Flours are not all the same. But how to choose the correct flour, and what are their characteristics? You can use flour as a signature
Good bread needs good ingredients. And most of the time, the best ingredients are the simplest, namely flour, water, salt and yeast.
Flour is with no doubts the most important ingredient to prepare a good bread, and you should use the flour with the best characteristics for the bread you're preparing.
But how to choose the best flour? and, most importantly, what are the types and the characteristics of the flour?
Let's start from the basics, Wheat flour.
There are different types of wheat flour with differences that changes from country to country. If you have just started baking, or you do not have particular needs, just follow the classification used in the United Kingdom and in the United States:
UK | US | Description |
Patent Flour | Pastry flour | This flour is perfect to prepare biscuits, muffins, pancakes, shortbread, pastry and for thickening sauces. |
Plain Flour | All purpose flour | This flour has a medium content of gluten, and can be used for pastry and bread making. This is the flour I always have in my pantry. |
Strong bread flour | High gluten bread flour | This flour has a higher content of gluten and is used for some breads, focaccia doughs, choux and filo pastry. |
Brown flour | First clear flour | Brown flour includes some of the grain's germ and bran, it can be used to give a boost of flavour or a distinctive signature to your preparations. |
Wholemeal flour | Wholewheat flour | Whole-wheat flour is made keeping all the parts of the wheat. It is higher in fibres and it gives the bread a characteristic flavour and smell. It can be used for any preparation, but I do not suggest it for pastry making. |
This classification is very easy to follow, if you want to use white flour just use one of the first three types of flour (Patent, Plan, Strong).
If you are looking for something less refined, use one of the last two flours.
Whenever is possible I prefer to use are the classifications used in Italy, Germany, and France. In these countries the type of flour is based on the purity of the flour:
Italy | Germany | France | Description |
00 | 405 | 45 | This is the most common white flour. The use is based on values of W (that is a measure of the strength, the higher the value of W the higher the content of gluten) that can be also referred to the grams of proteins. |
0 | 550 | 55 | We can still classify this flour as a white flour. Many bread makers prefer to use this flour. |
| | 65 (70) | You can find this type only in France, Spain and Portugal (value in brackets). It is still a white flour. |
Tipo1 | 812 | 80 | This flour can be compared to a Brown Flour. It is often used to give an "old style" touch to the dough by replacing the white flour with this. |
Tipo2 | 1050 | 110 | Same as the previous. |
Integrale | Volkorn 1600 | Integral 150 | This is the equivalent of the Wholemeal flour. |
So far I have talked only about the classification of flours that starts from white flours to finish with wholemeal flours, and I've provided the detailed classification for Italy, Germany, and France. Spain and Portugal adopt the same classification as France.
I have also set a division line for UK and US classification defining the three classifications for UK: Patent, Plain, and Strong as white flours.
What make the distinction within white flour? The British classification gives us an hint: the "strength" or the amount of protein (gluten) within the flour.
The content of gluten in the flour is one of the key factors for flour selection by bakers in Italy, France and the US, and it is measured using an instrument called Chopin Alveograph. The instrument provides two values:
W: measuring the strength of the dough
P/L: expressing the index of the gluten behaviour.
Both the values can be usually found for each flour on the package or on the Mill's website. When the information is not provided you can contact the producer to ask for it.
Let's analyse better the values of W using the following tale:
W | Protein grams | Description |
<130 | 9-10g | Poor quality flours, unusable for bread making. Can be used to prepare Crumbles, Biscotti, or to dust the working surfaces. |
130-170 | 10-12g | Weak flours, appropriate for the production of Cookies, Waffles, Biscotti, and crumbly products in general. |
170-240 | 12g | Medium flours, perfect to prepare pizza, focaccia, pasta, sandwich bread, and French ficelles. Usually flours within this W range are not suitable for long fermentations (max 5/6 hours) |
240-360 | 13g | Strong flours. These flours are used for doughs that requires the indirect method employing a biga or lieviti (natural yeasts) with long rises. |
>360 | 13-15g | Very strong flours (Manitoba). These flours are perfect for sweet raised doughs such as pandoro, panettone, veneziane, etc., and to prepare and maintain the sourdough. |
Finally the P/L value.
Higher P/L values indicate flours that are more difficult to work and that result in a bread less developed with a compact crumb. Lower P/L values indicate flours that will be weak, too extensible, and difficult to work because they are often sticky. The bread which results will be flattened because the dough has not succeeded in holding back the developing gases.
"W" and the "P/L" are the indices most often used for appraising the plastic qualities of the flour.
Before to close this post, I'd like to mention a last important characteristic of the flour: the capacity to absorb water. This is important especially if you want to prepare doughs with hydration over 70%.
Absorption measures the amount of water that can be absorbed by a certain quantity of flour. In bread making, it is better to use flour that can absorb a large amount of water. Measurements of absorption are usually done to determine the amount of water the dough can absorb. Optimum absorption represents the maximum amount of water, as a percent of the flour weight, that will produce a high yield of bread during the baking process.
Today I tried to focus on the characteristics of the flour, without mentioning different kind of flours (e.g. rye, spelt, semolina, etc...). This will be a topic for a future post. If you're curious about other kind of flours check out the recipes shown below.
Until then, enjoy your baking and do not forget to share your creations!
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