hi class welcome back to baking school we are on lesson seven of the baking fundamentals course and today we are going to talk all about flour it's a main function in baking and the different types of flour that you most commonly will use now we are only talking about flour that is made from wheat today we won't be talking about any of the specialty gluten-free flours but when you think about flours main function in baking it really serves to build the structure of our baked goods now when the proteins found in wheat flour are hydrated and are mixed together they begin interacting with each other and building what is called gluten now this gluten Network becomes a very elastic as it is worked together and this is what really serves to build the structure of our baked goods when a batter or a dough goes into the oven and is baked that elastic gluten network expands and serves to contain the gases that are leavening our baked goods so it's essential for traditional baking and today we're going to talk about all of the most common flours you will use in your baking and all of the differences between them so there are two main categories that wheat flour falls into the first is whole wheat flour and the second is white flour now whole wheat flour is milled from the entire wheat grain so it includes the indice firm the bran and the germ while in contrast white flour is only milled from the endosperm part of the grain now if you look at these two flours side by side you can definitely see a difference in color and texture the whole wheat flour is a bit more coarse and texture it's darker in color it also has more flavor and nutrients than the white flour the white flour is obviously lighter in color and texture and it produces lighter baked goods when you bake with it now white flour is actually separated into two more main categories and those are bleached flour and unbleached flour now you might not know this but all flour is technically bleached the difference is that unbleached flour naturally reaches that state while bleached flour reaches that state through a chemical process so as flour ages it naturally becomes more white in color and softer in texture so flour that is labeled as unbleached flour has naturally reached this process and it takes much longer to produce which is why unbleached flour is typically more expensive now bleached flour has been treated with chemicals to speed up that aging process and bring it to a more white color and a softer texture now this chemical process actually does reduce the protein content in the flour slightly so some bakers believe that bleached flour is going to produce the lightest baked goods but for most everyday baking the difference is really negligible and it's just a matter of personal preference so both white and whole wheat flours do come in a wide range of varieties depending on their intended use now the biggest difference between all of the varieties of flour is that they have varying levels of protein content now remember the protein content in flour is what creates the gluten structure so flours with a high protein content are going to develop a very strong gluten structure while flours with low protein content are going to develop a weaker gluten structure now there is also some variety in the coarseness of the grind of some of the flowers so let's go ahead and look at all of the most common types of flours that you will bake with okay so let's start by talking about all of the white flour varieties that you will most commonly see in baking so we'll start with the all-purpose flour which is the most common flour you will see in home baking and it is made from a hard winter wheat which has a fairly moderate amount of protein so it's really good for really any baking purpose like the name suggests it is used for all purposes now it comes in both bleached and unbleached varieties so you just want to check the package to see that you're buying what you prefer now the next up we have bread flour now this is made from a hard spring wheat which actually has a higher protein content than the winter wheat that the all-purpose flour is made from so that higher protein content makes this flour really good for anything that you would want a lot of chew in so a bread or anything that you want to be really chewy is really good to use bread flour with because of that higher protein content it will develop a much stronger gluten structure now on the opposite end of the spectrum we have cake flour now this is made from a soft winter wheat which has a much lower protein content than the all-purpose flour and it is milled to a very fine grind and it also is traditionally very heavily bleached now that bleaching process is going to lower the protein content even more so it makes a flower with a very low protein content and that really fine grain so it's really good for delicate baked goods like cake or anything that you would want a very fluffy delicate texture now traditionally cake flour is a bleached flour but they do make varieties that are unbleached however I find that they don't prefer form quite as well as bleached cake flour but that's just really your personal preference now next up we have a self rising flour now this flour is sort of a specialty flour in that it combines regular plain white flour with salt and baking powder so it's really three ingredients in one now this is kind of a popular flour in the south the reason it's so popular is you can just mix butter and buttermilk or you learn milk with it and you have a biscuit dough so you essentially can make biscuits with just three ingredients when you use self-rising flour because it is combined with two of the main ingredients that you need for baking okay so now let's talk about the whole wheat flour varieties now this is traditional whole wheat it is made up of a red hard wheat and it does contain the entire wheat grain so the endosperm bran and the germ are all in this flour if you look at it it is darker in color than all of the white flours and it has a slightly coarser texture because it does contain the whole grain now the protein content of whole wheat flour is actually higher than that of all-purpose flour but because the flour does contain the bran the protein structure is actually going to be weaker than that of all-purpose flour and that's because the brand actually kind of cuts through those protein strands so it cannot build as strong of a gluten structure when you are using whole wheat flour now next down the line we have white whole wheat flour which is still a 100% whole wheat flour but it is made from a white wheat a white hard wheat so it's actually kind of an albino strand of wheat so it's lighter in color and more mild in flavor so this is really good for people who don't love the really rich flavor of regular whole wheat flour this is a bit milder in flavor but still has all of the same nutrients that whole wheat flour has and then the last flour is a whole wheat pastry flour now this is made from a soft wheat flour it still contains all of the wheat grain but it's a softer strand of wheat so it produces a little bit of a finer texture and it has a lower protein content so it works well for more delicate baked goods so now that we've reviewed every type of flour you might bake with let's talk about the four most essential ones to have on hand now these are the four that I like to keep in my pantry to give me the most versatility with my baking so the first is all-purpose flour obviously for most everyday baking and that can be bleached or unbleached just depending on your preference I also like to keep cake flour on hand because it really does make a difference in making the lightest and fluffiest cakes I also like to have a bread flour in my pantry and to use to make all of my breads and anything that you want to have a lot of chew and your final result and then the last bar would be a whole wheat flour now this can be either the white whole wheat or the traditional whole wheat flour just whatever your preference is now I should also note that whole wheat flour does spoil quicker than white flours so if you do not go through it very quickly it's best to keep that in the freezer to prolong its shelf life so that is it for the video portion of this lesson but I want to make sure that you don't skip over the written part of this lesson because there is much more detail about each type of flour their best uses and the protein content of each ok so now for your homework assignment I'd love for you to try baking with a new type of flour that you've never baked with before now I will leave some links in the description of some different ideas of recipes to try with each variety of flour but you can truly bake anything you want I'll see you guys next time bye [Music]