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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

DID U KNOW ALL THIS???

DID U KNOW ALL THIS???
The English word for "flour" is originally a variant of the word "flower". Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, or other seeds or roots (like Cassava). It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures.
Wheat flour is one of the most important ingredients in European, North American, Middle Eastern, Indian and North African cultures, and is the defining ingredient in most of their styles of breads and pastries. Flour that does not have a leavening agent is called plain or all-purpose flour. Leavening agents are used with some flours, especially those with significant gluten content, to produce lighter and softer baked products by embedding small gas bubbles.
Self-rising (or self-raising) flour is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. The added ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the flour which aids a consistent rise in baked goods. This flour is generally used for preparing scones, biscuits, muffins, etc. It was invented by Henry Jones and patented in 1845. Plain flour can be used to make a type of self-rising flour although the flour will be coarser. Self-rising flour is typically composed of the following ratio: 1 cup (125 g) flour
1 teaspoon (3 g) baking powder
a pinch to ½ teaspoon (1 g or less) salt.
During the process of making flour nutrients are lost. Some of these nutrients are replaced during refining and the result is "enriched flour". Enriched flour is flour with specific nutrients returned to it that have been lost while being prepared. These restored nutrients include iron and B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine). Calcium may also be supplemented. The purpose of enriching flour is to replenish the nutrients in the flour to match the nutritional status of the unrefined product.
This differentiates enrichment from fortification, which is the process of introducing new nutrients to a food.
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. More wheat flour is produced than any other flour. Wheat flours contain a protein called gluten which, in the presence of water, forms an elastic network throughout the dough. This is the stuff that gives bread dough's their rubbery consistency. The whole point of kneading the bread dough.
Brown bread is a designation often given to breads made with significant amounts of whole grain flour, usually rye or wheat, and sometimes dark colored ingredients such as molasses or coffee.
what is gluten by the way?
Gluten is a protein that gives breads made from wheat flours their wonderful springy texture. When you dissolve it in water, the proteins link up into stretchy sheets.
Bread flour has extra gluten in it. It would be bad for cakes.
A list of gluten content of carious commercial flours. Apprx
Cake flour is typically 7-9% protein;
pastry|or cookie, ~9-10%;
all purpose, 10-12%,
bread, 12.5-13.5%,
clear and high gluten, 14-15%;
gluten "flour" (actually refined gluten), 45%.
The protein consists of ~80% gluten, and the gluten of cake flour is weakest, and bread and high gluten flour the strongest, and the intermediate ones increasingly stronger.

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