincidentally, I bought a 50#bag of the Power High Gluten Flour and a 42# bag of their Special Pizza Blend on the way home from work yesterday. I made a 6# batch of cold fermented NY Style dough (15 oz balls) of each flour types last night, and baked 4 x 13-14" pies tonight. (I stumbled across the .pdf you linked to last night as well.)

The two different flours handled about the same, but the difference in the pizza was startling.

High Gluten produced a light, airy, but chewy texture. Special Pizza did not oven rise nearly as much, and yielded a thin, homogeneous, foldable, authentic crust.

One of the balls that I started working about 30 minutes out of the fridge was lumpy and unmanageable, and it stretched poorly an non-uniformly. That same batch, with an extra 15 minutes out of the fridge, stretched wonderfully to 14" and made a tremendous NY thin crust replica.

I highly recommend side by side experiments were only one variable is changed.

[tinroofrusted]

So which one did you prefer, between the two?  I'd love to try them both but it would take me a year to use up that much flour.

Regards,

TinRoof

[jrovito]

Yeah, I know. It was hard for me to leave the store with 92 lbs of flour ... but think of it another way.
You could always give or sell half or more of the flour to a fellow pizza aficianado.
Flour is dirt cheap. Even if I dump half of it in the trash in six months, it will have served its purpose.

Here is what I learned:

I've got to knock the yeast down to 0.25% because by the first day in the fridge, the "Pizza Blend" was starting to blown, and by the second day they were both blown.
Or try a different fridge - my beer fridge, where I retarded, is kept at 38 vs. 33 or 34 for a normal fridge.

The "Pizza Blend" made a much more authentic NY Thin crust.
The "Power High Gluten" was lighter and airier - and even though it was formed to the same size disk, rose more in the oven and ended up like a sicilian style "pizza bread"

I tried the High gluten on some calzones and dinner rolls, I thought it was perfect. I may try to make bagels.

Finally, I learned from Pendleton's regional sales director that their "Pizza Blend" is merely the Mondako http://www.pfmills.com/mondako-flour-products-2.php flour packaged in a 42/lb bag.

[TomN]

I live near a Costco Business Delivery Center and they are currently stock the Pendleton Flours, both MONDAKO and POWER. They also have a full line of Stanislaus Products, San Benito, Angela Mia, Bonta, and Escalan /Bella Rosa pizza sauce. You can see if they have a Business Center near you.

http://www.costco.com/Common/Search.aspx?Browse=1&whse=BD_767&topnav=bdoff&search=pendleton&N=0&Ntt=pendleton&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US

http://www.costco.com/Common/Search.aspx?whse=BD_115&topnav=bd&search=pizza%20sauce&N=0&Ntt=pizza%20sauce&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US