Wholemeal Flour confusion
Hi! New to this site. I found it by asking Google a question.
I am learning to make bread at home and have some confusion as to the different flours listed in some recipes.
One calls for: 4 cups wheatmeal (85% extraction) bread flour; or equal parts unbleached white and whole wheat bread flour.
A second recipe calls for wholemeal rye flour, with no blend substitute included the way the first did.
Is there a difference between rye flour, rye bread flour, whole grain rye flour and wholemeal rye flour?
Is there a difference between wheat flour, wheat pastry flour and wheat flour and is wheat flour the same as whole wheat flour?
Lastly, is there a difference between unbleached white flour and unbleached white bread flour?
If anyone can direct me to a site that explains all the types of flour, or has time to answer this I'd appreciate it!
Yes, it can be very confusing, can't it? Especially when you have bakers from all over the world as we have here. Often things are called by different names in North America versus the UK or Australia, for example.
For a description of different types of wheat flour (that is, flour made from wheat), try this link> http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/about-wfc-flour-types-booklet.pdf. Note that this booklet is American, so they use the term 'whole wheat' rather than 'whole meal' which you will find in the UK. Same thing. You can try this link too> http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/baking-guide/flour-101-guide-to-different-types-and-uses.html. And of course you can check the handbook on this site (link here> http://www.thefreshloaf.com/handbook/flour). Look for different types of flour in the index on the right side of the page.
High extraction or 85% extraction flour means that 15% of the bran has been sifted out of whole wheat (whole meal, whole grain) flour.
Bread flour is wheat flour (white, not whole wheat, meaning the bran and germ have been sifted out of the ground flour) that has a high protein content (usually around 14%) and is usually ground from hard red spring wheat rather than softer white wheat (which has a lower protein content). Many bread bakers prefer to use this higher protein flour (or 'stronger' flour) for bread, but you can also use all purpose (often called AP flour) for bread quite successfully.
Rye flour comes in different grinds too. See this link for some useful information> http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=ryetypes. Again, there are different names for different types of rye flour. Sometimes you'll find 'light' rye and 'dark' rye flour. I'm not sure if these are from different kinds of rye grain or if the former simply has less bran than the latter.
Hope that helps a bit!
White means the germ and bran have been removed, Straight white flour is 72% extrcvtion generally and all other patent flours are further refined from that.
Whole flours aren't whole at all. The germ and bran has been removed like a white flour and then part of the bran is put back in.
Whole grain flour is the whole grain berry ground into flour with nothing removed.
Now you know one reason why so many Fresh Lofians grind and sometimes sift their own grains'
Happy baking