Part

Flour

You might say: bread flour, wheat flour

Ground grain, usually wheat, with an endosperm, bran, germ and proteins that can form gluten.

What it does

Contains endosperm and gluten-forming protein; coarse whole-grain particles can puncture gluten and require longer mixing.

Ask

What is its protein, how much of the whole grain does it keep, and how much water does it want?

Trouble

Dough can become wet, sticky and loose when flour protein is too low.

What to look for

1. Colour from creamy white to speckled brown
2. Bag label with protein percentage or a type number

Parts

• Gluten: A stretchy protein network that forms when wheat's glutenin and gliadin proteins meet water and are worked.
• Protein content: The flour's protein percentage, shown on its bag.
• Extraction rate and ash: The share of the wheat kernel recovered as flour, described by extraction rate or by the ash left from a flour sample.
• Falling number: A lab test of flour's starch slurry: the seconds a stirrer takes to fall through hot ground wheat and water.

Catalogue: Flour type

• Bread flour: Flour with more protein than all-purpose; King Arthur lists 12.7% for its bread flour.
• All-purpose flour: Flour with less protein than bread flour; King Arthur lists 11.7% for its all-purpose flour.
• Whole-wheat flour: Flour of the whole wheat kernel: bran, germ and endosperm. It counts by keeping the whole kernel, not by its brown colour.
• Rye flour: Rye flour with little gluten-forming protein, so all-rye loaves are dense and heavy.
• Spelt: Wheat with more delicate gluten than regular wheat's.

Sources

1. Jeffrey Hamelman, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, ch. 1, p. 6There are, in fact, two proteins in wheat flour that combine to form gluten
2. Jeffrey Hamelman, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, ch. 1, p. 12When mixing whole-wheat bread, the comparatively coarse and sharp particles of the wheat tend to have a puncturing effect on the gluten network, which in turn necessitates somewhat longer mixing for dough development.
3. King Arthur Baking, Whole Grains, Whole GrainsTraditional whole wheat flour is ground from red wheat berries, and like white whole wheat (below) includes the entire wheat berry: oil-rich germ, protein-laden endosperm, and fiber-packed bran.
4. Jennifer Latham, Bread flour vs. all-purpose flour, Bread flour vs. all-purpose flourThe protein in flour is what forms gluten in your dough, so higher protein means more gluten.
5. Jennifer Latham, Bread flour vs. all-purpose flour, Bread flour vs. all-purpose flourIf you use a lower protein flour like all-purpose with the same amount of water, the dough will be too wet, sticky, and loose, and it will be more difficult to handle and shape; it may also be gummy when baked.

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