Despite the fact that it’s one of the most widely utilised ingredients on the planet, not many of us give much thought to flour. Unless you’re an avid home baker, ‘flour’ is just something that sits quietly in the back of your kitchen cupboard – occasionally called into service for the odd pancake, or to thicken a sauce.

We rarely consider the complex journey from grain to ground powder, or the intricate science behind how different types of flour behave when mixed with water, heat and time. Yet this humble ingredient can be the driving force behind the most exquisite French pastries, heavenly loaves of bread and silky-smooth pastas. The difference a quality flour can make – as any baker or chef will tell you – is nothing less than transformative.

A perfect example of this was on display at the recent delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards, held at Sydney’s Bennelong restaurant, where the menu for the night showcased ingredients from this year’s National Finalists. One of these canapes was a gougère – a French choux pastry cheese puff that head chef Rob Cockerill and team made using a wholewheat flour called Spitfire, produced by Victoria’s Woodstock Flour. What could have been just a casual bite became an eye-closing moment of pure, unadulterated pleasure.

That same night, Woodstock Flour went on to win the Artisan award, which is given to a producer excelling in traditional, artisanal food production.

What makes this flour so special? It’s milled the old-fashioned way, from grains grown with loving care.

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Credit: Mark Roper

What is Woodstock Flour?

Woodstock Flour was founded by Ian Congdon and Courtney Young. This young couple first ventured into milling nine years ago, when they finished university and decided they wanted to work on the Congdon family farm in Berrigan, NSW. They began looking at ways they could value-add, and saw milling the wheat, spelt and rye grown on the property as a unique opportunity.

Within a few years, what began with an idea and a small kitchen mill has grown into a hugely successful operation, with the couple moving to their own property in Rutherglen, Victoria, where they now produce hundreds of kilos of stoneground wholegrain organic flours every week, using grains grown on their own farm and the family farm in Berrigan.

The couple follows regenerative farming practices to ensure optimal soil health for the grains they grow, and unlike mass-produced flours, Woodstock Flour is stoneground to order using traditional milling methods. This preserves the grain’s full flavour, nutrition and performance in the kitchen. Nothing less could have produced such airily light, melt-in-the-mouth choux pastry that still carried such depth of flavour.

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Better outcomes for our daily bread

If Congdon and Young were not ultimately named as a Produce Award-winners on the night it’s likely that the guests in attendance would have bestowed one on the couple anyway. This is the kind of difference that a quality flour can make.

But quality flour should not just be for fancy canapes. It should be celebrated as a nutritious and flavoursome ingredient that can transform our daily bread. As chef and Produce Awards National Judge Alla Wolf-Tasker said when presenting the couple with the award:

“Bread used to be our daily bread; the best thing that we could eat. And now so many people are turning away from it because of industrial bread. But… having the best flour possible, and through organic regenerative farming on one hand and traditional milling methods on the other, we can still produce great bread. And we should be producing great bread. And an attitude where flour is seen more than just a staple ingredient – it’s an attitude of regenerating the land, nourishing the community, supporting better food systems and enabling better outcomes for our daily bread.”

Spitfire is a 1980s bread wheat variety that’s been saved and resown on the Congdon family farm for more than 30 years. It’s a high-protein wholegrain flour ideal for bread, pizza or pasta. Use it just once, and you’ll understand the kind of magic that authentic flour, grown and milled with care, can bring to your cooking.

You can find out more about Woodstock Flour, and order your own, at woodstockflour.com.au

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