As professional bakers, you know your flours. How much thought do you give to the farmers, fields and mills that produce them?

Farmer-Miller-Baker Summit Edmonton, hosted by the Baking Association of Canada June 17 at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, provided a rare time and place for professionals who are different links in the supply chain to bake, learn and get to know one another by sharing their unique but compatible perspectives.

The scent of freshly baked bread and the sight of a table laden with eye-catching and innovative strawberry-striped and cream-filled croissants, potato-flour cinnamon rolls and other delights greeted the highly motivated group of farmers, millers, bakers and baking students.

Alan Dumonceaux, baker of the morning’s delicious pastries, led a comprehensive hands-on demonstration that taught participants about flavours developed from preferments, including pain meunier, which translates to bread for the miller; whole-grain pizza dough; whole-grain sourdough; and sprouted grain.

Dumonceaux, academic chair of both the baking and pastry arts program at NAIT and the BAC’s education committee ­– not to mention a coach and World Skills Expert in sourdough for Skills Canada – prepared four types of yeasted preferments (biga, sponge, poolish and prefermented dough) and two non-yeasted preferments (stiff levain and liquid levain). Over two-and-a-half hours, he taught participants about the characteristics of the different preferments and how to incorporate them into their baking to add the flavour and nutrition many of your bakery’s customers are looking for.

This seemed to be the biggest takeaway for several participants – that even a small amount of preferment can add a lot of flavour and nutrition to any dough.

Dumonceaux invited participants to touch the preferments and then set to work folding, stretching and shaping a variety of doughs, including pain meunier, which incorporates all parts of the wheat kernel, including the bran, germ, and endosperm, into the dough.

Experienced bakers worked alongside the less experienced, providing advice, encouragement and having a few laughs along the way. “Elbows out,” Dumonceaux advised as the diverse baking class folded their doughs, which were made using freshly milled flour provided by Gold Forest Grains and Midmore Farms. Many participants wore wide smiles as they worked with the doughs.

Participants labelled their doughs and Dumonceaux called up each person to score their doughs and watch as they went into a large Bongard oven with a hand-cranked system that lowered and raised the platform of bread doughs to align with each of its multiple decks.

The excitement was palpable and the scent aromatic as Dumonceaux and his hardworking team of students brought finished breads out and shelved them to cool, later to be presented to participants to take home.

Pizza party

Some of that dough Dumonceaux transported to the culinary department’s kitchen, like the Pied Piper leading the bakers on a 10-minute walk. In the kitchen, bakers took turns stretching and topping their pizzas then watching them bake in the high-temperature dome oven as the instructor monitored, turned and pulled them out using a long pizza paddle.

Participants chatted while enjoying their pizza – some we heard declare it the best pizza they’d ever had – and, understandably, lunch went a bit longer than expected.

Identifying and acting on consumer trends

Reid McEachran, associate marketing director at Ardent Mills, discussed three of five broad trends driving customer purchases as laid out in the flour company’s Trend to Table report.

Heritage is hero: McEachran said many consumers are eager to explore new cultures through flavours and formats. We see this trend in fusion food and different ethnic cuisines, for example, latino and hispanic) and examples include Moroccan potato chips and Subway now selling toppings associated with diverse cultures. Expanding your menu is an opportunity to reach those customers, he said. “If you’re not offering diverse options on your menu, you may be missing out.”

McEachran said more than half of Canadians agree it’s healthy to eat grain-based foods. Forty per cent plan to eat more grain products. “We can all play a role in bringing this statistic to life,” McEachran told the roomful of professional bakers, baking instructors, students, farmers and millers.

The report identified the trend of not removing ingredients but adding value to your products, referred to as “adding with intent.” This might mean adding ingredients to improve gut health or to meet a GLP-1 diet and sprouted powder is an example of this trend.

“Desire to do good” is about environmental social governance, or ESG, and encompasses organic and regenerative farming. A lot of people are starting to pay attention to the sustainability of businesses they support, McEachran said. He pointed out the different ways businesses talk about their sustainability: CO2 equivalence, carbon-zero operations and products and Certified B Corp status. Businesses such as bakeries and suppliers to the trade can help customers understand these terms and what they mean, thereby helping them decide where to spend their dollars.

