By: Princess Bartolo; Chelsea Flores; and Ariane Morales

Are powdered products made from milling or grinding cereal grains, root crops, legumes, and other starchy foods. Use of the word Flour unqualified means Wheat flour

Four Major Types of Wheat:

winter Soft white spring

Wheat classes is differentiated by such factors as protein content, virtuosity or translucency of the kernel, kernel color and kernel hardness. Kernel hardness or softness is generally influenced by protein content but not be always positively correlated because of such factors as selective breeding and environment under which the wheat's are grown. Hard red spring and Hard red winter wheats yield flours of high to intermediate protein contents (9.6-14.8%)and with gluten strength suitable for bread production. Soft Wheats are superior for cakes and cookies. Durum Wheats are use for pasta production.

Class

Protein%

Yield%

Ash%

Water Absorption % 59.9 62.4 61.1 56.1

Loaf Vol. in cc 2,210 1,943 2,028 1,929

Hard red spring Durum Hard red winter Soft red winter

13.9 15.5 13.5 11.3

69.6 71.1 72.4 71.0

0.49 0.77 0.45 0.46

White wheat

12.3

70.6

0.47

57.2

1,876

Wheat was first introduced by the Spaniards. It was grown in places which are cold in Calatagan, Batangas. Flour so produced were initially intended only for the production of hosts used in communion during masses, however , excess production were made into bread and pastries . Spanish terms used for baked products such as pan de Sal, ensaymada, barquillos and etc. Wheat growing in the Philippines had been abandoned since the Americans came because it is relatively cheaper to just import flour products. Today, flour is milled in this country from imported wheat.

Flour milling is intended to remove the outside branny layer and germ of wheat to obtain maximum extraction of the endosperm without damaging the starch granules.

Two Basic Steps in Flour Milling :

Gradual breaking and grinding of the kernel. Separating and purifying the particles according to size and characteristics .

Selecting wheat grains and blending of two or more kinds are carried out as the first step of the milling process . The kernels are cleaned and then tempered with steam or tap water. The tempered or conditioned kernels undergo breaking which is a combination of shearing and crushing between corrugated rollers. The endosperm from the break stems are called break flour. Purification is the process used for removing bran adhere to the endosperm by the used of air currents. Bran and germs particles w/ endosperm are used for animal feeding. The middling undergo 5 to6 series of grinding, bolting or sieving and purifying until this process of gradual reduction results in white flour. When all the streams of white flour from these are combined, this is called straight grade flour.

A freshly milled flour has a creamy color due to its carotenoid pigments. Aging or Storing the flour for several months eventually whitens the flour by oxidation. The commercial preparation of white flour involves the addition of bleaching or oxidizing agents like nitrogen or benzoyl peroxide chlorine dioxide. In the USA, it is mandatory to add thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, and iron.

In the Philippines, flour enrichment of w/ thiamin, niacin , riboflavin and iron is a standard practice in consumer packs.

 Patent

flour

is made from the most refined streams of flour and is further graded according to the percentage of the total streams as follows: Family Patent Short Patent Medium Patent Long Patent = = = = 70-75% 78-80% 80-85% 90-95%

 Clear flour
Which

is remaining streams of flour after removing patent grades is less white and is used for whole wheat brands

Grade of Flours
Short Patent Standard Patent (65% short and 30% low grade) Straight (65% short 30% clear and 5% low grade) Clear Low grade

Yield%
65 95

Ash%
0.39 0.45

Protein%
10.8 11.1

Color%
100 97

100

0.48

11.3

95

30 5

0.60 0.90

12.3 13.0

85 75

Whole Wheat Flour

 Bread Flour

This is milled from hard wheat and blends. It is fairly high in its protein contents which ranges from 12 to 14 percent, hence its other name strong flour. It is sometimes called hard flour because it is made chiefly from hard wheats other than durum wheat. It has an off-white color and granular texture. Bread flour is most suitable for baking yeast- leavened breads.

 All

Purpose Flour.

Sometimes referred to as family or general purpose flour. It is used practically all cooking purposes . Its characteristics are intermediate between bread and cake flours.

Cake flour
This is also known as Soft flour, i.e. was made from Soft wheat . It is referred to as weak flour, denoting its lower protein content w/c about 7-8%. It is finely milled that it feels velvety when rubbed between the fingers. It is usually made from the most refined white flour streams and it belongs to the short patent grade. Also, it is often highly bleached w/ chlorine making it the whitest of the flours. With its higher starch and lower gluten content, cake flour is suitable for delicate, fine -textured cakes.

