Hot answers tagged flour
25
Chickpea flour (gram flour, besan) is very useful in Indian cookery.
The most common use in the West is probably for making bhajis and pakora. The most popular of which are Onion Bhajis, very popular in the UK. They are essentially an spiced onion fritter, shaped in either discs or balls. Any vegetables can be used to make pakora (which is essentially ...
15
There are actually quite a few differences between the different types of flour. The number of different types you store will really depend on your particular requirements.
All purpose (or plain) flour is a blend of different types of wheat and has a relatively low protein content.
Bread flour is typically made from a single, high protein wheat. It also ...
13
Fix Compacted Flour. Flour will compact over time (and during shipment). You could sift the flour to fluff it back up. Or, you could just stir it before measuring and be sure to spoon the flour into your measuring cup in order to get a correct volume measurement.
Remove Unwanted Material. Yes, sifting would also remove larger pieces or bits of chaff. It ...
13
The reason flour is in paper bag (either 1kg/2lbs bags from supermarkets, or 25kg for bakeries) is to let it "breath": to get it oxidized. If you see an old (vintage) bag it's made of a net that lets a lot of air to get in. Today those bags are not used because it also allows bugs to get in.
When wheat grains are just milled, the flour is not good enough: ...
12
The only difference between regular whole wheat flour and white whole wheat flour is the variety of wheat from which it is ground. Regular whole wheat flour is ground from red wheat while white whole wheat is from a lighter pigmented wheat and thus the lighter color. In both cases the germ is still intact and thus as Jonathan Campbell stated, it will go ...
12
There is a difference beyond just the price.
All-Purpose flours are not the same:
Southerners tend to make more quick breads, pies, cakes, etc. where tenderness is the primary quality factor.
Southern brands of all-purpose flour such as White Lily, Martha White, Red Band, Adluh and others are typically milled from wheat that naturally has a lower ...
12
I suggest to measure by weight as you'll never go wrong.
Otherwise, I use your second method which is to scoop then use a knifed to rid of excess flour.
Flour is so fluffy and needs to be compacted (somewhat) to get a true cup, therefore measuring by weight always guarantees the same amount of flour.
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Authentic flour tortillas use lard. For an authentic taste, use that, or consider using shortening or butter since they are solid at room temperature like lard. You also might want to consider increasing the fat in your recipe. Fat will coat the proteins of your flour and keep the gluten network from forming so easily.
I was also taught when making ...
11
Maybe!
Flour is unusually variable in how densely it will settle, so this can make a big difference for some recipes. The purpose of sifting is to make the amount of flour in a given volume reliable. (If you are measuring by weight, you don't need to sift.)
By moving around the sifted flour, or pouring it from one container into another, you are changing ...
11
The weight of flour varies immensely depending on how densely it's packed and the humidity. If you've started with a weight-based recipe, I'd try to find a scale.
If that's absolutely not an option, I tend to approximate 100g = 1 cup.
Be warned, I've found some recipes that are really sensitive to the amount of flour and the difference between a lightly ...
11
Whole wheat flour goes rancid. There is a lot of fat in wheat germ and when it oxidizes the flour becomes very bitter and has a very noticeable, unpleasant scent.
First of all- if you use bleached white flour there is little to worry about. Bleached flour has had much of the wheat removed to give it a longer shelf life. At the expense of flavor and ...
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Yes, of course you can keep flour in the freezer. For whole wheat flour, which is susceptible to rancidity due to the fat from the whole grain being included, it is even recommended.
For white flour, according to the University of Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County (emphasis added):
For longer storage, keep white flours in the refrigerator in an
...
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The real answer is that it depends on the measurement methodology used by the person who wrote the recipe. I have one book that actually calls for measuring by scooping with the measuring cup and scraping it with the side of the bag, which is how the average person tends to measure flour, and results in about 30% more flour by weight per cup.
King Arthur ...
10
The answer depends upon the type of pizza you're making:
00 Flour (Caputo or San Felice are two common brands) is an italian flour that's finely milled. It's low in protein content and performs well in high temperature ovens (e.g. coal fired, wood fired ovens). I usually don't cook 00 under 700F. 00 Flour is almost always used in Traditional Neapolitan ...
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Sifting aerates the flour. This alters the texture of the finished good, resulting in a lighter, airier texture. This still has relevance today, and should be done when the recipe calls for it, but you can experiment freely on your own. Generally there is no need to sift when making bread, biscuits or scones. Delicate sponge or chiffon cakes using pastry or ...
