- Okay, so today, we're talking about the nine common types
of flour, and we're also talking about a little bit
how you can actually make different types,
depending on some of the ones you might have on stock.
We're specifically focusing on wheat flour.
So this is not almond flour, coconut flour,
not those types of things.
It's just wheat flour
and the different varieties and versions that there are.
So what is wheat?
Well, wheat is a grass that produces these ears of grains
that we then harvest, process,
and turn into tasty things like bread and pasta.
But how does that wheat actually become flour?
Well, great question.
So there's a couple of different ways.
There's stone milling and roller milling.
Stone milling, like me, Stone,
is actually like how we used to do things, right,
a very, very, very long time ago.
Early stone milling was actually powered by humans.
There's still some stone milling that goes on these days.
It's smaller operations, but these days,
a lot of the processing is actually roller milling.
It's the more modern way to do things
when it comes to commercial flour production.
When it comes to wheat, there's whole wheat.
What's she doing?
I feel like she's gonna try to claw...
She's gonna climb up under your jacket. (laughs)
Thanks.
Go.
Stop rubbing on things.
Cat problems.
So after flour has been milled,
it really kind of comes down to two different types
that we're sort of used to in the store.
There's whole-wheat flour and then white flour.
So what does that mean?
Wheat has the bran, it has the germ,
and it has the endosperm.
Those are the three components of wheat.
So with white flour, the bran and the germ are removed,
and it's just processing that endosperm.
So whole wheat flour, one of the differences
is that it has everything from the wheat seed.
So when that's all ground up,
that means all the oils that are in that bran
and in that germ are also in the flour,
and those oils are the things that go rancid fast.
So whole-wheat flour doesn't last as long on the shelf
or in the pantry as white flour for that reason.
And while white flour does last longer,
the flip side of that is it actually has fewer nutrients
and a much more milder flavor.
Before I get into the different types,
I just want to give you all the information,
so when you're browsing in the flour section,
you know what these different terms mean.
So we discussed wheat flour and white flour.
Now, we're gonna talk about bleached versus unbleached.
And I just want you to have an understanding
of these terms for when you're perusing the flour aisle
at the grocery store.
So bleached flour is bleached with chlorine
or benzoyl peroxide, the same stuff that's in zit cream.
So, ew.
Ew, David, right?
Unbleached flour is not.
The advantage of bleached flour
is that it absorbs liquids a lot easier,
it's a lot easier to work with,
and it has a much nicer rise.
So just, those are some of the pros and cons
that you can decide for yourself
when you're grocery shopping.
Okay, so now we're going to jump into the nine common types
of flours.
Like I said, I'm focusing on common types here
that you can find readily available in the US.
If you're looking for something
that's maybe not readily available, try Grinder Finder.
You can find different flours there
for the non-common stuff.
Not to be confused with Grindr the app.
You will find something completely different on that.
So one of the things that's really important
when it comes to flour is protein.
And why is it important?
Well, I'll get into that right after this.
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Okay. So why is protein important when it comes to flour?
Well, protein, more protein usually translates
into more gluten potential.
So the more gluten in there,
that's what provides that structure
for a lot of different baked items.
So if you have a lot of gluten, you want a lot of protein.
But more protein doesn't necessarily mean better.
It depends on what you're making.
If you're making a cake versus making dinner rolls,
you don't necessarily want just more protein.
You want the appropriate flour.
So what is the appropriate flour?
Well, let's get into those nine common types right now.
So first up, we have all-purpose flour.
So all-purpose flour has between 9% and 12% protein.
It's a really great, as in the name, all-purpose flour.
It's great for pizza.
It's great for doughs, breads.
Whatever you want to use it for,
you can use all-purpose flour for it.
The only recommendation I have for all-purpose flour
is no matter what, when you're using it,
make sure you sift it really well
before you actually measure it and use it in a recipe.
Next up is whole-wheat flour.
As I mentioned, this is the bran, the germ, the endosperm,
it's all ground up in there.
It's really nutritious.
It has a protein percentage of between 11 and 15%.
It's really great for crackers or carrot cake.
Those are some of the great things you can make
with whole-wheat flour.
One of the things you can do with whole-wheat flour
is you can mix it with all-purpose flour
when you're making bread.
It's a nice way to kind of get more of those nutrients
in there but maybe not have as a dense bread.
Just to really confuse the hell out of you,
There's also white whole-wheat flour,
which has a protein content of about 13%.
