WHEAT AND FLOUR

WHEAT AND FLOUR

ETYMOLOGY

"The world "flour" is originally a variant of the world "flower". Both derive from the Old French fleuror flour, which had the literal meaning "blossom", and a figurative meaning "the finest". The phare "fleur de farine" meant 'the finest part of the meal," since flour resulted from the elimination of coarse and unwanted matter from the grain during milling'-wikipidea

There is evidence that thousands of years before BC, man used wheat as food. Bronze tablets dating from the 9^th century AD depict the grinding of wheat and making of bread in Asia. 
In Egypt, tombs along the Nile River contain ancient murals which show wheat planting and harvesting, the grinding of flour and making of bread. In 1948 archaeologists uncovered an ancient village in Iraq. In the ruins they found two different kinds of wheat similar to those today.

"It was discovered around 6000 BC that wheat seed could be crushed between simple millstones to make flour. The Romans were the frist to grind seeds on cone mills. In 1879, at the beginning of the Industrial Era, the first steam mill was erected in London. In the 1930s, some flour began to be enriched with iron, niacin, thiamine, and riboflavin. In the 1940s, mills started to enrich flour and folic acid was added to the list in the 1990s"-wikipidea

"Wheat found in the excavation of ancient cities often appears carbonised as though the husk had been removed by heat. Heating or parching the grain makes the glumes easier to rub off. Other cereals, corn, rice and perhaps varieties of early wheat could be popped like what we know as popcorn. The moisture inside the hard outer coat would turn to steam in the heating process to explode grain glumes.

Wheat is still eating in primitive forms in many parts of the world. Similar crude tools and instruments to those used all those thousands of years ago, can still are seen in use today."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 varieties  are called "clean", "white," or "brown", or "hard" 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 12%- 14% gluten content, and has elastic toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer or crumbly 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 protein/starchy part, the germ or protein/fat/vitamin-rich part, and the bran or fibre part- there are three general type of flour. White flour is made from the endosperm only. Whole grain orwholemeal 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"-wikipedia

CHOICE OF FLOUR

So many foods today contain wheat it is often an unnoticed part of our diet, bread, of couse, is the most familiar wheat product. There are many different types of flour can purchase, when rec.ipe requires flour. The questions arises, does choice of flour make much difference to baking? Definitely Yes. Plus practical skill wills give best result. Flour varies in composition and broadly speaking is defined according to their rate of extraction and the type of wheat from which they are milled.

Wheat meal or whole-wheat flours are 100% extraction. The flour contains the whole of the wheat grain, including bran and germ with nothing added or taken away.

Wheat meal or brown flours usually contain 85- 90% of the wheat grain.

White flour usually contains 72- 74% of the wheat grain although lower extraction rates can be produced.

Wholemeal and brown flours give variety flavour and colour to baking in speciality bread. Baked goods made with flours with a high proportion of bran and germ has a limited rise and closer texture than those made with white flour. To bake goods with a more open texture and of a lighter colour, replace haft the total weight of whole or brown flour with white flour.

Baking Characteristics

A protein present in the flour, gluten in, when combined with water forms gluten. The following experiment demonstrates how gluten works in the production of bread.

Directions

Make a dough form 60g of flour and two tablespoons of water. Knead until smooth, and then soak the dough ball in a basin of cold water for at least half an hour. Gently squeeze and knead the dough under a dripping tap until the starch is washed out. What remains is the gluten. The texture will be similar to chewing gum, it will stretch 

like elastic.

When the gluten ball is baked at 230°c for 20 minutes the water inside is converted into steam which expands, blowing up the gluten into a balloon, by forming air pockets inside. Upon further baking the gluten sets and becomes light and crisp like a starch reduced roll. When bread dough is baked the gluten in the dough is blown up and sets in exactly the same way. It is the gluten framework which forms the structure of the loaf, cakes or pastries.

The quality and quantity of the gluten produced by flour are both important. A tough gluten is hard to blow up, while soft, sticky gluten blow up easy but collapses quickly. For the best quality bread a good elastic gluten is needed, which will blow up into large balloons but which will hold its shape until set by the oven heat.

The quantity of gluten is important because gluten absorbs water. Wheat grown in North America and Russia tends to have a higher protein content and hence more gluten forming proteins than weak wheats grown in the UK and Europe. A strong flour made from such wheat yields a large quantity of gluten and will therefore have both high rising and high water absorbing properties. Goods which should have a large volume and a light open texture, such as bread, are therefore baked with strong flour.

Gluten is toughened by;

        I.            Salt- if this is forgotten the bread will be sticky.

      II.            Acidity- lemon juice in puff pastry and sour milk in scones.

    III.            Handling- mixing and kneading

Gluten is weakened by;

        I.            High levels of other ingredients such as fat and sugar

      II.            Wholemeal germ, brown germ, brown flours.

    III.            Old or badly stored yeast, enzymes in malt. 

            

            Strong Flour 

          Yeast goods must be well kneaded or beaten to develop the gluten structure, which ensures retention of the gases produced in the fermentation. Shortcrust pastry and cakes require less tough elastic gluten. Care should be taken to handle as little as possible, to achieve a lighter finished product. 

            

           

           Soft Flour

           Add a little extra starch, example corn flour or rice flour- approximately 80g per kilogram of flour used. This gives a short texture and flat finish. Where possible only purchase good quality flour, cheaper flours may look white but they contain powdered bran which will spoil the quality of the gluten and will produce poor result in baking.

            By varying the ingredients in the mix, handling and baking, the gluten in the dough can be toughened or weakened to produce the required texture

          

           Self-Raising Flour

            This flour is generally produced from normal or general purpose flour; chemicals are then added, to act as aerating agents. It is mainly prepared for shops and supermarkets as it is most suitable for household cooking, such as scones, Victoria sponges and steaming puddings or butter cake. No fermentation occurs in the products made, therefore no ripening of the gluten is needed. For this reason a medium or a weaker grade wheat is used, either Australian or soft European. The minimum amount of carbon dioxide released during the baking process is 0.4%. This will guarantee a sufficient rise in the finished product, suitable for normal home baking.

           

           High Ratio Cake Flour

           This is mainly manufactured for high quality flour confectionery and is especially suitable for large quantity cake making which carries a high percentage of sugar content and the traditional sponge and cake mixes made by ‘all in’ methods.

            These flours are milled from soft wheats to a very fine particle size. They should possess a good colour and low ash content.