Trend to Table is available to download from Ardent Mills’ website.

Can we produce clean-label bread? Sourdough research from U of Alberta

Dr. Michael Gänzle, professor and Canada Research Chair in food microbiology and probiotics at the University of Alberta, explored a question of great interest to bakeries of all sizes regarding sourdough fermentation and bread quality: Can we produce clean-label bread?

Dr. Gänzle said the term “sourdough” means different things to different people. “Today, we are concerned with producing a great loaf of sourdough that has a reasonable shelf life,” he explained, noting that manufacturers need about a three-week shelf life when shipping across Canada.

The food scientist’s presentation emphasized that over the centuries, sourdough has been used for leavening, acidification and, in today’s knowledge economy, to help with cost reduction, bread quality and product diversification.

Following a discussion that took us through the purposes of and potential ways fermentation and even such methods as the increased use of water can replace long lists of additives including enzymes, vitamins, oxidation control, sugars, gluten functionality, leavening agents, oxidizing agents, acidulants, preservatives, hydrocolloids and emulsifiers, Dr. Gänzle concluded we are getting to the ideal of clean-label slowly, but the products likely will look and taste different from the standard sliced pan bread.

His detailed but accessible presentation showed how one solution sometimes leads to another problem that needs solving, in the following example, oxidation: “In Canada, the wheat germ, which includes most lipids and vitamins is removed even for whole-wheat flour. Enrichment of white wheat flour with vitamins is mandatory. This problem is solved by using whole-wheat flour including the germ, but lipids in the germ are prone to oxidation.”

Dr. Gänzle and his team’s highly interesting research will be published soon through the U of Alberta. You can follow his research and get in touch through his page on the U of Alberta website.

Cereals Canada

Krista Zuzak, director of crop protection and production with Cereals Canada, summarized the role and activities of the national, not-for-profit industry association that may be of special interest to the baking industry. Zuzak said Cereals Canada represents the Canadian cereals value chain, including farmers, exporters, developers, processors and customers around the world.

Zuzak, an agronomist, said Canada produces high-quality, high-protein wheat and our main competitors in this pursuit are the U.S. and Australia. She drew attention to two programs the organization oversees: The Keep It Clean program, which invites people to visit their facilities in downtown Winnipeg, and their “What About Wheat?” campaign.

They partner with Ducks Canada to protect and promote winter wheat, which provides valuable habitat for ducks, particularly during the nesting season. You can learn more about what the organization does at cerealscanada.ca.

Alberta Food Centre

Pere Ramel, a food scientist with the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, told attendees about the Alberta Food Centre, a 6,000-square-metre facility in Leduc, Alta., where he and his colleagues do product development to turn the ideas of bakers and other budding entrepreneurs into market-friendly products. They also perform analyses and do some temporary processing for small startups, which allow you to refine your products before scaling up. Business development officers are available to help you with the business side of your bakery. The centre includes a pin mill, hammer mill, spray dryer and other pilot-scale equipment.  “We want to be your partner,” Ramel said. Details are available at alberta.ca/alberta-food-centre.

After picking up their bread made during the morning’s workshop and delivered by Dumonceaux and his team at NAIT, we all sat down to a panel discussion focused on the benefits, challenges and opportunities of baking with sustainable, freshly milled flours.

Panel talk with farmer, millers, bakers and one panellist who does all three

BAC executive director and longtime professional baker Martin Barnett moderated the panel of six:

• Ward Middleton, farmer and co-owner, Midmore Farms, Sturgeon County, Alta.
• Cindy, Co-owner, Gold Forest Grains, Sturgeon County, Alta.
• Wendy Neudorf, co-owner, Fallen Timber Creek Flour Mill, Sundre, Alta.
• Kevin Pettersen, owner, Black Fox Flour, Prince George, B.C.
• Austin Hohn, regional sales manager, ADM Milling & Baking Solutionsard, Calgary, Alta.
• Christian Redois, co-owner, EpiCanmore, Canmore, Alta.