10
The purpose of using a roux, as opposed to just plain flour, is to improve the dispersal of starch molecules in the sauce. If you just toss a bunch of flour into a simmering sauce - or do the reverse, pour hot liquid onto dry flour - then you'll immediately start getting gross glutinous lumps and will find it nearly impossible to smooth them out.
Starch is ...
9
Chef Darin Sehnert, of chefdarin.com and the teaching chef at a cooking school in Savannah, GA, has a great in-depth article on the various types of flour:
http://www.chefdarin.com/2009/08/flour-power/
He answers questions such as "Why and when to use cake flour" and "Why and when to use all-purpose flour." It's a long read but does a great job of ...
9
Cook it longer, and watch your proportions. If it's too dry (not enough fat), it's hard to cook through without burning it. You want to get to a golden brown color throughout. You can cook it until it's darker and it'll add more caramel/nutty flavor (don't burn it), but it has to be at least a golden color before it's cooked enough to not taste of raw flour. ...
9
For 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1½ tsp baking powder+ ¼ tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)
Edit: Calculation added by Sebbidychef:
According to http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml 1 cup of un-sifted all-purpose flour is equal to 120g.
Therefore 1000 divided by 120 is 8.3 recurring ...
8
Typical all purpose flour does not include the germ of the wheat, so if you would like to mimic the stuff from the store, you need to grind wheat without the germ (source).
By using hard white wheat and a very fine grind, I have for years made a flour that operates very like whole wheat pastry flour, which can often be substituted for all purpose flour in ...
8
You're very correct the grinders are pretty pricey. I believe we paid about $300 for ours.
There are a few good reasons for me to have a grinder. Whether they are good reasons for you is your call.
1- I can grind whatever I want. Right now I am using hard white wheat. Unbleached, hard, white wheat flour is more expensive than your run-of-the-mill flour and ...
8
Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes I think it's one of a few things.
It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour.
It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. If this were the case though you'd likely have some cookies that weren't ...
8
Many, many things happen when flour flour is mixed into batter. From your description, though, it sounds like you are interested in what leads to and relieves clumping.
When water (whether it is just plain water, in milk, in juice, or whatever) and flour are mixed, the water will begin to expand and penetrate the starch granules in the flour. The starch ...
7
The difference is the amount of protein contained in the flour which can range from 5% to 15%. Bread flour usually has a minimum of 12% because bread needs it to rise properly. Cake flour has lower amount of protein, and all-purpose is in the middle.
See also here. The link at the bottom opens a table of the different protein ratios for the different ...
7
Assuming you're baking: Sifting does more than just standardize the density of your flour (which it doesn't even do all that well). Most recipes that call for sifted flour do so because it helps aerate the batter, as well as keeping the flour from clumping and forming lumps. It won't incorporate a large volume of air, but it will bring in lots of microscopic ...
7
The best is the Italian Tipo 00: http://www.fornobravo.com/brick_oven_cooking/pizza_ingredients/flour.html.
If you can't find that flour, I find a mix of bread flour & semolina (ferina) works very well too.
This is my favourite pizza dough recipe: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough
7
Bread baking is remarkably tolerant. It is very hard to make an inedible loaf. That said, why not start with a recipe that has been tested with all-purpose flour. There are plenty of them. By the way, a terrific book to get you started with baking is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Enjoy the journey, learning to bake bread is one of the most rewarding ...
7
Short and sweet... Use cake / pastry flour. At 5-7 % protein vs. 11% for AP vs. 13% + for bread flour, that means a lot less gluten formation. This protein, when mixed with water and subjected to mechanical working is what produces gluten. The higher the protein percentage, the 'tougher' (due to the gluten) the final product. Always use cake or pastry flour ...
6
All purpose flour is flour that has been milled to achieve a "medium" protein content. So, you need to blend a high protein wheat with a low protein wheat to get flour with a protein content of ~ 9 - 12 %.
It's "all purpose" because you can use it for a variety of recipes. Bread flour is made from high protein wheat and say, cake flour is made from low ...
6
There is no official standard. The USDA uses 125g/cup, but labels on packages claim different weights for one cup:
Gold Medal brand: 130g
King Arthur brand: 113g
wolframalpha: 137g
superpacked: 165g
I always convert my recipes to weights using 140g/cup.
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