When you think of White Lily, you probably think about biscuits. This Southern-based brand is known as being the best flour for baking light, tender biscuits – and there are plenty of Southern bakers who absolutely won’t bake biscuits without it. White Lily flour isn’t just for baking biscuits, however. The brand has just released three new premium flour blends that offer bakers some interesting new alternatives for everyday baking.
White Lily’s new Premium Flour Blends are all made with Shepherd’s Grain wheat grown that is grown in the Pacific Northwest. Shepherd’s Grain is dedicated to sustainability and these flours allow you to answer the question of “where does your flour come from” and end up with an answer that takes you beyond the grocery store and all the way back to the farmer that planted the wheat in the first place. In fact, each package of the new flours are stamped with traceability codes that you can put in to the White Lily website and get information on the individual farmer whose wheat went into that bag.
There are three blends in the new line: All Purpose Wheat Flour, Wheat and White Grape Seed Flour Blend, and Wheat and Red Grape Seed Flour Blend. All three flours use the Shepard’s Grain wheat and all three are non-GMO certified. The wheat flour is a good all purpose baking flour. It is unbleached and will give you consistent results in cookies, cakes and other baked goods. The two flours featuring grape seeds are a bit more unusual. The grape seeds are a byproduct of the wine-making industry and there is typically not much use for them. When ground into a fine flour, grape seeds add some really complex flavors and a hint of texture – not unlike the texture found in regular whole wheat flour – to baked goods. You’ll pick up on some very unexpected fruity notes when you’re eating baked goods that use these two blends, especially if you’re making a plain white bread or another recipe where the flavor of the flour can really stand out. If you use it in a chocolate cake, the results with the grape seed flours will be much more subtle. You can get really creative with them.
These flours are currently available online and are slated for nation-wide distribution later this year. They’re likely to be the only non-GMO certified flour on the shelf that also lets you say “I know who made this,” just as you can when you buy tomatoes or strawberries from your favorite vendors at the farmer’s market.
What do you think?