Flour - A treatise

Prelude
Attempting to describe the differences between flour in the Italy and the United States (US)
presents a number of challenges because there is no single source of definitive explanations
and definitions. What follows is a review of the literature and included information excerpted
from a variety of Italian and nglish language texts.
Additionally! we include our own breadma"ing experience. We have assumed that many
visitors to The Artisan do not have access to the texts that we have used as the basis for this
wor". #onse$uently! we have ta"en the liberty to $uote liberally from the source materials. We
have also provided references for these wor"s for those who may be interested in further
research. %he purpose of this research is to provide enough technical information to allow a
ba"er! whether serious home or commercial! to ma"e informed flour choices when attempting
to duplicate Italian breads.
Introduction
As presented throughout the remainder of this text! the evaluation of essential factors relative
to the $uality of flour is more often than not made by laboratory analyses. As a rule! both
commercial and serious home ba"ers in the US are given minimal technical information
regarding the ma&ority of the wheat flours that are available for use. %hey are provided the
type flour! i.e. patent! high'gluten! all'purpose! bleached or unbleached! pastry! etc.! whether
or not the flour is made up of hard or soft wheat! or a blend! and a per cent protein content.
(ther information! such as the results from laboratory analyses! is not readily obtainable. It
has only recently become common "nowledge to the general public that the characteristics
and $uality of a particular flour (such as all'purpose) may differ according to geographic
region.
)y contrast! Italian and other uropean commercial ba"ers have a greater variety of flours
and more technical information available to them than do their American counterparts. *or
instance! a list of the flours available from Molino SIMA di Argenta includes + type ,,! - type
,! and . type whole wheat flour! in addition to / type ,, flour for domestic use. Analytic data
such as the 0W0! 01230 and per cent dry gluten (discussed below) are provided with a
description of each flour and its suggested use. 4ome ba"ers in Italy are given short shrift as
Italian law does not re$uire information about the particular flour being used to be published
on flour pac"aging. We have provided as much information as we could locate in the section
labeled "Criteria for Judging Flour". 5any reading this treatise may find it disheartening
that the flour $uality indicators available to uropean and not readily available here. *or $uite
a while only one company does provide information6 #oo"s 7atural 1roducts. As of late! more
mills are providing that information to professional ba"ers. Some will provide these data to
home ba"ers upon re$uest. %he Artisan8s position is that every mill! large and small! should
provide the information. It is up to you! our visitors to demand same.
Flour Descriptions & Definitions
9uaglia of the Instituto 7a:ionale della 7utri:ione in ;ome! Italy (.) informs us that when the
wheat cultivated in #anada <5anitoba=! and the US is milled! the result is strong flour
characteri:ed by elevated insoluble protein (gluten forming) content and diminished starch
content. )y contrast! when the wheat cultivated in Italy! *rance! ngland! and partly in
Australia! is milled! the result is wea" flour characteri:ed by elevated starch content and a
diminished insoluble protein content. #onse$uently! duplicating uropean bread using
American and #anadian flours may be an exercise in futility unless the ba"er! whether at
home or in a commercial ba"ery! understands the physical and chemical characteristics of the
flours available to him or her and ad&usts his or her formulas and recipes accordingly.
xact US e$uivalents for uropean flours do not exist. >ifferent categories are used in each
country as universally accepted nomenclature does not exist in this field. A clear and concise
description of the differences in flour in *rance and the US can be found in a text authored by
)ilheux! scoffier! 4erve! and 1ouradier (/). %he discussion lends itself as much to the
description of the characteristics of Italian flour as to *rench. %o wit6
"Flour: There are many types of white wheat flours, each having its own particular
characteristics. Although the recipes in this book were originally based on French flours, we
have tried to find the best possible substitutes for the flours called for in each recipe; but keep
in mind these are meant to be substitutions and in no way are they to be considered direct
correlations.
In France, Artisan !ote" In Italy as well# flour tends to be softer and lower in gluten and
protein than in the $nited %tates. Flour milled from soft wheat does not have the elasticity
re&uired for breads. Therefore the French wheat is sometimes milled with hard wheat
imported from the $nited %tates or 'anada. This makes it difficult to duplicate the same flour
in another country. Flour in the $nited %tates with similar specifications as flour in France may
respond very differently when used. This does not mean, as many frustrated bakers have
thought in the past, that wonderful French breads are out of reach outside of France. Though
identical results are difficult to recreate in another country, e&ually good bread can be
achieved. (e recommend that the reader try different brands and types of flours available to
find the flour that works best for them ...
)elow are descriptions of various types of white wheat flours available in the $nited %tates.
