April 1, 2011 - 12:27pm
Question brought to mind by txfarmer's question on the Tartine WW bread
I have been wondering about the difference between white whole wheat flour and white flour. I have been looking at some interesting bread recipes in The Village Baker and Joe Ortiz's recipe calls for white flour or all purpose flour. I am interested in what alterations I would need to make to use white whole wheat flour in these recipes as opposed to using white flour and if the two terms are interchangeable. I can see the differences between using red wheat whole wheat flour and white wheat whole wheat flour; they are rather substantial. It is when you get to the white wheat whole wheat flour and the white flour that I am a little lost as to what the differences would be.
Share
The WHite whole wheat flour is the same as the red whole wheat flour in that it is the whole wheat kernel ground to a powder/flour.It is a genetic variant that does not have the red tint or the taste of red whole wheat.Has all the same other characterisitcs, though.
"White"flour (term often used for AP, bread flour or pastry flour) is a flour that is a blend of many types of wheat but all the outer coat of the kernels are stripped away before grinding. It is generally the inside of the kernel. Generally the "white" flour and the "White Whole Wheat" flour are not interchangeable without significant change in the product texture. Think white bread and whole wheat bread.Very different from each other.
"White " flour can be AP flour-this is blended so it can make a reasonable bread and a reasonable cake but not a great product in either case. It has a blend of higher protein and lower protein wheat kernels to establish a balance. This is why some brands work better than others for bread-they just have more of the higher protein grain in their mix.
"white" flour-Bread flour is higher in gluten and makes a much better bread,as deduced from the name.Just different parts/types of wheat blended.A higher percentage of higherr protein wheat.
"White" flour-pastry flour is made from a softer wheat and is great for making tender cakes/pancakes but a lousy loaf of bread as it is low in gluten protein.
So son't sub the white whole wheat for white AP! Big difference in the outcome.