How to choose quality flour and how to store it properly

What can no baking be done without? That's right – without flour! We're used to baking with high-grade wheat flour, and there are different kinds of flour. But we rarely use it, or even don't use it at all – we just don't know how and what to cook with it. I will tell you about the types of flour, what healthy pastries you can make from different flours, as well as how to choose flour and how to store it.

Wheat flour

Let's start, of course, with the most popular – wheat flour. Most housewives cook with wheat flour – it contains enough protein (gluten), so it behaves well when baking.

Wheat flour is usually made from soft varieties of wheat, with durum wheat sometimes added, but not more than 20%. However, there is also wheat flour made exclusively from durum wheat – it is called semolina. It is used to make pasta and pizza.

Depending on the grinding and gluten content, wheat flour is divided into several grades.

The highest grade is the whitest, most delicate and airy flour. It is suitable for baking cake layers, buns, muffins, and sponge cake. High-grade flour is also often used as a thickener for sauces. However, such flour is of little use - all the goodness has been removed from it during the production process.

First-grade flour is slightly coarser than high-grade flour. Since this flour contains a small amount of crushed grain hulls, the color of the flour can be from pure white to white with a yellowish or grayish tint. First-grade flour is perfect for pies, pancakes, rolls, and crepes.

Second-grade flour is even coarser and darker, ranging from light yellowish to dark gray and even brown. This flour contains more vitamins and minerals, but it is difficult to bake something airy with it. That's why second-grade flour is added to higher-grade flour or mixed with rye flour to make baked goods that taste interesting and are healthy.

Such flour is good for homemade bread, gingerbread, and cookies.

Whole wheat, or wholemeal, or coarse flour is flour made from whole wheat grains, which contains much more fiber and nutrients than white flour.

Whole wheat flour is low in gluten, so it is often mixed with flour of another type or another grain to bake bread.

Spelt flour (spelt flour)

This is a type of wheat flour made from wild wheat varieties. It is considered to be very healthy – its fats are easily digested, and its nutritional value is higher than that of regular wheat flour.

Rye flour

Rye flour is the second most popular type of flour. Rye flour is made from rye, and its appearance differs from wheat flour in color – rye flour is grayish and interspersed with tiny particles of grain hull.

Rye flour contains almost no gluten, which is why it is more often used in a mixture with wheat flour. Rye flour is used to bake bread, pancakes, pies, and flatbreads.

As for the variety, there is sown, wallpaper, hulled, and special rye flour.

Seeded rye flour is the most delicate rye flour. Its color is white with a cream or grayish tint.

Special flour is unseeded, so it occupies an intermediate position between sown and hulled flour.

Hulled flour contains a few grain hulls, the color of this flour is grayish-white or grayish-cream.

Hulled flour is like whole wheat. It is gray in color with inclusions of darker hulls.

Buckwheat flour

This flour is a dark beige color and has a characteristic buckwheat flavor. For example, pancakes made with buckwheat flour and milk are very similar to buckwheat porridge with milk.

Buckwheat flour is a gluten-free flour, so buckwheat flour is not suitable for baking in its pure form - only in a duet with gluten flour.

Usually, buckwheat flour can be found in the store, and if not, you can take buckwheat groats, wash them, dry them, and grind them in a coffee grinder.

In addition to pancakes, buckwheat flour can be used to bread cutlets and add to casseroles. Buckwheat flour is also used to make porridge for babies.

Oat flour

Yes, this is the same flour used to make oatmeal cookies and oatmeal jelly. Oatmeal should also be used in conjunction with gluten-containing flours.

You can also make oat flour yourself by grinding oat flakes.

Corn flour

Corn flour is used to make delicious mamalyga, banosh, polenta, and corn cakes. Corn flour has similar properties to wheat flour, so it can be used in its pure form.

Corn flour has its own interesting flavor, although nutritionists now advise caution: corn is grown using GMO technologies.

Flaxseed flour

Flaxseed flour has an interesting nutty flavor and excellent binding properties. Therefore, it is not only used to bake breads, but also added to minced meat, soups, omelets, casseroles, and used as a breading.

Rice flour

Rice flour is made from milled rice. Both white (steamed) and unpeeled (brown) rice can be used in the production of this flour.

It is also gluten-free, which is recommended for allergy sufferers. Rice flour is widely used in the manufacture of baby food.

Rice flour is used to make crispy bread, noodles, pancakes, pies, and cakes. The only drawback of this flour is that it is quite expensive.

Almond flour

Almond flour is also expensive, but it is considered one of the healthiest. Almond flour makes excellent baked goods, and it is low in calories. And you can't make macaroni cakes without almond flour!

Barley flour

Barley flour contains almost no gluten, which is why it is considered a dietary product.

When baking, barley flour is most often added to wheat flour, and pancakes and cookies are made from barley flour.

How to choose high-quality flour

Buy flour packaged only in paper bags. Never buy flour packaged in polyethylene – such flour does not "breathe" and acquires a musty odor, and the process of self-heating of flour begins inside the bag.

Flour in paper bags should be tightly sealed – in a torn package, it interacts with air and can harbor bugs.

Pay attention to the shelf life of the flour – flour that has been stored for a long time becomes stale, loses its flowability, and microorganisms develop in it.

Look at the color of the flour and its uniformity. As I said, the color of flour is not always white: some flours are made from grains with hulls, so they are darker. The color also depends on the degree of grinding of the grains: coarse flour is darker. But the flour should be free of lumps, black dots (weed particles), bugs and larvae.

Flour should not taste sour, sweet, bitter, or have a taste of mustiness or mold.

How to store flour

Flour should be stored in a dry and cool place. The shelf life of any flour is no more than 6 months. In hot weather, it is better to keep flour in the refrigerator.

• Store flour in closed jars or containers, ideally in glass. If the flour is stored in the open air, the oils in it oxidize, and as a result, it becomes rancid. Also, a closed container will protect the flour from absorbing moisture and odors.

• Whole wheat flour should be stored exclusively in the refrigerator, as the natural oils in this flour quickly turn rancid at room temperature.
• If you freeze the flour for 48 hours, you are guaranteed to get rid of insects or their larvae if they were in the flour.
• Flour can also be stored in the freezer – for this purpose, it must be well packed in airtight, moisture-proof containers. In this way, the flour can be stored for several years.