It has a little bit more nutrition in there,
and it's a little bit lighter
than just basic whole wheat flour, but also really good.
Next up, we have bread flour.
So bread flour has the highest protein content
of all the flours.
It's between 12 and 14%.
It's that high protein content, like I mentioned,
that has high gluten potential.
That's what gives us those really chewy, tasty things.
It's wonderful for dinner rolls.
It's wonderful for bagels, all of that gluten,
unless you're gluten-free and it's trying to kill you,
but it's great for all of those things.
So next up is cake flour.
It's the opposite of wheat flour.
It has a lot of starch.
It's low in protein.
It has about seven to 8% in protein,
One of the lowest proteins of a flour that you can get,
and it's that starch and that low protein
that makes cakes nice and moist
and delicious and light and airy.
So that's the benefit of cake flour.
Now, you can get cake flour in bleached or unbleached,
just like people's (beep)s,
and the bleach part is what really allows that flour
to absorb a lot of liquid and sugar.
So if you're looking for cake flour,
go for the bleached kind.
You might see out there
that you can actually make cake flour
by just adding a little bit of cornstarch to flour.
I'm just gonna say this right now.
Don't.
Okay. Don't.
Next up is self-rising flour.
It's low in protein, about seven to 8%,
but it also has baking soda and salt in it,
so it's ready to go.
This is pretty much biscuit flour.
It's great for making biscuits,
and that's actually kind of how it came to be.
But if you don't have self-rising flour
and you want to make your own, you actually can.
To make your own self-rising flour,
you want one cup of pastry flour,
one and one-half teaspoon of baking powder,
and one-fourth teaspoon of salt.
Pastry flour kind of sits in between cake flour
and all-purpose flour.
This is, just like it sounds,
pastry is great for those light and airy baked goods.
Relatively low protein.
Pastry flour's the kind of thing you'd want to use
for making cookies or danishes.
It's just the protein structure in that flour
is great for that.
You can also make your own pastry flour.
So to make your own pastry flour,
you want about one and one-third cup all-purpose flour
and two-thirds cup cake flour.
That's a really great hack for making your own pastry flour.
Next up is instant flour.
Instant flour is the Campbell's Soup of flours.
It came out around the same time, too.
It's a low-protein flour.
It's between nine and 11%.
It's cooked and then milled and ground down
to be super, super fine.
So it's really set up for thickening things.
This is the thing that you want to use
to thicken your gravy or thicken a sauce.
It's also great for breading
because of how fine the powder is.
Next up, we have 00 flour, or doppio zero flour.
It's, just like it sounds, it's Italian.
It has a great protein amount.
It's 11 to 13% protein.
This is the kind of flour that you want to use
for making pizza dough.
Those really delicious, chewy pizza crusts that you like,
they come from this.
So pasta, pizza. It's really great for that.
I wouldn't use it for bread.
It's just the way it's formulated, if you will,
it doesn't have a really great rise for bread,
but delicious, delicious pizza dough.
Next up, we have durum flour,
also known as macaroni flour or semolina.
So this is a little bit more on the outside
of common flours, but this is what pasta is made with.
So it has a nice protein percentage.
It's 13%.
It's wonderful for making any sort of pasta
that you wanna make.
Just nice and chewy.
I actually will use semolina
and mix it with all-purpose flour
when I make my pizza dough
'cause I just really liked the chewiness that it adds.
A really, really great flour.
This is your pasta flour.
So how to store flour, right?
So if you have these flours that you've purchased.
The more processed the flour is,
the longer it's gonna last.
So all-purpose flour will keep an airtight container.
You want to put it in an airtight container
once you open the bag, dark, cool, dry place.
It'll last in the pantry for about a year.
It'll last in the fridge or the freezer up to two years.
For flour that's less processed,
like say whole-wheat flour, that's gonna last, once again,
stored in an airtight container,
it'll last about three months in the pantry.
If you put it in the fridge or the freezer,
it's only gonna last about six months.
The reason for that, as I mentioned before,
the less processed something is,
it has that bran, it has that germ,
it has that endosperm, it has everything, like those oils,
and it's those oils that make flours go rancid,
so they're just not going to last as long
as something that's processed
and does not have that stuff in there,
like all-purpose flour.
So that is the nine common types of flour.
And you had a few little instructions
on how you can actually make your own,
depending on what you have on hand.
Hopefully, you like this video.
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drop a comment down below.
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See you guys next time.
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