An explanation of the different types of flour available, and which type is right for your particular baking needs.
It
doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that cake flour is good
for cake, and bread flour is good for…wait for it…Bread! But why, and
why do some all purpose flours seem to make great bread, and others turn
out disappointing loaves, and what the heck is self raising flour
anyways?
The
primary difference between different types of flour are the quantity of
the wheat germ and bran that are milled with the flour, and the type of
wheat used for the flour, and the relative protein content of that
wheat.
Whole wheat flour is simply wheat that has been milled into flour with some, or all, of the germ and bran still attached.
Additionally,
different varieties of wheat contain different amounts of protein, and
the more protein is contained in the flour, the higher gluten it has.
Gluten
are the strands of amino acid proteins that bind together in a bread
dough after the mixture of water, and the creation of longer and
stronger chains of gluten through mechanical mixing (kneading). The
higher the protein content, the more gluten can be developed. These
chains of gluten are important for bread, as they are what allow the
dough to capture the created gasses during the cooking and leavening
processes, and expand from dense to light. High gluten is not considered
an asset when making pastries, pie crusts, biscuits etc, as the gluten
can make these tough and chewy.
The protein contents are approximately:
Cake flour:7-8%
Southern all purpose flour:7.5-9.5%
Northern all purpose flour:11-12%
Bread flour:12-13%
There
is a difference between all purpose flour from the southern climates,
and that from more northern climates, and the more northerly grown the
wheat, the higher the gluten content. This can explain why an all
purpose flour bought in Wisconsin makes a great bread, and an all
purpose flour bought in Alabama doesn't.
Whole
wheat flour is high in protein, but the protein from the germ and bran
is not well turned into gluten, and as such, whole wheat breads tend to
be heavier, but more flavorful then white flour breads. Rye bread
contains very little gluten, and as such 100% rye breads are very dense.
Cake flour is a low gluten flour that has also been chemically altered slightly for better use in cake baking.
Self
raising flour is generally all purpose flour that has had baking powder
mixed in, and do not require any additional baking powder to be added
when making biscuits, pancakes or muffins.
So,
if you are making bread, use a northern all purpose, or bread flour,
and if making pastry, use a southern all purpose, cake or pastry flour.
Always look for flour labeled unbleached, as it tastes better, and store
whole wheat flour in the fridge or freezer.
The
reason that you spend so much time kneading when making a breads dough,
is to create lots of these strong gluten chains, and if you under
knead, your bread will generally fail to rise well.
Don’t
worry too much about it all though, as most of the time, using whatever
flour you have on hand will work out just fine, and you should never
not bake that apple pie, just because you only have bread flour on hand.
Bake those cookies; make that bread, and enjoy the aroma of home
baking; it's always appreciated