Pastry Flour

This is also white flour with characteristics midway between cake and all purpose flours. It is specially prepared for commercial bakers for pies and cookies . For house hold cooking, use all purpose flour when a recipe calls for pastry flour.

Enriched Flour
Specified levels of nutrients as added to white flour. required by law are

 Self-rising flour

This is white flour to w/c sodium bicarbonate or baking soda plus an acid salt, usually calcium phosphate , are added as leavener.

Gluten Flour
Dried extracted gluten is mixed with wheat flour in proportions that will yield about 41% protein in the gluten flour.

 Instantized or

Quick-mixing Flour

instant flour is flour processed by moistening and then redrying the flour to form agglomerates that do not lump or pack.

 Rye flour

This is a finely ground product obtained from sifting rye meal. Of the non-wheat flour, rye flour approaches the quality of wheat flour for bread-making but is still inferior to it since it lacks the gluten-forming proteins of flour.

Buckwheat flour
It is a finely ground product obtained from sifting buckwheat meal. It is used in making buckwheat pancakes.

Potato Flour

Made by white potatoes which are then dried and ground, this makes good quality doughnuts and fairly acceptable cookies.

Corn flour
It is obtained by milling and sifting yellow or white corn. The tortillas of the Mexicans are unleavened corn cakes using corn flour as the basic ingredients.

Rice flour
this is prepared by milling white rice. Use for native delicacies and other foods.

 Soy Flour

These are 2 kinds: the full-fat and low-fat soy flour. The former is made from dehulled soybeans while the latter is prepared from defatted soybeans or soybeans from w/c most of the oil has been previously extracted. Soy flour has a strong beany flavor . Although it has a high protein content than most legumes, it does not have the gluten potential of wheat flour..

Waxy Rice Flour

Also known as sweet rice flour, w/c is marketed in the USA as mochiko flour, it is ground from waxy rice or the malagkit type. Since it is 100% amylopectin, it is useful as stabilizer in frozen products.

Other flours

Coconut, cottonseed, sunflower, peanut, sweet potato, purple yam or ube, mungbean and other root crops, seed oils or legumes can all be converted to non-wheat flours.

Interest in Composite flours using indigenous nonwheat materials that are locally grown and are relatively cheaper than wheat flour has been promoted since 1964 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The objectives of the program is to use non-wheats flour to replace wheat flour in making products prepared by wheat flour. Products from composite flour add variety and give distinct flavor, color and texture just as rye and buckwheat flours have their peculiar quality factors that some consumers like. Composite flours can produce acceptable quick breads like muffins, cookies, cakes and fritters.

A wheat grain has about 84% endosperm, 14.5% bran, and 1.5% germ. When wheat is milled into a white flour, about 75%of the grain is recovered. The rest goes along with the bran and germ, a mixture w/c is called shorts and is used for animal feeding. Energy value. On the average, 100g wheat flour yields 360 calories: 40 only from protein and the bigger portion comes from starch. The amount of carbohydrate per 100g flour ranges from 71 to 79 g. Moisture content. Most flour contains 12 to 14% water. Protein Contents. Wheat flour is capable of forming a dough that will retain gas evolved during fermentation and subsequent baking to yield a light , well aerated loaf of bread.

 Albumins
Globulins Gliadins Glutenins

Gluten Formation is the interaction of glutenin w/ gliadin, during dough mixing.

 Lipids in

flour:

The whole wheat kernel has only 1 to 2% lipids. The lipids in wheat flours are in the forms of triglycerides, sterols especially vitamin E and phospholipids. The small amounts of lipids in flour has been shown to improve gluten quality. When the lipids fraction is extracted from flour, more mixing is required to develop the gluten.

 Flour

pigment

The carotenoids in water account for the creamy color of fleshly milled flour. The chemical additives are also called flour improvers because they improve the baking quality of the bread flours. Oxidizing agents unites protein molecules during the development of the gluten by cross-linking the sulfhydryl(-SH) radical of adjacent protein molecules to give a disulfide bridge or the S-S- linkages. This produces longer protein polymers which is essential for the gluten network.

 Flour

enzymes

The presence of amylases in flour is one of the factors that determines the rate of gas production in yeast-leavened breads. The alpha amylase found internally in the amylose chain yielding dextrins of various sizes and molecular weights. The beta amylase produce the maltose. The enzymes of the yeast can now take over to complete the fermentation. Proteases in the flour converts some of the flour proteins into a more soluble form, a process that softens and reduces the elasticity of gluten. Oxidizing agents that are added when flour is bleached inactive these proteolytic enzymes.