Strong Flour!

Yeah, I don't want any of that weak shit.  -no flaccid baguettes, here, I tell ya!

Honestly, I had no idea what "strong" could refer to within the realm of baking, when we bought a package of it in order to bake baguettes.

The other day in the supermarket, I pestered Eric, naturally shy, to ask another shopper if she could explain what "strong", when pertaining to flour, meant.  She turned around and in her best American East Coast accent said, "I don't know.  I'm not from here."  #fail

Recently, the bf sussed it out without the aid of Wikipedia, might I add.  This is it: strong=more gluten/protein=lighter, airier bread.

This ain't no "sissy" flour.

The bf and I have made two separate batches of some no-too-bad baguettes with our strong flour.  All have been fairly tasty, if not, however, the best baguettes ever baked.  The problem is that they lack the many air bubbles that make baguettes light and airy.  Our last round saw, maybe, the best two baguettes yet.  They had slightly more air bubbles than the rest and seemed to be less "doughy".  -not that the others were raw, but these seemed better baked somehow.  (You can tell I'm not a baker, probably, huh?)

Our next step is to take the sourdough starter we've been cultivating in our upstairs bedroom for the past three days and use it to make some bitchin' sourdough a la Greenwich.  It may not compare with Boudin's or, the now defunct Parisian brand, but it could have its merits.  We will peel off the crusty, outer-layer tomorrow, and, with our strong flour, make some bad-ass, muscled-up sourdough, English-style!  Or, we'll utterly fail, and try again.

This is the brand we grew up eating back in the 70s.  -sad loss for Bay Area folk.

Apparently, Parisian supplied the fancy, veggie restaurant, Greens http://www.greensrestaurant.com/, with sourdough until its closing in 2005.  Who does now?  Colombo?  Boudin's?  Some new(ish) whipper-snapper like Acme, or Arizmendi?