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Was asked to explain the finer details about flour by a few of you. Didn't realise it was such a confusing topic but here's a thread all about it #LesFoodFacts
The term "flour" can refer to a whole lot of dried and ground parts of non-aromatic plants. I'm only gonna touch on wheat flour on this thread. #LesFoodFacts
The wheat grain. Without getting into too much detail, these are the 3 most important parts when it comes to wheat grains. You'll understand why later when I break them down and what each one does. #LesFoodFacts
The endosperm is what gives your 80% of what flour is made up of. It's the "starch" part of the wheat grain.
The germ is where the oils are (referred to as fatty acids) and then the bran is the outer shell. That's where the fibre is found #LesFoodFacts
The germ is where the oils are (referred to as fatty acids) and then the bran is the outer shell. That's where the fibre is found #LesFoodFacts
The germ is problematic because it goes "off" very quickly after it has been ground up. This also destroys the rest of the flour. Unlike the endosperm. So back in the day they had to figure out how to process wheat without the germ. This is when "degermed" flour was invented.
They degerm flour by using heat and steam processes. That isn't important to this thread though. The degerming process means the bulk of the nutritional part of the flour is gone but it also means you have a cleaner and whiter flour which is less nutty and dense
So to get the nutrition back, wholewheat flours have the germ and bran added back to them. This is where you get "wholewheat" flour. #LesFoodFacts
Flour isn't pure white naturally. It has to be bleached and aged to get it to look that way. It's why you'll see "unbleached" and "bleached" on some flour packaging. It's this process that determines what type of flour you're going to get. #LesFoodFacts
Why is it important? Coz the type of flour determines what you use it for. Flour has protein in it but there are different degrees of protein in different flours. Cake flour has the least protein whilst bread flour has the most. #LesFoodFacts
When you work dough, the higher the protein content in a flour the more elastic it will be. When making bread you want elasticity but when making cake and pastry you want less elasticity. Types of chlorine are added to achieve this in cake flour. Bleached cake flour is 6% protein
Bread flour is about 14% protein. When you knead bread dough you are activating the protein and developing the gluten. In simple terms you're stretching the protein strands out. The protein strands are what catch the Carbon Dioxide that is produced by yeast. #LesFoodFacts
So the longer you knead bread dough the longer and more elastic the protein and the more CO2 will be caught = a lighter and fluffier bread. Hence me always asking how long did you knead your dombolo/gwinya dough #LesFoodFacts
There are other types of flour in-between cake flour and bread flour. Americans have All Purpose Flour (or simply AP flour). Technically it isn't the same thing as our Cake Wheat Flour. It has a 50% more gluten than cake flour. #LesFoodFacts
Different flours are referred to as "types" eg 'Type 00'. In Europe its a serious subject, it's not just "cake", "bread", "wholewheat". Each type of flour has its own uses. Each type has a different protein content, which matters coz it will affect what you're making
"hard flour" or "extra strong flour" has the highest amount of protein. Its usually for really dense artisanal breads. Most stone milled flours tend to be less refined and therefore have higher protein content which makes them best for dense European breads. #LesFoodFacts
Self-raising flour is just cake wheat flour that has salt and baking powder already added to it. You'll rarely find a true baker using self-raising. It's better to add the baking powder yourself so you have control of the entire process. #LesFoodFacts
South African flour is really good quality despite us not having the detailed naming conventions like in the EU. When I was in Russia we were so shocked at how bad their flour was over there. They don't have a difference between bread and cake flour.
So to counter the high protein content in their flour they sifted their flour over and over and also added extra baking powder when using it. It was also a light grey kind of colour, which is a sign of high protein in a flour. That's awesome for breads...not awesome for cakes.
That's the simplified side of flour. It gets A LOT more intense and detailed but that's if you want to be professional with it. A lot of SA bakeries now import specialist flours from Europe for artisanal breads. It's worth it if you're doing it as a business. #LesFoodFacts
