Organic Artisan Blend Flour

Listen up. If you want to make good sourdough, you need water, starter, salt and good flour, right? You're on your own when it comes to starters and water and salt, but you've come to the right place for good flour.

I started making sourdough some years back using a starter I spent months coaxing along and a good high-protein flour available in groceries everywhere. It took a while, but the day came when I opened my oven door and found inside not another dead-as-a-doornail lump of hardened play dough instead a loaf of real sourdough -- the work of my own hands!

I bake every other week these days, but truth be told, my bread is good but boring. What to do? I bought a bag of Janie's Mill light rye and began salting it into my dough. That helped, so I decided to try Janie's high-protein and artisan flours, mixing 60 percent high-protein, 35 percent artisan, 5 percent light rye, and a spoonful of diastatic malt powder.

The result? I baked this morning and, worrying that I might not have the proportions right, asked my wife whether she smelled too much rye. "No," she said. "It smells like good sourdough."

There you have it, folks. If you want good sourdough, this is where you get really, really good flour.

I haven’t baked with it, I used it for my first sourdough starter and it seems to be thriving

This is the best flour for bread I've ever baked with. I grind my own flour as well, but the loaves never turn out as well as when I use this. The 90% extraction is a perfect compromise between maximizing whole wheat yet still getting a soft crumb and nice rise, and the beautiful fine grind on this flour helps with that as well.

I wanted to start baking healthy homemade bread instead of buying overpriced unhealthy bread from the store. By accident I found Janie's mill on my Facebook thread. I drove from Kankakee to pick some up. It did not disappoint. I will be buying more. I'm also excited to be supporting an local Illinois business.

So yummy. Used it with HP to make herbed focaccia. Also used it to make an artisan bread that ferments for 24hrs. Tasted as close to sourdough as you can get without making actual sourdough. Chewy texture! Love it! One of my new favorites.