All-Purpose Flour
All-purpose flour is the finely ground endosperm of the wheat kernel separated from the bran and germ during the milling process. All-purpose flour is made from hard wheat’s or a combination of soft and hard wheat from which the home baker can make a complete range of satisfactory baked products such as yeast breads, cakes, cookies, pastries and noodles. (You can blend this at home).
Enriched All-Purpose Flour has iron and B-vitamins added in amounts equal to or exceeding that of whole-wheat flour.
Bleached Enriched All-Purpose Flour is treated with chlorine to mature the flour, condition the gluten, and improve the baking quality. The chlorine evaporates and does not destroy the nutrients but does reduce the risk of spoilage or contamination.
Unbleached Enriched All-Purpose Flour is bleached by oxygen in the air during an aging process and is off-white in color. Nutritionally, bleached and unbleached flour are the same.
Bread Flour
Bread flour, from the endosperm of the wheat kernel, is milled primarily for commercial bakers but is also available at retail outlets. Although similar to all-purpose flour, it has greater gluten strength and generally is used for yeast breads.
Self-Rising Flour
Self-rising flour is all-purpose flour with salt and leavening added. One cup of self-rising flour contains 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Self-rising flour can be substituted for all-purpose flour in a recipe by reducing salt and baking powder according to those proportions.
Whole Wheat Flour (best)
Whole-wheat flour is a course-textured flour ground from the entire wheat kernel and thus contains the bran, germ, and endosperm. The presence of bran reduces gluten development. Baked products made from whole-wheat flour tend to be heavier and denser than those made from white flour are.
Other Flours
Cake Flour – Milled from soft wheat. Especially suitable for cakes, cookies, crackers and pastries. Low in protein and gluten.
Pastry Flour – Milled from soft, low gluten wheat. Comparable in protein but lower in starch than cake flour.
Gluten Flour – Used by bakers in combination with flours having a low protein content because it improves the baking quality and produces gluten bread of high protein content.
Semolina- Coarsely ground endosperm of durum wheat. High in protein. Used in high quality pasta products.
Durum Flour – By-product of semolina production. Used to make commercial U.S. noodles.
Farina – Coarsely ground endosperm of hard wheat’s. Prime ingredient in many U.S. breakfast cereals. Also used in the production of inexpensive pasta.
Stone-ground whole wheat is ground the old-fashioned way – between rotating stones – so that the bran, germ, and endosperm remain together. Wheat purists believe that stone grinding produces more nutritious flour than the conventional high-speed roller milling, which, they claim, may overheat the grain and cause deterioration of the nutrients. Stone-ground flour usually needs to be refrigerated once opened, since the oil released during grinding makes it spoil more quickly. It is best to store any kind of whole grain flour in the refrigerator if you will not be using it up within a month or two. Depending on the heat produced during milling, nutritionally, stone-ground and roller-milled flour should be about the same.