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Your Whole-Grain Pantry -- Flours

Reggie Dwork <reggie@jeff-and-reggie.com>
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 20:32:02 -0800
v113.n046.5
                      Your Whole-Grain Pantry -- Flours

All-purpose flour is actually a blend of soft and hard wheat flours 
that makes it suitable for both cakes and breads.  To r3eplace 
all-purpose flour with whole-grain flours, consider the following 
attributes of these of these substitutes:

Whole-Wheat Flour:
This classic ground red wheat is high in protein and fiber and gives 
breads, bagels, and rolls a distinctive chewiness.

Spelt Flour:
Closely related to wheat, spelt has a milder flavor and less gluten, 
resulting in baked goods that are dense without being heavy.

Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour:
Also called graham flour (as in graham crackers), whole-wheat pastry 
flour is milled from "soft" or low protein wheat.  It gives pancakes, 
cookies, muffins, and cakes a fine-grained teture that's similar to 
all-purpoe flour.

White Whole-Wheat Flour:
White wheat has fewer bitter tannins and a paler color than red wheat 
for higher, milder tasting baked goods that still have all the 
benefits of whole wheat.

Non-Wheat Flours:
Such as oat, barley, corn, brown rice and buckwheat can be thrown 
into a flour blend to add flavor and nutrients to muffins, flat 
breads, waffles, and pancakes.

Get The Ratio Right:
For minimal changes in texture and flavor, start by substituting 
whole-grain flours for 1/4 to 1/2 of the standard flour in a 
recipe.  See how it tastes, then gradually go higher.  (Pancakes, 
waffles, banana muffins, brownies, and pumpkin bread work well with 
100% whole-grain flours, but layer cakes and cookies fare better with 
a partial substitution.)  As soon as you exceed 50% whole-wheat or 
any whole-grain flour in a recipe, the dry ingredients will absorb 
more liquid and fat than white flour.  They can also mask the 
sweetness in recipes, so be ready to dial up the liquid and 
sweeteners, starting with 1 - 2T at a time.

Source:
    "vegetarian Times, Dec 2013"