June 20, 2013 - 11:38am
Uncommon types of flour
What should I do when I come across an interesting bread recipe that includes a type of flour not readily available to me, like spelt, kamut, durum, etc? What should I replace each of them with?
Are there any flour-replacement rules/guidelines for them, once we allow, of course, for some "acceptable" level of loss of texture quality, aroma, flavor, etc in its application?
Thanks.
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in the US then all of them are available as flour or whole grains at Whole Foods in the bins. Kamut is a proprietary Durum semolina. Einkorn, Emmer, farro and spelt are all very similar wheat type grains so WW will work to replace them all. There is no replacement for rye. Still they are all available at Sprouts, Winco, Whole Foods or online from King Arthur or other flour purveyors.
Happy baking
... I'm not in the US, but in Rio, Brasil.
Here, it's a lot tougher to find these 'exotic' ingredients.
Could I just replace kamut with regular semolina? If so, would that be on a 1:1 basis (by weight)?
The other wheat-like flours you mentioned, I could just replace by WW flour on a 1:1 basis (by weight), correct?
Rye isn`t a problem, since it is easily found around here.
Thanks a lot. Bruneski.
Kamut is usually a whole grain and semolina is a refined flour with the whole part taken out. A recipe calling for whole grain Kamut will require less water if you are using a 1 to 1 replacement with semolina since semolina isn't as thirsty. I have found emmer, spelt and einkorn are less thirsty than whole wheat too, so more water would be required in replacing them with WW if using a 1 to 1 replacement.
each flour and whole grain is different when it comes to how much water it needs so how much or less water will depend on the feel. Hope this helps.
I just mixed up a multi grain bread with most of the whole grain flours above plus some semolina and some whole oat berries that I ground into flour. For some reason it took more water than usual by about 3% or so. It didn't feel right so it got more water. Knowing what each dough is supposed to feel like at different hydration's comes with experience and making them all several times and seeing the outcome.
... indeed.
Thanks. Bruneski.