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Don’t Know What Flour To Buy?
by
Dennis Weaver
Confused at the array of flour
available online or in the grocery store? Don’t
know what to buy? We can help.
Buy
flour for breads. If you want tender muffins or
cookies, buy pastry flour. It’s the gluten content
that makes breads chewy and the reduced amount
of gluten that makes muffins crumbly. All-purpose
flour is a compromise. (Many recipes call for
all-purpose, not because it will make the best
muffins but because the formulators know that
all-purpose flour is what most people have.)
Experiment with different flours until you find
what works best for you and then stick with it.
Start with major brands. We found that some of
the smaller, regional mills couldn’t guarantee
us the same specification from season to season.
Except for white cakes, we don’t use bleached
flour. We prefer to avoid the bleaching agents.
We like the creamy color of unbleached flour and
we find unbleached flour easier to work with.
So your shopping list for the baking aisle might
look like this:
• A high gluten
flour for
baking. We would suggest at least 11% gluten.
(While you are in the
aisle pick up a good dough conditioner and a package
of wheat gluten. The extra gluten is especially
helpful when you are making whole wheat breads.)
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Tip of the Week
We always buy unbleached flour for bread.
• A whole wheat flour. We like a fine, stone ground
flour.
• All purpose flour. We don’t use it often but
do so for gravies and sauces, for dusting counters,
and when we feel to follow a recipe exactly. Again,
we’ll buy an unbleached flour.
• A pastry flour for cakes, muffins, and some
cookies. (If we want a chewy cookie, we’ll use
flour.) We’ll buy unbleached pastry flour.
We could buy a bleached cake flour white cakes
but since we don’t make many white cakes, we rarely
do.
Once bought, store your flour properly—in a closed
container in a cool dark place. When flour is
exposed to air, the moisture content changes.
In a dry climate, flour becomes drier. In a humid
environment, moisture increases. The difference
in the moisture content can affect the performance
of your recipe.
Copyright 2003-2007,
The Prepared Pantry (http://www.prepraredpantry.com
). Published by permission in the Article
Directory: http://www.articlecube.com
Dennis
Weaver is a baker, a recipe designer, and a writer.
He has written extensively about baking including
How
to Bake, a comprehensive baking and reference
e-book--available free at The
Prepared Pantry which sells baking supplies
and has a free online baking library including
fried
recipes.
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