Much ado has been made about this flour. It's been said that this is the only flour to use for biscuits, especially if you're a Southerner. However, Smuckers bought this company up a few years ago and some bakers swear they can tell the difference. Honestly, I wouldn't know having only just recently baked with it myself.
The difference between White Lily's all-purpose flour is apparent upon opening the bag. I thought, wow, this looks like confectioners sugar! When they decided to put 'white' in White Lily, they really meant it! I actually read the label again just to make sure I had the right product because it even clumps up the way powdered sugar does. I'm guessing this has something to do with the soft winter wheat that is used (also the bleaching) to make this flour. This is what the White Lily website has to say about it:
"Soft winter wheat is a variety of wheat that has a low protein content and low gluten content. It is the type of flour recommended for cakes, biscuits, and quick breads. White Lily flour is lower in protein content because the soft wheat is pure-- not blended with hard wheat. Hard wheat has a much higher protein content and gluten content."
I decided to remake the Angel Biscuits with White Lily all-purpose flour and add Mexican vanilla bean as the Lee Brothers suggested in their Southern Cookbook. I also experimented with using all lard instead of 1/2 lard, 1/2 butter.
These were like puffy, vanilla-flecked cookies. I didn't add as much sugar as was suggested in the Lee Bros. recipe. I bet if I had, these definitely would've passed as cookies. These would be lovely with a nice glaze. My cousin suggested eating these with strawberries and cream. I think that sounds delicious.
If you'd like to make vanilla biscuits, just scrape out the beans of one vanilla bean pod into the dry ingredients of whatever biscuit recipe you'd like to use. Mix together. If you want to add more sugar, go for it. The smell of vanilla will quickly fill up your kitchen.
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I really want to make the perfect Southern Biscuit. I live in Los Angeles and was told Walmart's and Surfas Restaurant supply store both carry White Lily Brand Flour, but they do not. Where can I buy White Lily flour in the Los Angeles area? Maybe I can't? Thanks, Joe
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteunfortunately, I don't believe it's possible to buy White Lily flour from a retail location in Los Angeles. I have to buy mine when I'm home in Florida and then ship it back. You can always order from Amazon. Another alternative, is the Martha White brand, which is very similar. Some would argue that White Lily is no longer authentic since Smuckers bought them and changed the formula. (I believe they're not using the same type of wheat?)
good luck!
I love the bread, I usually eat bread in the breakfast and in the dinner! thanks for sharing, It is so delicious!!22dd
ReplyDeleteWhite Lily flour is still being milled in ONE of the same mills where it has been milled for 100 years - a mill in Southern Ohio. They were a secondary mill to the one in TN. It's also milled from the same wheat, which has actually traditionally been grown in Ohio, Michigan, and one other state that I can't bring to mind - it was never actually grown in TN. It is a soft winter wheat I believe, which in general would have lower protein content (and less ability to form gluten) than hard wheat types or spring wheat types. It is "lightly" (their words) chlorinated. Chlorination not only whitens the flour but also breaks up some of the starches as well as weakening the proteins that develop gluten. This is good for cakes, cookies, pie crust, and biscuits, where too much gluten would make them tough - not so great, obviously, for yeast breads.
ReplyDeleteBy breaking up the starches you are increasing the ability of the flour to absorb water, so you can get a thicker batter and firmer doughs, giving your end products a better texture. Cakes, for example, are actually a "foam" rather than simply a batter, and the ability to absorb more water makes that foam structure stronger. Starches absorb the water and swell, making the batter stronger and better able to "trap" air bubbles in your batter and less likely that those cell walls will collapse during baking and leave you with a sad sunken cake.
Anyway, it's the same mill (or one of them) and the same wheat grown in the same places - if there's a difference between the old WL and the new, it's most likely in the sifting after milling. With the original WL, they sifted very finely and thoroughly, and about half of the flour that was milled for White Lily was used in other flour blends, leaving only the most finely milled and thoroughly sifted to be packaged as "White Lily". I think they're probably still milling it as finely as ever, but it would not surprise me if they're not quite so conscientious about the sifting process.