Saturday, March 10, 2012

About flour

1:05 PM |
I never paid a lot attention to the flour, since I refused to bake for many years. I suppose that was one of the causes for my continued failure in my baking projects. If you want to bake well, you must start to understand the difference between flours. I got that, when I eventually gave baking another try and with lot's of experimenting I started to love it. I still fail now and then, mostly because I don't stick exactly to the recipes, which seems to be very important, but more and more the outcomes are really tasty. The most important thing about the use of flour is the content of gluten and its effect. Gluten is the main protein in wheat and its content is influenced by  the milling, the husk and the removing of the wheat germ. Gluten gives the dough its elasticity, as it absorbs water very well, that again makes the dough light and spongy. 

Most of the facts below refer to an article in the South African "Food and Home", Issue June 2011. I'm not talking about all flours discussed in the article, only about flours I mostly use. 
In Namibia I get to buy following flour types:



is made from the softest part of the wheat kernel and is bleached. The bleaching makes the flour white, breaks down the protein, which enables it to carry a high volume of sugar, absorb fat easily and make a smooth batter.


is high in protein and therefore best for making yeast dough. The protein and a small amount of malted barley helps the yeast to raise and retain gases as it bakes. White bread flour is finely milled and contains less gluten, brown bread flour is rich in fibre and light brown.

is made from the whole wheat grain, includes also the germ and the bran. It's brown in colour and is not rising very well, therefor it's mostly mixed with other flours. 

is a flour mixed with sodium bicarbonate and calcium phosphate. It's easily made yourself by adding 2 tsp baking powder to 150 g (or 1 cup) of plain flour. I don't use that flour at all.

Rye flour contains gluten and the dough is sticky and not easy to handle, but worth a try.
I know rye flour from Germany, I think it's the Germans best bread. And I love it too. Rye breads are baked with a sourdough and have of course a slight sour taste, are dark brown in color and slightly sticky in touch. 

I came across spelt flour, while making a low GI diet, because it has slightly fewer calories, is kind of higher in protein, easy to digest but lower in fiber than wheat and the gluten breaks down fairly easily. That means, that you have to be careful, not to overdo it or getting a crumbly mixture, which leads to using more fluids. But the taste for me is rewarding; it's nuttier and sweeter in then wheat flour. That's why I mostly use it in breads and pasta.

is made from durum wheat, is very fine milled and slightly yellow. It's mostly used for pasta. I also use it for my pizza dough.

called here Maizena. It's the powdered starch of the maize grain. I use it mostly to thicken my sauces, custards and soups, but also in Asian dishes  and a few deserts.


Is a coarse, free-flowing, brown, high-fiber product, ideal for increasing the fiber content of baked goods such as bread and rolls, muffins and biscuits. 

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There is of course far more sorts of flour, I didn't mention because either I don't use it or I can't get it here in Namibia. Those flours are:
  • All-purpose flour
  • Buckwheat flour
  • Rice flour (white and brown)
  • Chickpea flour
  • Oat flour
  • Potato flour, which is by the way very often used in Polish kitchen, that's why it's really a pity, I can't get it here!)
  • Farina flour (made from wheat, nuts and potatoes)
  • Doppio zero flour, which refers to how finely grounded the flour is.
    •  
    The description of the last flour is the Italian way to define flour, the Germans separate their flour in Types and grain type. The most common are: for wheat 405, 550, rye 997, 1150, 1800 and for spelt 630 and 812. 
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