A Simple Guide to The Worlds Most Popular Flours
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This is your simple guide to the common types of flours (how long does flour last?) for baking and other uses. Discover the main role of gluten and some of the gluten-free options.
Flour was one of the first industries established during the beginning of the industrial era towards the end of the 18th century. However long before that, millennia prior to that point, people had been grinding dried grain into flour from simple stones in simple mortars ground into rock beds.
Types of Flours: How Flour is Milled
Grinding grain into a coarse meal was one of the first cooking processes ever invented. It allowed for the invention of bread (how long does bread last?) which as we all know is one of the most important food staples wherever you go around the world. Indigenous people started milling grain using large stones as pestles and a rock with an indent as a mortar.
Flour milling was one of the earliest industrial processes that were erected when the industrial era began. The first grain mills were powered by hand using workers or slaves, followed by wind and water power which revolutionized the industry.
Harvested
The most popular flours are commercially harvested using a large machine called a combine harvester or simply a combine. In 1826 agriculture moved away from the backbreaking manual labor of hand-harvesting with a sickle. A Scotsman named Patrick Bell invented the horse-drawn harvesting machine called the ‘reaper machine’, the principles of which are still being used today.
Tempered
After harvesting and cleaning, the wheat gets tempered which hardens the bran and mellows the endosperm in the kernel. This is done using rotors to dampen the seed which is then blended and gone further into processing.
Ground
After being tempered the wheat kernels go through a series of grinding plates, sifters, and purifiers Depending on the coarseness of the grind the ground wheat is separated at different points of the milling process.
Packaged
Before packaging happens the flour is processed with a number of optional processes. Bleaching is one of the most common which usually involves treating the flour with bleaching agents like chlorine gas or Benzoyl peroxide. Some types of flour for baking can also be treated further with extra gluten or enriched with extra nutrients.
What is Gluten in All Types of Flours?
By far the most important component of flour is gluten. When learning the types of flours and their uses, you will find that gluten has been incredibly stigmatized by both the media and health professionals. The truth is unless you have an underlying condition or intolerance to it, gluten is not bad for you. Hence, there’s really no need to find flour substitute in baking that has no gluten content.
Gluten is a string of proteins that forms when two other proteins, gliadin and glutenin, mesh together to form a lattice, almost like a web that traps CO2 released from yeast fermentation.
So we’ve established what gluten is exactly but there's still the question of how certain types of flours contain more or less gluten. The wheat used for flour can be divided into two categories, hard winter wheat which is sown in the fall and harvested towards spring that has more protein, and soft spring wheat, which is sown in the spring and harvested in the fall and has less protein.
So the more gluten sub-proteins (gliadin & glutenin) in the winter wheat the stronger the gluten structure will be once it forms in the dough. The stronger gluten structure can trap gasses much better which makes it ideal for bread and other baked goods that require leavening plus a little extra bite & chew.
Popular Wheat Flours
Cake Flour
Cake flour is one of the types of flour for baking that has the least amount of gluten of all the flours (typically between 7-8%) to ensure minimal binding and maximum crumble for things like cakes (how long do cakes last?).
Pastry Flour
Pastry flour has the second least gluten protein content of the flours at around 8 or 9 percent. It has slightly more strength than cake flour but still produces a flaky crust.
Plain Flour
Plain flour, also called all-purpose or AP flour is the most commonly used flour. It has a gluten protein content of around 10-11%, 12% if the cold season was particularly warm. It’s a fine bread for both cakes and bread although any experienced chef will be able to tell you the difference.
Self-Raising Flour
Self-raising flour has the same gluten content as plain flour, but self-raising flour has chemical leaveners and often salt already mixed into it. You can make your own self-raising flour by mixing 1 teaspoon (3g) of baking powder (how long does baking powder last?) into every cup (125g) of plain flour.
Bread Flour
Bread flour (how long does bread flour last?) is milled from hard spring wheat which naturally has more gliadin and glutenin present in its cells. It’s particularly good for bread and leavened goods because its strong structure can hold carbon dioxide much better.
Gluten Flour
All types of gluten flours are made by washing most (theoretically 100% though this has never been achieved) of the starches out of flour leaving behind the gluten proteins. This flour can be mixed into plain flour to make bread flour without actually buying bread flour.
Non-Wheat Types of Flours and Their Uses
Rye Flour
Rye flour (how long does rye flour last?) is made from rye grains, hence its name. Many rye flours are mixed with wheat flours to produce sufficient gluten for bread. Pumpernickel bread is made exclusively from rye meal (how long does rye meal last?) and rye flour.
Cornmeal/Corn Flour
Corn is a popular flour substitute in baking and was the primary grain of the neolithic people who ground it into cornmeal (how long does cornmeal last?) for bread. It’s still used widely in Mexican and southern food. Corn flour (how long does corn flour last?) has a much finer grind than cornmeal and is very often used as a thickener or added to plain flour to make it more like cake flour. Cornmeal and cornflour are also totally gluten-free.
Types of Gluten-Free Flours
Almond Flour
Almond flour (how long does almond flour last?) is one of the popular flours made by blanching, peeling, then grinding almonds (how long do almonds last?) into a coarse meal or a finer flour. It is one of the most popular gluten-free flours in both gluten-free and regular baking.
Rice Flour
Rice (how long does rice last?) flour is made from ground rice grains and is very popular in Asian countries for noodles, pancakes, and thickeners. It’s more popular in western culture for crispy and airy batters as rice flour (how long does rice flour last?) is a lot lighter and fluffier than plain flour.
Acorn Flour
Acorn flour (how long does acorn flour last?) is best made by leaching, drying, and then grinding acorns. It was very widely used by the native Americans, particularly in the east of the country.
Nut Flours
Nut flours can be made from any number of nuts (how long do nuts last?) from almonds, peanuts, and pecans (how long do pecans last?), to chestnuts, hazelnuts, and pistachios. The nuts are blacked, peeled, and ground with a couple of extra steps added depending on the nut.
Bean Flour
Bean flour is made from ground beans that have been dried and milled into a particular consistency. The benefit of this flour is that it’s very high in protein and fiber so it’s a great alternative for people who are getting fit.
Banana Flour
Banana flour (how long does banana flour last?) is common in places where bananas ideally grow (Africa, Jamaica, parts of Asia, and South America). It’s typically made from green bananas which are peeled, chopped, dried, and ground. It’s a rather inefficient process as it takes 8-10 pounds of bananas to make 1 pound of banana flour.
There you have it. The popular types of flours and their uses. Which ones do you often use when baking?
