Red Corn

Grist & Toll

We are currently sourcing California grown, certified organic corn.  Our polenta  has a much more coarse texture than our cornmeal and will knock you out with its dreamy texture and rich flavor. It is virtually whole grain: we hand sift just to remove the large pericarp (the seed coat) particles.

You can cook our polenta using only water and its freshness and texture will blow you away. You really don’t need to dress it up dramatically to make it taste special. However, we are never ones to scoff at gilding the lily, so feel free to use milk as your cooking liquid for added richness and depth, or add a splash of heavy cream and grated parmesan at the very end. If you ever make your own ricotta cheese, save the whey: cooking your polenta in whey will turn you into a kitchen rock star. Follow the normal ratios for a soft polenta: 1 part polenta to 4 parts liquid.

Cooking freshly milled polenta is a completely different experience, especially since our product is mostly whole grain. That means we haven’t removed the corn flour. Because of this our polenta, while chunky in texture, has a creamier mouthfeel than others and depending on how you cook it, and almost rich soufflé-like texture. It cooks a little bit faster than traditional brands (less than an hour) and has an undeniable fresh, sweet corn flavor.

Yellow Corn Polenta

Organic

100% Extraction (100% whole wheat) French Renan flour. Custom and organically grown for us in Northern California, this French red wheat is one of the most delicious you will ever taste. It’s gluten strength is a little more mellow, but we still love it for sourdough artisan bread (do not over-hydrate!), lamination and enriched breads, as well as most pastries.

2020 marked our first significant harvest of this highly sought after French Red Wheat. Custom grown for us in Northern California, the seed stock was procured from The Bread Lab at WSU several years ago. Renan is one of the most delicious red wheat varieties we have ever tasted. It’s gluten structure is not as strong as the California modern hard red varieties – don’t over hydrate! –  but it still makes terrific bread, and we love it for all kinds of pastry too: cookies, graham crackers, quick breads like pain d’epices and pumpkin bread etc. Very special wheat, very special flavor.

French Renan Hard Red Winter Wheat Flour

Conventional (Non-GMO)

Sonora, a landrace variety, is believed to be one of the oldest wheats grown in North America and is one of only two wheats boarded onto the Slow Food Ark of Taste. We are still tracing its California origins, but documentation shows that it was brought from Sonora Mexico in the late 1700’s and followed the trail of California’s missions up the coast. At one point in California’s history, it was the main wheat variety grown throughout the state. It has virtually vanished from our state, but enlightened smaller scale farmers are planting it once again. The real beauty of Sonora lies in its sweet, nutty, rich flavor and creamy golden color. We feel what makes it so special would be lost if we tried to sift out the bran and germ, so we are milling this as a 100% extraction, whole grain pastry flour. Sonora’s pale color and fine texture make it a very stealth way to incorporate whole grains into your daily baking repertoire.

Even though this is a whole grain flour, baked goods made with Sonora will be on the delicate side. Pastries like biscuits, scones and pie dough can even be a little fragile when using Sonora 100%, not at all like commercial whole wheat flour. As always with stone milled flour, some recipes may need a little extra liquid. We find it an easier solution to hold back a small amount of flour, which can be easily folded back in if needed.

As a soft white wheat, Sonora does not have enough protein to be used as a stand-alone bread flour, but our testers have made excellent artisan loaves with a ratio of up to 60% Sonora and 40% of a higher protein bread flour (such as our Triple IV or Red Fife). Sonora really shines as a pastry flour. You will want to integrate Sonora into all of your muffin, scone, biscuit, cake, pie dough, and cookie recipes. It makes wonderful pasta, pizza dough and flat breads as well.

Sonora Soft White Wheat Flour

Our current Hard White is our all-time favorite and worthy of its variety name: Star. We have yet to mill a Hard White as consistently excellent as  Star It is very pale in color, mills very fine even as a whole grain flour, and has gluten strength to rival a strong Hard Red, which is very unusual. We have always loved its very toasty, buttery, creamy flavor profile.

Watch your hydration with this flour, but don’t over hydrate. Normally, we are at 83% hydration for our 100% Grist & Toll whole grain sourdough loaves and we would suggest 83-85% hydration for this varietal as a starting point.  For bakers using commercial yeast, you should increase your liquid (water, milk etc) at least 15% from what the recipe calls for. The same will hold true for pizza dough and pasta – normally we suggest either holding a few tablespoons of flour back before adding eggs and other liquid ingredients. In some recipes it’s easier to add some flour back in than it is to adjust eggs, water or olive oil.

You can use Hard White in any baking application you would use a hard red wheat, but it’s not quite as high in gluten strength as our Hard Red. It’s protein and gluten properties make it strong enough to be a stand alone bread flour, and it’s also great for pizza and pastry. It’s fine, light color and texture mean that it’s a good chameleon wheat as well: interior bread crumb will be lighter and more golden instead of brown, and its flavor won’t overpower other flours should you choose to blend with other varieties like rye or spelt.