Ward Middleton, proprietor of Midmore Farms with his wife, Jo-Anne, grows certified organic grain, oilseeds, forage and sea buckthorn.

Cindy Kozak and son Garreth have been operating Gold Forest Grains, a small farm 10 minutes north of St. Albert, growing ancient and heritage grains and milling fresh flour using a stone mill. They’ve been selling out of Strathcona farmers market for 15 years. They sell directly to consumers as much as possible and also supplement their supply with grain from other organic farmers.

Wendy Neudorf and her two daughters mill fresh flours for individual orders at Fallen Timber Creek Flour Mill, a farm that has been certified organic for more than 20 years. “We mill using a stone mill and we also do baking and sell baked items.

Martin Barnett commented to Neudorf, “You really are the embodiment of the farmer, miller and baker.”

Kevin Pettersen, owner of Black Flox Flour in Prince George, B.C., flew in for the Summit and was excited to share his perspective. “I took it as a challenge: how do you remove that whole shelf-life concept and get the freshest milled flour into the hands of consumers? I believe freshly milled flour is what flour should be.” He mills hard red spring, the durum wheat, ryes and also the ancient and heritage grains. They are all organically grown and in the hands of consumers the day after or a few days after they’re milled.

Pettersen gave away a set of three bags of flour milled the day before: hard red spring wheat, whole-grain emmer (an ancient grain) and whole-grain red fife.

Austin Hohn of ADM Milling is a baker by trade who did a baking apprenticeship at SAIT and has worked for several major companies such as Puratos and BakeMark in technical and sales roles before taking on his current role at ADM Milling, which operates large mills across Canada.

Christian Redois hails from France originally, has travelled widely in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has been in Canada for 15 years. Redois said his relationship to his bakery-café, EpiCanmore, is “romantic” – a comment that got nods of appreciation by attendees. He did an apprenticeship in France.

Stone mills

Kozak, Pettersen, Neudorf and Redois all have stone mills. Kozak chose stone because it mills at a lower temperature, which is supposed to preserve nutrients. “We like the texture it provides as well,” she added.

Neudorf did a lot of research on celiac disease, flour and mills, and discovered, to her surprise, that some of her customers who are extremely sensitive to wheat found they could eat bread made with her stone-ground flour. She said, “It’s so exciting to have somebody say, ‘I have my life back.’ ”

Pettersen said he fell in love with his stone mill made in Austria. “We went to see the manufacturer. I love having contact with all the pieces – it’s a passion.” It has a sifter to extract the courser parts of the bran to help gluten form better, he said, adding that the courser parts of the bran don’t cut the strands of gluten.

Though far from being proficient, Redois said, he loves to experiment with milling using course, fine and some porridge in a small stone mill as well.

Diverse challenges

What have been the biggest changes in Canadian cereals development over the last 10-15 years?

Middleton talked about changes in seed regulation over the years that impact farmers. He said seed development used to be within the purview of the government, but seed regulation has changed. Governments have made it easier for private companies to take over the development of new varieties of seed. “Unfortunately, with that come royalties and changes in regulations where farmers are not necessarily allowed to retain their own seed if it is of a variety owned by a private company,” he said. “Even if you buy the seed and grow the crop, you are not allowed to keep that seed and replant it unless you pay a royalty. That’s just the environment that we’re in. For our farm, we have found that organic farming has exposed us to a farm-direct market where people prefer to have older varieties anyway. We have found it’s easier to grow some of the older varieties that keep us free of some of the royalties and some of that larger corporate involvement in the ownership of seed.”

He brought grain samples, including purple wheat, which he received from Yves Chartrand of Bonjour Bakery, who bought the grains from Prairie Garden Seeds in Turtle Lake, Sask. Middleton said they’ve been developing this and other varieties as a climate change mitigation strategy. “As we suffer the vagaries of more extreme growing seasons, now we’ll have more diversity that, hopefully, will express itself in different growing seasons. But legally, I could never register and sell that at the local elevator.”

