Flour Varieties, Facts and Tips

All-Purpose
Flour / Cake
Flour / Self-Rising Flour / Instantized
Flour

Bread
Flour Semolina
Flour / Pastry Flour / Durum
Flour

Natural
Grain Flours / Flour
Tips / Flour Substitutions

Flour Types

All-Purpose
Flour

The most common
called for flour in recipes. A blend of hard and soft wheat,
it may be bleached or unbleached. Bleached is best for pie crusts,
cookies, quick breads, pancakes and waffles. Unbleached is generally
best because of it’s higher protein content for yeast breads,
Danish pastry, puff pastry, strudel, Yorkshire pudding, eclairs,
cream puffs and popovers

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Cake
Flour

This a “fine-textured,
silky flour milled from soft wheats with a low protein content.”
Since it has a greater percentage of starch and less protein,
it’s best for keeping delicate cakes tender. You can use cake
flour instead of all-purpose flour in recipes by increasing the
cake flour by 2 tablespoons per cup, but that in some recipes
the substitution may cause sinkage or collapse. Similarly, you
can use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour by decreasing
the all-purpose flour by 2 tablespoons, but it is not recommend
to substitute when making delicate cakes such as angel food or
sponge.

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Self-Rising
Flour

Sometimes referred
to as phosphated flour, this is a low-protein flour with salt
and leavening already added. It’s most often recommended for
biscuits and some quick breads but never for yeast breads. 1
cup of self-rising flour contains 1 teaspoon of baking powder
and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. It can be used instead of all-purpose
flour in a recipe by reducing the salt and baking powder according
to these proportions.

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Instantized
Flour

Is granular
in texture and, because it disperses instantly in cold liquids,
is best for preparing smooth gravies and sauces.

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Bread
Flour

This is white
flour made from hard, high-protein wheats. It has more gluten
strength and protein content than all-purpose flour and absorbs
more water. It is unbleached and sometimes conditioned with ascorbic
acid.

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Semolina
Flour

Is made from
the coarsely ground endosperm of durum. It is used to make couscous
and pasta.

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Pastry
Flour

Milled from
soft wheat, this falls somewhere between all-purpose and cake
flour in terms of protein content and baking properties.

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Durum
Flour

Grown in the
U.S. almost exclusively in North Dakota, durum is a hard spring
wheat used to make noodles. It’s finely ground semolina.

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Natural
Grain Flours

Rediscovering
the natural flours of yesterday is one of today’s delights.

Whole Wheat
(or graham) is made from the entire
wheat berry after it has been thoroughly cleaned.

Cracked Wheat is cleaned wheat cracked
or cut into angular fragments.

Rye Flour, milled from rye grain
is usually mixed with wheat for bread baking.

Buckwheat
Flour
is made from the triangular seeds of the buckwheat plant. Know
by it’s “speckles”, it is a robust favorite for pancakes.

Soy Flour is ground from whole raw soybeans and
is slightly sweet-tasting. It is extremely rich in high quality
protein and is an excellent source of iron, calcium and B-vitamins

Cornmeal is made from ground corn and gives a crunchy sweetness
to breads and other foods.

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Flour
Tips

How to Store Flour

All-purpose
Flour should be stored in an airtight canister in a cool, dry
place and used within 15 months. To keep longer, store in the
refrigerator or freezer in an air-tight container. Bring flour
to room temperature before using in recipes.

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How to Measure Flour

All-purpose
flour is pre-sifted and requires no sifting. However, during
packaging, shipping and storage the product does settle. If a
recipe calls for flour that does not need to be sifted, it is
a good idea to lightly fluff the flour with a metal spatula or
spoon before measuring. To measure accurately, spoon flour into
a standard dry-ingredient measuring cup and then level with a
metal spatula or knife. The weight of one cup of flour straight
from the bag can be as much as 1 ounce heavier than it should
be. For certain recipes, it could make a big difference.

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How to Substitute Flour

All-purpose
flour can be used in recipes calling for self-rising flour. For
each cup of all-purpose flour in the recipe, add 1 1/2 teaspoons
baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

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Number of Cups Per Pound

There are about
3 1/3 cups of flour per pound. There are about 34 cups of flour
in a 10-pound bag of flour.

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Flour
Substitutes

In standard recipes, one of
the following may be substituted for 1 cup of wheat flour:

• 1 cup corn flour
• 3/4 cup coarse cornmeal
• 7/8 cup rice flour
• 1 scant cup fine cornmeal
• 5/8 cup potato flour

There are some problems in the
use of substitutes for
wheat flour. The following suggestions will improve the
eating quality of the final product:

1. Rice flour and cornmeal tend
   to have a grainy texture. A smoother texture may be obtained
   by mixing the rice
   flour or cornmeal with the liquid called for in the recipe, bringing
   this mixture to a boil, and cooling it before adding the other
   ingredients.
2. Soy flour must always be used
   in combination with another flour, not as the only flour in a
   recipe. It has no gluten, and by itself has an unappealing taste.
3. When using a substitute for
   wheat flour in baking, longer and slower baking time is required.
   This is particularly true when the product is made without milk
   and eggs.
4. Because they have little or
   no gluten, flours other than
   wheat flour do not make satisfactory yeast breads.
5. Muffins or biscuits, when made
   with flours other than wheat flour, have better texture if baked
   in small sizes.
6. Dryness is a common characteristic
   of cakes made with flours other than wheat flours. Moisture may
   be preserved by frosting or storing cakes in closed containers.