Baking basics-Understanding flour

Does flour expire? Which flour type is used for bread baking? Which one to use for patisserie products?

Everyone of us, at a certain point has had these questions.

I need to make a disclaim here, I have not studied food science, but as I’ve mentioned it here, for more than 20 years I have in my possession an old patisserie book that has detailed information about flour, sugar, diary etc..

Based on the results form my the polls that I’ve made in instagram and facebook, today I’m sharing some valuable information regarding the flour.

Smell:

Fresh flour has a slight typical aroma. The harsh and sour aroma indicates that the flour is either expired or obtained form old cereals. Flour is hydrophobic, meaning that it has properties to absorb foreign aromas that may occur during transport or storage in warehouses. To understand whether the flour has unpleasant aromas, you can grab a fistful of flour, warm it with your breath and smell it afterwards.

Taste:

If you taste a bit of flour, you may notice that its natural flavour is slightly sweet. Sour taste shows that the flour is not fresh, but strong sour flavour or even bitter taste, shows that the flour is gone bad and should not be consumed.

Moisture:

If you pay attention to the packages of the flour you may notice the percentage of moisture that kind of flour has. Determination of moisture is of great importance because dry flour (containing 14% moisture) can be stored well throughout the year. Flours with moderate moisture (14.5-15.5% moisture) can only be preserved during cool months, while flour with high humidity (15.5% -17%) can only be stored during winter, as during summer it tends to get grainy or also possible to grow mould or bacteria very easily.

Gluten:

Gluten gives the dough elasticity during kneading process. The amount of gluten found in the flour is based from the grain the flour is obtained. For example, the durum wheat has more gluten than regular wheat grain. Good quality gluten has elasticity and also the properties to maintain the shape while baking, on the other hand, low quality gluten is sticky and it tends to get crumbly. The gluten is formed from mixing water with gliadin & glutenin (both proteins found in the flour). Flours with high percentage of proteins in it are suitable to be used in leavened dough like pizzas, bread, rolls etc…, while flours with low percentage of proteins are suitable for cookies, creams, pastry and so on. The protein percentage is always shown in the Nutrition label of the flour packaging.

Storage:

As previously mentioned, flour has the characteristic to absorb foreign aromas, therefore it is recommended to be stored in an airtight container, preferably made of glass.