the imporance of flour

Of all the ingredients used in bread making, flour is the largest by volume and certainly the most important.

The better your flour, the more flavoursome your bread will be. Quality flour will also give bigger loaves with lighter texture. So it’s worthwhile seeking out a good source of breadmaking flour.

Health food stores often are a good source of bread flour. Or ask your local baker.

To the apprentice baker, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to understand all the different terms associated with flour. So we’ll demistify them here.

hard or bread flour

Flour can vary in protein levels and different protein levels are suited to different types of baking.

Bread flour is high in protein. It is called strong flour because the high protein content allows it to form a strong, glutenous loaf. Cakes and pastry, on the other hand are best with lower protein flours because we’re after a light, delicate texture.

Plain flour or all-purpose flour has a medium level of protein. This means it can be used for cakes and bread, but won’t be as successful as bread with the appropriate level of protein.

stone ground

The traditional way to mill wheat into flour is to grind it between stones. The stones keeps everything cool and maintains more nutrients and enzymes than modern high-speed metal mills. Although modern mills should have the ability to cool their rolls if they choose.

Producers who choose to mill their flour with stone tend to be more interested in quality than large modern mills.

unbleached

Bleaching is a process in modern milling where the flour is treated with bleaching agents to make it whiter and help the gluten stretch more. If chlorine dioxide is used to bleach flour, it can combine with the protein to form alloxan, which is known to cause diabetes in lab rats.

Choose unbleached flour to avoid the chemicals. As flour ages, it naturally goes through a self bleaching process. The resulting flour won’t ever be as white as artificially bleached flour but it does gain the desirable gluten-stretching properties.

organic & biodynamic

Good quality bread flour doesn’t necessarily have to come from an organic or biodynamic farm. But if a supplier cares enough about their farm to use organic or biodynamic practices, they’re more likely to be producing the best quality possible.

It’s up to you, of course, whether the increased price tag is worth it.

back to Simple Breadmaking at Home Overview