Is toasted flour a good idea for bread?

Question

Some time ago, I had the ridiculous idea of baking flour on it's own. I then found out that it turns yellowish and that the proteins inside might get destroyed. Can baked flour be used to make bread, and if so, will it be gold-coloured? Does this have any effects on the quality of the bread?

Answer 1

As you mentioned in your own post, the toasting process will deactivate the flour's proteins. They won't actually be destroyed, but they will lose their binding capacity.

This means that bread is the worst application for toasted flour. If you tried to make a bread out of toasted flour only, you'd run basically into the same problems as in using a gluten-free flour. To get around the problem, you could either use a not-completely-toasted flour, or a mixture of toasted and untoasted, or a mixture of toasted flour and vital wheat gluten, or follow a recipe for gluten-free bread. In all cases, you'll get an inferior texture when compared to normal bread.

The taste can be expected to be nuttier than when made with normal flour. The color will be darker, but I doubt that it will be "golden", it's more likely it will be on the beige-brown spectrum. If all you want is a different color, you should use a food coloring substance, not manipulate the flour.

If you want to experiment with toasted flour, there are many other products which will be a much better choice. The traditional ones are dark roux and flour-based drinks, but you could in principle make anything that works well with gluten-free flour and where you'd appreciate the toasted aroma.

Answer 2

In Brazil we love farofa, which is toasted cassava flour. It's possible to do it with other kinds of flours, although I'm not sure if regular wheat flour would be appropriate because it's too finely ground.