Types of Flour

May 2, 2008

I love fresh bread and have started experimenting with no-knead recipes (of which one attempt you’ll see on Monday), but I thought I’d first do a quick run-down of the different types of flour out there. Flour is essentially any sort of ground grain, seed or legume.

White Flour

This flour, the one you’ll probably use most often, is finely ground wheat without the germ or bran. It can come unbleached or bleached, but you want to stick with the unbleached. The bleaching process is an addition of chemicals used only to make the flour whiter - and unbleached flour is pretty white to begin with. White flour is further divided into three groups based on the percentage of protein in each one.

All-Purpose

All-purpose flour is a blend of different wheats, including hard (high protein - “bread flour”) and soft (low protein - “cake flour”). It can be used in most recipes and contains between 8 and 11% protein. If you are only going to keep one flour on hand, this is the one to have.

Bread Flour

Bread flour is ground from hard wheats and usually contains 14% protein. As its name implies, it is best for making bread with a thick crust and crumb.

Cake Flour

As you probably guessed, cake flour has the least amount of protein (7% or less usually) and is best in foods where you find a fine, crumbly grain - like cookies. The lower amount of protein means there isn’t much connection or elasticity between the flour, which creates the fine grain.

Non-White Flour

There are a variety of non-white flours, and most will add more flavor and weight to your breads. Still, you usually want to use some white flour too if you are baking a loaf of bread. A loaf completely made from a non-white flour will be heavy and dense. I don’t have any experience baking with these, but I am interested in trying them.

Whole Wheat Flour

This is made from the same wheat as white flour, but it doesn’t have its bran and germ removed. The bran and germ add nutritional value as well as flavor. Whole wheat flour can come in a variety of grinds (from coarse to fine) and a little bit can even be substituted in most white bread recipes if you want to add a little nutrition. There is a whole wheat pastry flour (with about 10% protein) that can be used for cakes, cookies, etc., but it will produce a slightly heavier product. Last, a “white” whole wheat flour has a milder flavor and is made from a white wheat instead of red wheat.

Rye Flour

Rye flour comes in different shades of darkness (based on the amount of bran that is removed), with the darker varieties containing more nutrients and protein. Overall though, rye flour has a low level of protein, so it is usually mixed with white flour.

Cornmeal

Apparently cornmeal is a flour - something I didn’t know. It also , like rye, comes in a variety of grinds. Some cornmeal has the hull and germ removed, which allows it to keep longer without spoiling, but the varieties that keep the hull and germ have more flavor and nutrients. You can substitute up to 10% in yeast breads, and 50-100% in cornbreads.

There are a host of other flours available, including rice, nut, soy, and oat, but this is where my investigation ends…for now. A quick note on storage though - your white flours won’t spoil, but Mark Bittman recommends not keeping them longer than six months. The non-white flours, on the other hand, have oil from the ground germ, so they can go bad. Store them in the freezer for up to a month.

P.S. I made that Challah loaf in the picture - I know, it looks awesome.

Posted in Food Profiles |