It's all about Flour

:warning: :warning: :warning: IMPORTANT: READ THIS BEFORE ANSWERING THE QUIZ!! :warning: :warning: :warning:

Hello bakers! It's time for another quiz and today's topic is flour. It's one of the most used ingredients when it comes to baking and even myself don't know everything about it.

There are many types of flour for different purposes, we will take a look at them so everyone has a better idea of why certain recipes call for certain flour and not others.

I hope you find this quiz informative and interesting so without further ado, let's get into subject.

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All-Purpose Flour

All-purpose flour is a powder made from grinding the wheat kernel. It is a blend of hard and soft wheat, which provides around 8-11% protein. It has the bran and germ removed, leaving only the starchy endosperm.

All-purpose wheat flour is an option for a variety of products, including; cookies, cakes, quick breads, and pastries. With its moderate protein level it will function in a range of products. This is not true of a flour designed for a particular product type, i.e., cake flour or high-gluten bread flour. Bleaching the flour reduces the natural yellow pigmentation of the flour, making it a brighter white.

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Cake Flour

Cake flour is a powder made from grinding soft red winter wheat or soft white wheat. The bran and germ are removed leaving only the starch endosperm. Cake flour has a low protein content of 8% and high carbohydrate content. Cake flour is typically treated with chlorine gas and benzoyl peroxide. White flour is required by the FDA to be enriched with thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, and iron.

Cake flour has a lower protein content (6-8%), low ash content and fine particle size which makes it ideal for high-ratio cakes. Low protein is necessary to keep the cake tender, it prevents an over-developed gluten matrix that would make the cake tough and have low volume. Cake flour is chlorinated to alter the starch molecules to allow for greater absorption and strength to carry the heavy sugar load of a cake batter. This will result in higher volume, finer grain, and a more tender cake than if the cake was prepared using a flour that had not been chlorinated. Cake flour is typically also treated with benzoyl peroxide to make the flour bright white in color.

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Pastry Flour

Pastry flour is a powder made from grinding the soft red winter or soft white wheat kernel. Pastry flour has the bran and germ removed, leaving only the starchy endosperm.

Wheat flour is the main ingredient in most baked goods. In bread, wheat flour provides gluten. Gluten is the key protein in the development of the dough’s protein matrix that traps air and gas molecules. In cakes and other applications, wheat flour provides the starch which helps form the structure via starch gelatinization. Bleaching the flour reduces the natural yellow pigmentation of the flour making it a brighter white.

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Bread Flour

Bread flour is a high-protein patent flour specifically milled for yeasted breads. Unlike whole wheat flour which milled from the whole wheat kernel, bread flour is made from just the protein-rich endosperm of hard red spring or hard red winter varieties.

The protein component, mainly gluten, is an essential constituent of raised wheat bread allowing its expansion after leavening.

Several types of bread flour are commercially available, namely, all-purpose flour, enriched flour, gluten flour and self-rising flour. Bread flour is available bleached or unbleached and may contain added malted barley flour and nutrients.

Bread flour is best used where strong gluten development and yeast-generated flavors are  needed. The higher protein content of bread flour is responsible for the characteristic attributes such as texture, appearance, and hard crust.

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All info is from Bakerpedia.