Types of Flours
There are so many different flours on the market nowadays. With all the recipes available and the varied lingo chosen; all purpose, whole wheat, self raising, it’s bound to get someone confused. Below, you’ll find a handy list of flours available today, what they are and what best to use them for.
We’ll start simple ..
Plain Flour
What is it?
Plain white flour has been refined to remove all the bran and germs. This flour gives a delicate texture to sweet baking and can also be used to thicken sauces. Plain flour requires raising agents to be added to it in order to make any cakes you bake rise.
Plain flour has a medium to low protein content between 7-11% and 76.2g of starch per 100g.
Best for:
Baking and sauce thickeners. Due to the low nature of the protein content, plain flour is best to use in baking as it has less gluten; so is ideal to use for pastries and cakes as you get a much softer dough. Plain flour is what we use for our base when creating our dreamy mac and cheese sauce. Starch is the key component when baking cakes, so when there is too much gluten it creates a dense texture.
Also known as:
All purpose flour in America.
Self-Raising Flour
What is it?
Self-raising flour is essentially the same as plain flour but has added baking powder. Anyone can therefore make self-raising flour at home using the equivalent of 100g of plain flour with ½ teaspoon of baking powder. The added baking powder means that when the flour is mixed with water, the chemical in baking powder reacts to release carbon dioxide which helps the cake to rise.
Self-raising flour has a medium to low protein content between 7-8% and 74.3g of starch per 100g.
Best for:
This flour can also be used in baking. It takes out the hassle of having to add in raising agents and super handy when you don’t have any available. However, if a recipe asks for plain flour you cannot substitute for self-raising as the two are not interchangeable. If self-raising flour is called for in a recipe, but you have none to hand, you can substitute your own mixed defined above.
Spelt Flour
What is it?
Spelt flour is an alternative to wheat based products and in its original form is a whole grain. Spelt flour has a light and airy texture similar to wheat.
Spelt flour has a high gluten and protein content of 30% per 100g. This grain is more soluble than wheat making it easier for the body to digest.
Best for:
Spelt flour has different properties compared to other grains and so behaves differently in recipes. However, it can still be used in baking and is great for making bread.
This is personally one of our favourite flours to use as it provides a different depth of flavour and texture to baked dishes. Our personal favourite in the Pear Chocolate Spelt Crumble.
Also known as:
Dinkel wheat or hulled wheat.
Tips:
One can still substitute this flour in baking but should best start with a 50:50 ratio of plain flour to spelt flour.
If a recipe calls for whole wheat flour, this can 100% be replaced with spelt as they have similar properties.
Bread dough will take longer to rise than normal wheat flour dough.
Spelt does not soak up as much liquid as other grains, so when creating dough, reduce the amount of liquid to prevent it from getting too sticky.
When using spelt flour in dough, be careful not to under or over mix the dough. If dough is under-mixed it can be crumbly. When the dough is overmixed, the protein will start to break down.
Buckwheat Flour
What is it?
Buckwheat is not a form of wheat and naturally does not contain any gluten. Buckwheat flour is made up of ground buckwheat seeds.
Buckwheat flour has low protein content of 8% per 100g.
Best for:
Gluten Free recipes. Can be used as a replacement in baking for flours that contain gluten but is best on those recipes that do not call a rise in the batter i.e. cookies or pancakes.
Also known as:
Sarrasin Flour.
Tips
When using buckwheat flour in cakes and/or bread, ideally it should be used in combination with lighter flours and no more than half of the total flour should be used. Tapioca or potato flour are good to use in conjunction to stay away from gluten.
Gram Flour
What is it?
Gram flour is essentially grounded chickpeas. The flour is yellow and has an earthy flavour depth to it.
This flour has a very high protein content of 44% per 100g.
Best for:
Creating batters like in our delicious pakora mix. Can also be used in gravies.
Also known as:
Chickpea flour, Besan, Channa dal or Garbanzo flour in America. This is commonly used in Asian cooking and can be found in the World Foods section in supermarkets.
Whole Wheat Flour
What is it?
Whole wheat flours reserve the bran and germ that is usually removed in plain and self-raising flour.
Wholemeal flour has a high protein content between 11-15% and 61.8g of starch per 100g.
Best for:
Best used in bread making due to the high protein content. This flour also creates more flavourful and nutritious breads.
Also known as:
Wholemeal flour.
Tips
Wholemeal flours have shorter shelf life that refined flours and should be stored in a cool area away from light.
Wholemeal flour should always be sieved due to it retaining all parts of the grain kernel.
Brown Rice Flour
What is it?
Brown rice flour comes from the whole brown rice grain. It does not behave the same way as wheat flour. This flour has a grainy and nutty flavour which is fairly distinct.
Brown rice flour has a low protein content of 6% per 100g.
Best for:
Is a good flour alternative for a gluten free diet. Can be used in both cooking and baking, such as thickening sauces, bread making or baking. Food coatings and noodle making can also be done with this flour.
Tips
You will not be able to substitute this flour as a one to one with whole wheat flours.
If you are going to use it in baking, experimentation will be needed to get the desired outcome and consistency.
Tapioca Flour
What is it?
Tapioca flour is made from the starch extracted from the cassava root – a root native to South America and the Caribbean.
Low protein content of 4% per 100g.
Best for:
This gluten free flour works well in baking. Can be used as a replacement for cornstarch as a thickener in sauces or stews and casseroles.
Also known as:
Tapioca Starch. Not to be confused with Cassava flour.
Coconut Flour
What is it?
Coconut flour is a soft flour that is made from dried coconut meat and is an alternative to wheat flour. The coconut milk is then squeezed from the coconut meat and then the meat is dried and ground up to create this flour.
Best for:
This flour is suitable to bake with. Another perk of using this flour, is that coconut flour contains no gluten. Substitute this flour in a range of baking recipes from cookies, cakes to bread and so on.
Tips
Coconut flour tends to absorb more liquids than other flours and so cannot be used as a one to one substitute in recipes.
Use additional liquids or more eggs when replacing a flour with coconut flour.
