Fava bean flour

Farine de fève

What it is

The 1993 decree on pain de tradition française allows exactly three adjuvants, and fava flour at up to 2% is the first of them: its lipoxygenase oxidises the flour's carotenoids and bleaches the crumb white. Raymond Calvel spent a career arguing that this was a straight loss, since those same pigments carry the wheat's aroma.

In the kitchen

Dose at 0.5 to 1% of flour weight rather than the legal 2% — the higher rate whitens the crumb but strips the wheat smell and leaves a green-bean edge. It works only through oxygen, so it does almost nothing in a gently hand-mixed dough.

Goes with

T65 bread flour T55 flour Baker’s yeast Salt Olive oil Butter

Same species

Dried broad bean Broad bean

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us