To be able to understand baking, it is quite important to learn a little bit about flour; one of the basic and most important baking ingredients used in baking and pastry industry. Flour Mills produce flour in a powder form-like by grinding cereal grains or seeds, then processing it according to certain specifications, essential to commercial and retail bakeries, as well as to home bakers. While there are many different types of flours available in this industry, matching the right flour type to the product you are baking is necessary for successful baking results.
Types of Flour and Role of Gluten:
Before discussing flour types, it helps to learn about gluten and how it works so as to make an informed decision as to what kind of flour to use for baking bread, cakes and/or other pastries. Gluten is a composite of proteins found in wheat flour and is developed when treating flour with water (liquid) and kneading. Gluten gives dough its elasticity, forces it to rise by trapping carbon dioxide released by yeast when added, and gives some baked products its chewiness and strong texture. Therefore, wheat flour high in protein content is perfect for baking great chewy bread, and that explains why is it difficult to make bread using, rye, rice, oat or potato flour only, and why is it necessary to add wheat flour to them to make bread. On the other hand, flour low in protein content is perfect for baking cakes, cookies and pastries of soft, tender and crumbly texture.
Among other types of flours produced by Flour Mills, the most commonly used in commercial bakeries, baking establishments and homes are:
- Wheat Flour: The most common base for flour is wheat, and is widely produced by Flour Mills than others. Different kinds of wheat are called "hard", "strong", "white" and "brown" if they have high protein content, and they are called "soft" and "weak" if they have low protein, and thus low gluten content. Among others, wheat flour can be classified in terms of composition into:
- Bread Flour: also called strong flour, usually made of "hard wheat" high in protein content (12.5%-15%). Bread flour is an excellent match for baking rustic and chewy yeasted bread like sourdough bread, cinnamon raisin bread, pita pocket bread and others. The flour is either white, brown or in between.
- All-Purpose Flour: also called plain flour; a blended wheat flour, often made of "soft" and "hard" wheat with lower protein content compared to bread flour, ranging between 10% and 12%. This type of flour doesn't have leavening agents and is a good match for almost all breads, some cookies, cakes, pizza and other pastries. While commercial bakeries may have access to a more specialized types of flours, home bakers may do quite well with this type flour.
- Pastry Flour: also called cookie or cracker flour available in grocery stores as in white or whole wheat flour form. It has a lower protein content compared to all-purpose flour, ranging between 9% and 10%. Pastry flour is a perfect match for baking cookies, biscuits, muffins, pastry pies and tarts and some quick bread.
- Cake Flour: a white flour that is finely milled with a slightly lower protein content compared to pastry flour, ranging between 6% and 8%. Cake flour is an excellent choice for baking cakes and cookies of soft texture.
- Self-Rising Flour: is a white flour mixed with salt and chemical baking leaveners such as baking powder. For each cup of this flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt or less are added. Bakers often use this type of flour for baking biscuits.
- Bleached Flour: flour treated with flour bleaching agents such as chlorine or benzoyl peroxide to make it whiter. Whereas chlorine tends to weaken gluten development in flour, benzoyl peroxide doesn't. It also oxidizes starches in flour and make it easier to absorb water, resulting in moist final product. This type of flour is not suitable for making bread due to the lack of gluten development, necessary for bread baking. However, it is a good choice for baking light, fluffy cakes, biscuits and cookies. Cake flour is an example of beached flour, for it is often chlorinated to obtain a melt-in the mouth pure white texture we cherish in white cakes and other pastry products.
- Unbleached Flour: flour that is not treated with bleaching agents and thus doesn't have "white" color, but rather an ivory or creamy color instead. All purpose flour can be bleached or unbleached. Pastry flour is often unbleached, and is a good match for baking chocolate and yellow cakes (in case you don't like your white cake to be ivory in color).
What Type of Flour Should You Buy?
Logically speaking, you should buy flour for what you intend to use them. For example, bread flour for baking bread, cake flour for baking cakes, pastry flour for making pastries and so on. With that being said, it is worth mentioning that most recipes are developed using all purpose flour (except some bread recipes) because in terms of protein content, all-purpose flour lies in the middle between bread and pastry flour, and thus is able to make almost all types of baked goods and pastries satisfactorily. Nonetheless, commercial bakeries are hardly using this type of flour since they tend to work on a more specialized baked products that require specialized types of flour. As a home baker or a beginner though, it is recommended that you use all purpose flour in your recipes at first, and once you become familiar with them, you may want to exchange with a specialty flour.
Controlling Texture of Baked Goods and Pastries and Role of Gluten:
You should have learned by now that baked goods and pastries' texture are either soft, tender, crumbly, chewy, crispy or a special combination of any of these. The secret to this is gluten. High level of gluten development results in chewy-textured product. Low percentage of gluten development however, results in soft-textured baked product. To control this in your baked goods, you may need to adjust the following conditions:
- Amount of Butter, Shortening, Oil Used: Using fat tends to shorten gluten strands in a dough or a batter. Therefore, the more fat being used in baking goods and pastries, the less chewy and more tender the end product is likely to be.
- Amount of Liquid Used: Liquid is necessary for gluten formation and expansion. When enough liquid is added to a dough, gluten tends to form and expand comfortably, and the final product will be tender. In some tarts and pies recipes however, we intentionally avoid full gluten formation by adding very little amount of liquid to a dough, so as to end up with crispy or crumbly crust.
- Choice of Flour: The higher the protein content in a flour, the higher the level of gluten development and the more chewy the baked product is likely to be. This is why bread flour is suited for baking chewy bread. The lower the protein content in a flour, the lower the level of gluten development and the more tender and less chewy the baked good will be. Therefore, cake and pastry flour are perfect for baking soft-textured cakes, cookies and other pastries as mentioned above.
- Mixing Method: The longer the dough or a batter is mixed , the more gluten develops. Because we like muffins and cupcakes to be tender and moist, we use "soft flour" with low protein content, and mix their batter only till moisture is absorbed. However, for baking bread, we use "hard flour" with high protein content, mix and knead bread dough for a longer amount of time, so as to end up with the chewy texture we cherish in bread.
Other Bases For Flour:
In addition to wheat- rye, rice, almond, buckwheat, corn, and potato can also be milled to produce flour. Flour made from these grains and seeds however, either have low or no protein content, and thus are not likely to develop gluten needed for baking bread. While it might be a perfect substitute for people who suffer gluten intolerance and/or on a gluten free diet, people who are not sensitive to gluten may need to add wheat flour with high protein content to these types of flour for the purpose of bread baking.
In addition to wheat- rye, rice, almond, buckwheat, corn, and potato can also be milled to produce flour. Flour made from these grains and seeds however, either have low or no protein content, and thus are not likely to develop gluten needed for baking bread. While it might be a perfect substitute for people who suffer gluten intolerance and/or on a gluten free diet, people who are not sensitive to gluten may need to add wheat flour with high protein content to these types of flour for the purpose of bread baking.