The germ and bran are removed from the kernel when white flour is milled, even though they
contain nearly all the fiber and ) vitamins; they are removed because they also negate the
elastic properties of the gluten, which is so vital to the te*ture and crumb of the bread. The
flours discussed here are milled from soft spring and soft winter wheat, which are generally
grown in eastern states, and hard spring and hard winter wheat, which are grown in the
northern +idwest and 'anada. %oft flour contains ,.- to ,., percent protein, ..-- to ..-,
percent ash, / percent fat, and 01 to 00 percent starch. 2ard flour contains //.3 to //.,
percent protein, ..-4 to ..4. percent ash, /.3 percent fat, and 0- to 04 percent starch. The
higher protein found in hard flour indicates a higher level of gluten, which results in a more
elastic, better5te*tured bread. The ash content is the &uantity of ash resulting after burning a
given amount of flour. The lower the ash content, the higher the &uality of the flour. The hard
wheat flours most concern the bread baker.
In the $nited %tates, the improver a6odicarbonamide is often added to flours to mature them.
It is activated when the flour is mi*ed into the dough. This helps strengthen the gluten and
conse&uently improves the elasticity and rising of the dough. !atural maturing takes from two
to three months.
Straight flour is considered a good flour to use for bread making. It is /.. percent e*traction
flour. The e*traction rate is the amount of flour obtained from wheat after milling, when the
bran and germ are removed, leaving the endosperm, which contains most of the protein and
carbohydrates. For e*ample, based on /.. pounds of wheat, appro*imately 03 pounds of
flour remains after e*traction; the other 3, pounds is used for feed. The entire 03 pounds or
/.. percent, of the remaining flour is straight flour. %traight flour is used to make patent,
clear, and low5grade flours.
Patent flour is the purest and highest5&uality commercial wheat flour available. 7atent flour is
made from the center portion of the endosperm. 7atent flour is classified in
five categories, depending on the amount of straight flour it
obtains. 8*tra short or fancy and first patent flours are made from soft wheat and are used for
cake flours. 8*tra short or fancy patent contains -. to 1. percent straight flour. First patent
flour contains 1. to 0. percent straight flour. %hort patent flour made from hard wheat is the
most highly recommended commercially milled flour for bread baking, it contains 0. to ,.
percent straight flour. +edium patent flour contains ,. to 9. percent straight flour and is also
e*cellent for bread baking, as is long patent flour, which is made with 9. to 94 percent
straight flour. It is up to the baker to determine which of these flours best serves his or her
purposes.
Clear flour is the by5product of straight flour that remains after patent flour is removed. 'lear
flour is graded into fancy, first clear, and second clear. 'lear flour is darker in color than the
other flours previously mentioned, as it is made from the part of the endosperm closest to the
bran. Fancy clear flour, milled from soft wheat, is used to make pastry flour. First clear, milled
from hard wheat, is often blended by the baker with low5gluten flours to lighten the te*ture of
breads such as rye or whole5wheat yet maintain the deep color desirable in such breads.
%econd clear flour has a very high ash content, is very dark, and is not generally used for
food.
Stuffed straight flour is straight flour with some clear flour added.
The following types of flours are made from some of the flours discussed above. They are
often named by their application rather than how they are milled.
Cake flour has the least amount of gluten of all wheat flours, making it best for light, delicate
products such as sponge cakes, genoise, and some cookie batters. +ade from e*tra short or
fancy patent flour, milled from soft wheat, cake flour often comes bleached, which gives it a
bright, white appearance. In this book, flours are assumed to be unbleached unless otherwise
indicated.
Pastry flour also has a low gluten content, though it contains a bit more than cake flour.
+ade from fancy clear flour, a soft wheat flour, it is used for making tart and pie doughs,
some cookie batters, and muffins.
All-purpose flour is made from a blend of hard wheat flours or sometimes a blend of soft
and hard wheat flours. All5purpose flour varies throughout regions in the $nited %tates;
blends are often determined by the flours available and the cooking styles of the area. It is
called all5purpose flour because it is intended for most baking needs for general household
use, not commercial use, where having several different flours, each used for a specific
purpose, is feasible.
High-gluten flour is milled from hard wheat and has an especially high protein content,
making it high in gluten. It is often blended by the baker with other low5gluten flours to give
them more strength and elasticity. It is also used for particularly crusty breads and pi66a
doughs. It does not darken the color of the final product, as does clear flour."
%he information that follows reviews a variety of sources in an effort to present information
relevant to the flours used in bread ba"ing. (ne purpose that we hope to serve by including
the detailed and technical sections that follows is to more clearly describe the properties of
flour found in the US and in Italy! and to assist interested readers in developing insights into
the complexity of our tas" ''' ma"ing and ba"ing breads. We have included this because a
number of visitors to The Artisan have re$uested an in depth discussion of flours. Such a
discussion is pointless without the technical details. Unfortunately much of the test information
necessary to understand the flour with which you may be wor"ing is not provided by the
manufacturer. It should be. %he Bread Bakers uild of A!erica is attempting to remedy this
situation. Should you wish to &oin in this effort! log onto their site (#lic" on the logo at ;ight)
and let them "now. It is important for the ba"er! whether a home or a commercial ba"er! to
reali:e that the information is available at the mill. 1erhaps if more of us demanded this
information we would not have to ba"e breads in what amounts to 0the dar"0.