FLOUR and various types of flours used in Bakery and cooking

 

Flour and various types of flour used in Bakery

What is flour ???

Flour is obtained from mill grains and pulses. Milling can be of various degree to give a particular structure to the product and the usage of each milled product will be different from other.

Wheat is among the most extensively cultivated cereals crops in the world. 

Let's discuss about the type of flour obtained from Wheat ????

Wholemeal flour -

 Also called atta in India, it is the whole milled wheat kernel. The flour is cream to brown in colour as it has the bran grounded with it. It is not advisable to sift the wholewheat flour as most of the bran, an important dietary component, will be lost.

Graham flour

It is usually found in the USA and the milling concept of this flour is very interesting. The wheat kernel is separated into its various components such as endosperm, germ, and bran. The endosperm is ground finely to produce white flour with gluten, whereas germ and bran are ground till coarse. 

The milled flour then mixed back to yield graham flour. In case of non availability of this flour one can mix refined flour, bran, and germ in the ratios that they naturally exist in the grain 

Brown flour

It is almost 85 per cent of the grain millet, where some amount of bran has been extracted. It is nutritious as it has high percentage of germ.

Strong flour

It is milled from hard flour, in other words from high protein flour. The strong absorb more water than weak flours, as gluten can absorb twice their own weight of water. This flour is used for products which will have a high rise in the oven such as yeast breads, choux pastry, and puff pastry. Strong flour is also known as baker's flour.

Weak flour

Weak flour is also known as soft flour or cake flour. As the name suggest this four has less gluten and hence, it is used for products that need a softer texture such as cookies and cakes and sponges.

All purpose flour

The all purpose flour is a blend of flours and has medium strength. In India, all the refined flour that we get is all purpose flour.

Pastry flour

It is a very finely ground polished flour of soft wheat kernels, usually enriched and bleached.

Self raising flour

This flour is usually of medium strength and contains baking powder in a proportion Since the flour contains moisture, this can react with the baking powder listening the effect of baking powder and hence, it is not advisable to buy the commercial sel raising flour.

 It is advisable to use 60 g of baking powder to 1 kg flour to make well raising. This flour is commonly.used to make afternoon cookies called scones.

Now we discuss Types of flour from various grains.

Rye flour - 

Rye flour does not have as much gluten as in popular flour and hence, it is sometimes mixed in proportions with flour for the production of breads. Breads which use only rye flour are more dense and chewy. This flour is majorly used in the Russian and Scandinavian breads. Rye flour dough is quite heavy and sticky.

Spelt flour - 

It is quite popular in European countries such as Germany, France, and Switzerland. It is made from spelt which is a species of wheat. It is good source of vitamin B.

Rice flour -

 It is the finely ground polished rice with a similar texture of corn starch, usually used as thickening agent. Rice flour is free of gluten and if the dough has to be made one would have to make it with hot water.

Maize flour - 

Popular in Mexico, this flour is made from cooked maize corn and then grounded. It is also known as masa harina. This flour has also been used in India since time immemorial and a very popular north Indian dish called makki ki roti is made from it. This flour is also free from gluten.

Cornflour -

 It is made by grounding the white heart or the germ of the corn kernel, one of the widely used thickening agents in Chinese cooking. This is also free of gluten and usage of this flour in products gives crispness to the product. It can also be added to strong flour to turn into weak flour Commercial custard powder is also made with cornflour with colour and flavour added. Cornflour is not flour, but it is actually a starch.

Arrowroot -

 This flour is finely milled from the arrowroot plant. It has the same properties as cornflour and the uses are very similar. It is widely used for making glazes.

Barley flour - 

Made from the pearl barley, it has low gluten content with mild flavour.

Buckwheat flour - 

It has distinctive greyish brown colour with earthy bitter taste. It is used to make classical preparations such as Russian blinis, pancakes, and French galettes. In India it is widely eaten during fasts and is commonly known as kuttu ka atta.