As a baker, Redois shared his perspective on challenges of baking with fresh-milled and heritage grains. “For me, Canadians are used to a white loaf of some sort. One of the challenges is to introduce whole-grain to customers who are used to white bread. I don’t do 100 per cent whole-grain breads. I try to go 50-50. For an einkorn or khorasan loaf, for example, I use 50 per cent wheat and 50 per cent of an ancient grain or heritage grain.”

“In the bakery, it’s a bit challenging in terms of fermentation control. Fresh-milled grain, in general, ferments a bit faster, the hydration might differ, there are a few challenges. In terms of cost, as a business, it takes extra time for me and my staff . . .  even though the mill does its job by itself, you still have to fill the hopper and monitor it, so it takes a bit of extra time on top of our business schedule. That’s something we are watching as well on the cost of the bread, but the people who are buying the bread don’t mind the cost too much as yet.”

When Redois moved to Canada, he found the lack of choice challenging. “In Europe it was much easier to select flour for your products as many varieties were available. In Canada there were just two types at the time: it was either all-purpose or possibly a bread flour – either whole-wheat or all-purpose,” he said. “It was difficult for me to adapt. Now I mix flours and feel like the wizard of flours.”

Kevin Pettersen weighed in on the challenges of growing and milling on a small scale and serving a niche market. “You don’t know how niche you are until you dip your toe in the water,” Pettersen said. He didn’t expect there to be a large local market in his community of some 80,000, so his first priority was to make sure the flours were accessible across Canada. This meant figuring out the market, shipping, logistics and ecommerce. “It’s a very different customer than is looking for supermarket flour,” he said.

Pettersen was drawn to the aroma and texture of these ancient grains, but came to understand that his customers are interested in the grains for a variety of reasons, including health requirements like diets tailored for diabetes or an auto-immune deficiency. “It’s transformational for their lives,” he said.

Neudorf’s biggest challenge is educating customers. “People say, ‘It tastes so good, I wish it was healthy.’ It blew me away how people don’t think bread is healthy. We’re getting more and more educated. In the city, it seems people who come to markets have educated themselves prior to coming. In the country markets, people still don’t always know what organic flour is.”

Kozack and son Garreth sell at Strathcona market. “They are a wonderful bunch,” she said of their customers. She finds educating customers a challenge sometimes too. “It’s apples to oranges, as far as I’m concerned,” she said. “There’s taste, nutrition, all those things, so we have conversations about that.” Keeping up with demand is another challenge. “Customers read an article on einkorn, for example, and suddenly everybody’s asking for einkorn and there will be a run on it.” People are looking to make their own bread with minimal ingredients. “Sometimes people ask for grains we don’t have, for example, emmer,” she said.

Consumer trends

How are consumer trends driving the changes in cereal crops both in growing, processing and in food manufacture?

Austin Hohn of ADM Milling said, “We’re experiencing today on a small scale interest in artisan, organic and heritage grains. Working in the large-scale side of things, we see clean-label being a big trend. People want less treated flour, unbleached and untreated, if it comes to a white flour, artisan, looking to lower protein specifically to winter wheat compared to a higher-protein CWRS [Canadian western red spring wheat].

“At the same time, there still demand for export of flour that is high-protein, low-ash flours, he said. “That is from different styles of active flour where you’re more from the centre of the endosperm so it’s whiter, naturally.

“In the end, people always want consistency when going clean-label. We see challenges at the larger industrial scale. When there’s fluctuation, it creates more chaos.”

Following the panel, Farmer-Miller-Baker participants left with their own handmade bread. We asked Tina Taylor, who was attending with BakeMark colleague Ken Wright, how the day had gone. “I enjoyed it very much,” Taylor said. “My head is still spinning from all the information presented today.”

Check out our Facebook photo album of highlights from the day at NAIT. Farmer-Miller-Baker Summit @ NAIT was sponsored by Rising Sponsor Ardent Mills, Rising Sponsor FCC and Name Tag Sponsor BakeMark. The next event in the series is set for Aug. 26 at Fanshawe College in London, Ont.