Star Hard White Spring Wheat Flour

Spelt is an ancient relative of wheat. It was one of the earliest domesticated grains with crops dating back perhaps as early as 5000 BC.  It has enjoyed a somewhat quiet existence, mostly in European countries, not touched as much by cross breading or hybridization, taking a back seat to its modern wheat cousins. Though Spelt is not gluten-free, it has a different molecular structure and is more water soluble, which means its nutrients are more easily absorbed by the body. It’s very high in protein, fiber and B complex vitamins. Spelt gives pastries a soft and tender mouthfeel and is more extensible rather than snappy in bread dough.

Though our  Spelt is 100% whole grain, it’s one of the easiest flours to sub for AP in most recipes. It will keep textures soft and tender while adding a richer more golden color and a smooth nutty flavor. Spelt baked goods will not be “white” in appearance, but the flour’s softness lends itself well to a wide variety of recipes without demanding changes in hydration or other ratios.

Spelt is known for its nutty rich flavor profile. It makes delicious bread, but be aware that its gluten properties are more fragile than wheat’s, which means that working a spelt bread dough too much will have the adverse affect of breaking down its structure rather than building it, so don’t over-knead. In pastry applications, Spelt flour delivers the most melt-in-your-mouth texture. Because of this, we love it for muffins, scones, cakes and quick breads. It also laminates beautifully, so it’s a natural as part of a flour blend for puff pastry, croissants and galette dough.

Spelt Wheat Flour

The cultivation of rye does not go back as far in history as some other grains. It came to America with European settlers in the 16th century. In addition to its distinctive flavor and color, rye contains high levels of dietary fiber in its endosperm, not only in its bran as is common with other grains. Because of this, rye baked goods generally have a lower glycemic index.

Rye has higher enzyme activity, which is why many people love it for their sourdough starters.  It can move the fermentation process along a little more quickly, so keep that in mind specifically when baking bread with rye. The gluten structure of rye is much weaker than that of wheat, so breads made mostly of rye do not expand and trap air as much as wheat breads, and the doughs can be more dense and sticky.

We think we know rye, but we really don’t. It is generally associated with dark European, caraway studded breads. However, rye adds such interesting flavor and character that we hate boxing it into a specific corner. Do we love it as a 100% loaf of bread? Absolutely! But, we love it so much that we include rye as part of our flour blend in almost any yeasted application from sourdough hearth loaves to pizzas and flatbreads. And we can’t sing its praises enough for the malty, fruity quality it brings to pastries. We put it in everything, and we’re not joking: chocolate chip cookies, pie dough, pancakes, crackers, scones, shortbread, and crepes. It’s also becoming a pasta superstar ingredient.

Gazelle Rye Flour

We are currently milling Joaquin Oro, grown in CA by Gonzales-Siemen Family Farms. Longtime G&T customers know this wheat variety well, as it has always been a favorite. Joaquin Oro is a strong, reliable bread wheat for both sourdough and commercial yeast baking. It consistently surprises us with its depth of flavor: rich, nutty, malty with no bitterness. In the conventional world, hard red wheat varieties are not supposed to be this nuanced or gentle in flavor profile. It will not disappoint.

Bread bakers will want to pay attention to their hydration percentage and will definitely need to increase it. Freshly milled whole grain flour tends to be on the “thirsty” side and will absorb more water in artisan bread applications. For this harvest year of Amorojo, our hydration for a 100% loaf made with this flour is 85-90% hydration. However, for more general baking and pastry applications, you may find that it does not absorb as much liquid as an All-Purpose flour, so you may want to hold off on some of your liquid such as buttermilk or cream in scone recipes and add back in as needed, for example.

It is a wonderful, stand-alone bread flour and will create loaves with superior flavor, crumb, color and volume. We are milling this as a 100% extraction, whole wheat flour. We also love incorporating it into all different types of baking. Start by substituting up to 50% of your All-Purpose flour with this whole grain flour. You will love the rich flavor and color it adds to muffins and cookies, and you will be surprised at how delicate they will be in texture. Freshly milled whole grain flour is nothing like supermarket whole wheat flour. You can bake with it in the same manner, but with more delicious, tender outcomes.

Joaquin Oro Hard Red Spring Wheat Flour

At Grist & Toll, we are not your average flour millers. We are bakers who became obsessed with our primary ingredient – flour. It has become our mission to source the best and most delicious grain, mill it in a purist’s manner on an authentic stone mill, and get it into your hands as fresh as possible.

We share the same heart, soul and devotion to our craft as the amazing farmers who grow for us, and the same passion and determination as the bakers and chefs who inspire us with their creativity and skill.

Heirloom Red Cornmeal. Soft, delicate texture with very rich roasted and candied aromatics. A stunner. Replace conventional cornmeal in your recipes with this variety and prepare to be wowed by tenderness and depth of flavor.

When we are able to source organic corn grown from Native American seed sources, it makes the finest, most aromatic cornmeal. This stunning red variety produces soft, delicate cornmeal with incredibly rich flavor and aroma: roasted, floral and candied flavors with a bit of fermentation on the nose (in a good way!) Our cornmeal has a much finer texture than our polenta. Limited availability, while supplies last.