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How does wheat become flour? What is the best flour for creating delicious cakes, pastries and breads? Here are some basic facts about wheat flour and its uses.
Wheat kernels consist of three main parts: the bran, the germ and the endosperm. The bran is the hard outer covering of the wheat kernel and is still found in wheat flour but removed from white flours. The germ is the seed that would become the new wheat plant. The endosperm is the starch of the wheat kernel, what’s left after the bran and germ have been removed. Milling raw wheat into flour begins with rollers flaking off the bran layers and germ and cracking the endosperm into coarse pieces. By repeating specialized sifting and breaking of the wheat, different grades of flour can be milled from one batch.
The flours used most commonly across the United States are predominantly wheat based flours. Wheat flours have a protein content that is determined by the species of wheat grown and the environmental conditions the growing plant experiences throughout its life before harvest. For instance, flour used for baking cakes and cookies will typically have 8% proteins; 12% for bread flours and other, high-gluten flours used for making pizza dough and bagels contain as much as 14% proteins. Flours used in Europe and on other continents vary due to base, climate and cultural tradition and demand. When discussing wheat flours, there are strong flours such as bread flour and clear flour and there are the soft flours like cake flour and pastry flour. Bread flour or patent flour is milled from the inner part of the endosperm. After the patent flour is removed during milling, what remains is the clear flour. This is the portion closest to the wheat’s bran. Clear flour is most commonly used for making rye breads or in combination with whole wheat flour for making darker grain breads. Cake flour and pastry flour are the soft flours used most by commercial bakers. Cake flour is a low-gluten flour. Pastry flour carries more gluten than cake flour but is still considered among the weaker wheat flours.
The most commonly used flours by home cooks are classed as “other wheat-based flours”. These include all-purpose flour, self-rising flour, whole wheat flour and bran flour. All-purpose flour is formulated to be a middle-of-the-line product to extend its use for the home cook. All-purpose can be used to make pleasing breads as well as some pastries. Self-rising flour is a white flour that has added baking powder (and sometimes salt). This eliminates the need for blending and sifting, but also the amount of blended flour requested by a recipe is not always a matching amount to the flour purchased. Most professional bakeries do not use all-purpose or self-rising flour but prefer flour specific to the recipe and product they are baking. Other types of flour found in the United States that are not wheat -based include rye flour, cornmeal flour, rice flour, buckwheat flour, soy flour, potato flour, oat flour and barley flour. Whichever flour is called for in your favorite cake, cookie, pastry or bread recipe, be sure to purchase flour that has been kept out of extreme temperatures and is tightly sealed and cleanly packaged. This will help you avoid purchasing inferior flour that will create difficulties in achieving baking success.
The copyright of the article Flour Basics in Baking & Desserts is owned by Catherine Laurenzi Bridges. Permission to republish Flour Basics in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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