Flour, Meals, and Straches

WHITE WHEAT FLOUR

White wheat flour is milled from wheat kernels after the outer covering, called bran, and the germ are removed. Wheat flour contain 63 to 73% strach and 7 to 15% protein. The rest is moisture, fat, sugar and minerals.

Wheat flour is the source of the protein called gluten, which you remember is one of the essential elements in baking. Baker select flour on the basis of its gluten content. Flours high in protein are called strong, and those low protein called weak (Note: Rye, barley, oats, and some other grains also contain gluten proteins, but this protein do not develop into a gluten structure as do the proteins in wheat flour. Thus, for the baker, these other grains in effect do not contain gluten, but people with gluten intolerance may still have to avoid them in their diets).

For our purposes in the small bakeshop, we need to know about this 3 kinds of wheat flour :
  • Bread Flour is a strong flour used for making breads, hard rolls, and any product that requires high gluten.
  • Cake Flour is a weak or low-gluten flour made from soft wheat. It has a soft, smooth texture and a pure white color. Cake flour is used for cake and other delicate baked goods that require low glutent content
  • Pastry Flour is lower in gluten than bread flour but higher than the cake flour. it has the same creamy white color as bread flour, not the pure white of cake flour. Pastry flour is used for cookies, pie pastry, some sweet yeast doughts, biscuit and muffins

WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR

Whole wheat flour is made by grinding the entire wheat kernels, including the bran and germ. The germ, which is the embryo of a new wheat plant, is high in fat, which can become rancid. This is why the whole wheat flour does not keep as well as white flour.

Because it is made from wheat, whole wheat flour contains gluten, so it can be used alone in bread making. However, a bread with 100% whole wheat will be heavy because the gluten strands are cut by the sharp edges of the bran flakes. Also, the fat from the wheat germ contributes slightly to the shortening action. this is why most whole wheat breads are strengthened with white bread flour.

Bran flour if flour to which bran flakes have added. The bran may be coarse or fine, depending on specifications.

RYE FLOUR

Next to white and whole wheat, rye is the most popular flour in bread making. Because the rye flour does not develop much gluten, breads made with it are heavy unless some hard wheat flour is added. Rye flour is avaliable in three shades, light, medium, and dark. Rye meal (pumpernickel is a coarse meal made from the whole rye grain. Rye blend is mixture of rye flour and hard wheat flour.

OTHER FLOURS


 Products milled from other grains are occasionally used to add variety to baked goods. These include commeal, buckwheat flour, soy flour, potato flour, oat flour, and barley flour. The term meal is used for products that are not as finely ground as flour. All these products must normally be used in combination with wheat flour because they do not form gluten

STARCHES
Besides a lot kinds of flour, there are starch procuts used in the bakeshop. Unlike flour, they are used primally to thicken puddings, pie fillings, and similiar products. The most important starches in dessert production are as follows:

  1. Cornstarch has a special property that makes it valuable for certain purposes. Product thickened with cornstarch set up almost like gelatin when cooled. For this reason, it is used to thicken cream pies and other products that must hold their shapes.
  2. Waxy maize and other modified starches also have valuable properties. They do not break down when frozen, so are used for products that are to be frozen. Also, they are clear when cooked, and give a brilliant, clear appereance to fruit pie fillings. Waxy maize does not set up firm like cornstarch but rather make a soft paste, which has the same consistency hot and cold. Thus, it is not suitable for cream pie fillings.
  3. Instant starches are precooked or pregelatinized, so they thicken cold liquids without further cooking. They are useful when heat will damage the flavor of the product, as in fresh fruit glazes (such as strawberry)
Source :
Professional Cooking (7th Edition) by Wayne Gisslen

Komentar

Posting Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

SAMOSA

Gambar
HISTORY The SAMOSA probably travelled to India along ancient trade routes from Central Asia. Small, crisp mince-filled triangles that were easy to make around the campfire during night halts, then conveniently packed into saddlebags as snacks for the next day's journey. According to the “The Oxford Companion to Food” the Indian samosa is merely the best known of an entire family of stuffed pastries or dumplings popular from Egypt and Zanzibar to Central Asia and West China. Arab cookery books of the 10th and 13th Centuries refer to the pastries as sanbusak (the pronunciation still current in Egypt, Syria, & Lebanon), sanbusaq or sanbusaj, all reflecting the early medieval form of the Persian word: sanbosag. Claudia Roden (1968) quotes a poem by Ishaq ibn Ibrahim-al-Mausili (9th Century) praising the sanbusaj. By the early 14th Century, it was not only a part of Indian cuisine but also food fit for a king. Amir Khusrao, prolific poet of Delhi royalty, observed in...
Baca selengkapnya

BUNNY CHOW

Gambar
Bunny Chow -Deliciously Tasty South African Street food with made with aromatic spices, meat , chickpeas and potatoes served in hollow bread. A one of a Kind Sandwich. Bunny Chow is a very unique, portable and popular South African street food that exemplifies the natural fusion of South African Cuisine. A highly spiced curry that would get any spice lover excited, my kind of peeps. Rest assured no bunnies are involve in this dish. It’s usually made with some sort of protein; Lamb, chicken or vegetables and oh so delicious! Served in a hollowed out bread bowl, makes it even more appealing for carb lovers. The term bunny is another variation from the word “Bania“, an Indian class of traders who sold this tasty street food. History of the bunny chow This only-in-South-Africa combination of Asian curry, European bread, and South African apartheid was originally created in Kapitan's Vegetarian Eating House on the corner of Victoria and Grey streets in Durban....
Baca selengkapnya

PECANS

Gambar
Pecans are a type of nut produced by the Hickory tree and are native to the south-central region of the United States and Mexico. The name “pecan” comes from an Algonquin word meaning “nut that requires a stone to crack.” Pecans resemble walnuts but tend to be longer, more slender, and smoother in appearance. Their shells, which are shaped like large pills, are spotted brown, smooth, and are thinner and easier to crack than walnut shells. Description Smooth, hard, thin, oval shell. Two-lobed, brown-skinned nut, cream-colored interior. Rich, buttery flavor. Available whole in shell; shelled halved, chopped Pecan History Pecans have played a large role in the diet and cuisine of the cultures native to pecan growing climates. Many Native American tribes relied on pecans as a staple food in the fall and winter months and even traded pecans monetarily. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Spanish and French colonists began cultivating pecans and eventually bega...
Baca selengkapnya