Flour: Difference between revisions

As it is the most popular type, much more [[wheat]] flour is produced than any other.

[[Wheat]] varieties are called "hard", "clean," "white," or "brown" 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 a certain toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer 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 fruit of the grass Caryopsis) used in flour (specifically, the endosperm or starchy part; the germ or [[protein]] part; and the bran or [[Dietary fibre|fibre]] part), there are three general types of flour:  

===British and American flour types===

In Britain, many flours go by names different from those from America.  Some American flours and British equivalents include:

'''  US English term        =  UK English term'''

*'''Cake and pastry flour = soft flour'''

Brown rice flour is of great importance in southeast Asian cuisine. Most rice flour is made from white rice, thus is essentially a pure starch, but whole-grain brown rice flour is also  commercially available.

== How much does one cup of flour weigh? ==

''Estimated [[Generic_conversion_table#Volume|US cup]] to weight equivalents:''

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