 Wheat flour
Much more wheat flour is produced than any other flour. Wheat varieties are called "clean," "white," or "brown" if they have high gluten content, and they are called "soft" or "weak" flour if gluten content is low. Hard flour, or bread flour, is high in gluten, with a certain toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer texture. Soft flour is usually divided into cake flour, which is the lowest in gluten, and pastry flour, which has slightly more gluten than cake flour.
In terms of the parts of the grain (the grass fruit) used in flour — the endosperm or starchy part, the germ or protein part, and the bran or
fiber part — there are three general types of flour. White flour is made from the endosperm only. Whole grain or
whole meal flour is made from the entire grain, including bran, endosperm, and germ. A germ flour is made from the endosperm and germ, excluding the bran.
All-purpose or plain flour is a blended wheat flour with an intermediate gluten level, which is marketed as an acceptable compromise for most household baking needs.
Bleached flour is treated with flour bleaching agents to whiten it (freshly milled flour is yellowish) and to give it more gluten-producing potential. Oxidizing agents are usually employed, most commonly organic peroxides like acetone peroxide or benzoyl peroxide, nitrogen dioxide, or chlorine. A similar effect can be achieved by letting the flour slowly oxidize with oxygen in the air ("natural aging") for approximately 10 days; however, this process is more expensive due to the time required.
Bromated flour is a flour with a maturing agent added. The agent's role is to help with developing gluten, a role similar to the flour bleaching agents. Bromate is usually used. Other choices are phosphates, ascorbic acid, and malted barley. Bromated flour has been banned in much of the world, as bromate is a suspected carcinogen, but remains available in the United States.
Cake flour is a finely milled flour made from soft wheat. It has very low gluten content, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher gluten content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Related to cake flour are masa harina (from maize), maida flour (from wheat or tapioca), and pure starches.
Pastry flour or cookie flour or cracker flour has slightly higher gluten content than cake flour but lower than all-purpose flour. It is suitable for fine, light-textured pastries.
Graham flour is a special type of whole-wheat flour. The endosperm is finely ground, as in white flour, while the bran and germ are coarsely ground. Graham flour is uncommon outside of the USA and Europe. It is the basis of true graham crackers. Many graham crackers on the market are actually imitation grahams because they do not contain graham flour or even whole-wheat flour.
Self-rising or self-raising flour is flour ("white" wheat flour or
whole meal) that is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. It was invented by Henry Jones. Typical ratios are the following:- A pinch to ½ teaspoon salt.
- 100 g flour.
- 3 g baking powder.
- 1 g or less salt.
Sprouted Flour is a new flour that is produced from whole grains that have been sprouted back into an alive plant and then dried prior to milling. Currently, sprouted whole grain hard and soft wheat and sprouted whole grain spelt flours are available in the United States. Sprouted flours may be substituted one for one for most all-purpose flours in recipes. Because the whole grains have been sprouted the flours may be easier to digest.
Other flours- Corn (maize) flour is popular in the Southern and Southwestern US, Mexico, South America, and Punjab regions of India and Pakistan. Coarse whole-grain corn flour is usually called corn meal. Corn meal that has been bleached with lye is called masa harina (see masa) and is used to make tortillas and tamales in Mexican cooking. Corn flour should never be confused with cornstarch, which is known as "corn
flour" in British English. Cornstarch is just the "refined form" of Cornflour.
- Atta flour is a whole-grain wheat flour important in Indian cuisine, used for a range of breads such as roti, naan and chapati.
- Rye flour is used to bake the traditional sourdough breads of Germany and Scandinavia. Most rye breads use a mix of rye and wheat flours because rye does not produce gluten. Pumpernickel bread is usually made exclusively of rye, and contains a mixture of rye flour and rye meal.
- Tapioca flour, produced from the root of the cassava plant, is used to make breads, pancakes, tapioca pudding, a savoury porridge called fufu in Africa, and is used as a starch.
- Rice flour
- Glutinous rice flour or sticky rice flour, used in east and southeast Asian cuisines for making tangyuan etc.
- Brown rice flour is of great importance in Southeast Asian cuisine. Also edible rice paper can be made from it. Most rice flour is made from white rice, thus is essentially a pure starch, but whole-grain brown rice flour is commercially available.
- Noodle flour is special blend of flour used for the making of Asian style noodles.
- Buckwheat flour is used as an ingredient in many pancakes in the United States. In Japan, it is used to make a popular noodle called Soba. In Russia, buckwheat flour is added to the batter for pancakes called blinis which are frequently eaten with caviar. Buckwheat flour is also used to make crêpes bretonnes in Brittany.
- Chestnut flour is popular in Corsica, the Perigord and Lunigianafor breads, cakes and pastas. It is the original ingredient for “polenta”, still used as such in Corsica and other Mediterranean locations. Chestnut bread keeps fresh for as long as two weeks. In Italy, it is mainly used for desserts.
- Chickpea flour (also known as gram flour or besan) is of great importance in Indian cuisine, and in Italy, where it is used for the Ligurian farinata.
- Teff flour is made from the grain teff, and is of considerable importance in eastern Africa (particularly around the horn of Africa). Notably, it is the chief ingredient in the bread injera, an important component of Ethiopian cuisine.
- Tang flour or wheat starch is a type of wheat flour used primarily in Chinese cooking for making the outer layer of dumplings and buns. It is also used in Vietnamese cuisine, where it is called bột lọc trong.
- Peasemeal or pea flour is a flour produced from roasted and pulverized yellow field peas.
- Bean flour is a flour produced from pulverized dried or ripe beans.
- Potato starch flour is obtained by grinding the tubers to a pulp and removing the
fiber by water-washings. The dried product consists chiefly of starch, but also contains some protein. Potato flour is used as a thickening agent. When heated to boiling, food added with a suspension of potato flour in water thickens quickly. Because the flour is made from neither grain nor legume, it is used as substitute for wheat flour in cooking by Jews during Passover, when grains are not eaten.
- Chuño flour made from dried potatoes in various countries of South America.
- Amaranth flour is a flour produced from ground Amaranth grain. It was commonly used in pre-Columbian meso-American cuisine. It is becoming more and more available in
specialty food shops.
- Nut flours are grated from oily nuts--most commonly almonds and hazelnuts--and are used instead of or in addition to wheat flour to produce more dry and flavorful pastries and cakes. Cakes made with nut flours are usually called tortes and most originated in Central Europe, in countries such as Hungary and Austria.
- Sprouted whole grain Wheat flour is a flour produced from the whole wheat grain that has been sprouted back into a living plant and then dried prior to milling. It can be substituted one for one for most all-purpose flours in baking recipes.
- Sprouted whole grain Spelt flour is a flour produced from the whole spelt grain that has been sprouted back into a living plant and then dried prior to milling. It can be substituted one for one for most all-purpose flours in baking recipes.
Flour can also be made from soy beans, peanuts, arrowroot, taro, cattails, acorns, quinoa and other non-cereal foodstuffs.
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