Flours

Even Kroger’s is carrying many different types of flours these days–you have many more options than white or whole-wheat.  Speciality stores such as health-food or “natural” stores usually have a dizzying selection.  Rye, buckwheat, oat, corn, hazelnut, chickpea…the list goes on and on.  Some rise better and therefore work better in yeast breads while some make a good substitution when baking densier, nuttier quick breads and muffins.  They have very different nutrients, so it’s worth reading some labels to see exactly what you’re getting.  Here are a few that I like to keep on hand:

• Whole-wheat flour is my favorite.  It’s high in iron and fiber and has a nutty-but-not-overwhelming flavor.  I freely substitute this for white flour when I make yeast breads, brownies, and muffins.  Depending on the kind of cake I’m making, I substitute wheat for half the amount of white called for.
• Modern-day white flour has unfortunately been stripped of all of its nutrients.  The only reason you see any nutritional value on the label is if the nutrients have been added back in during the final stages of processing.  (????)  While this seems to defy conventional wisdom, the food industry refers to this as adding “value” to the product.  Personally, I would rather eat food that hasn’t been taken apart and reassembled along the way, so I don’t use white flour very often.
• Nut flours, such as almond and hazelnut, are wonderful in many baked goods.  They are also packed with iron, calcium, and protein, particularly almond flour.  (Nut flours are simply very finely-ground nuts.)  I don’t like whole chunks of nuts, but I do like the faint nut flavor and slightly-pebbly texture that nut flours impart to the final product.  You can substitute nut flour for up to half the amount of standard flour called for in the recipe without throwing the final consistency out of whack.
• Cornmeal gives baked goods a bit of crunchiness–who doesn’t love cornbread?  Or corn muffins, or corn dodgers…  I prefer the yellow cornmeal over the white, mostly for the sake of color.  There is also stone-ground organic cornmeal.
• Rye flour has a very distinctive taste.  The Swedes use it to wonderful effect in their rye-and-caraway breads, and rye also stars in German Schwarzbrot (think pumperknickel).  A little bit of rye goes a long way, though, and rye flour is also very dense, so you might want use it in recipes that specifically call for it until you’re more accustomed to working with it.
• Bean-based flours like garbanzo have a whopping amount of fiber and can safely be consumed by celiacs, but since they entirely lack gluten, they can’t be used willy-nilly.  If you’re going to attempt non-gluten baked goods, you’ll need to find recipes (and ingredients) created for gluten-free diets.  Bean flours could, however, be easily used as thickeners in sauces and soups.
• Wheatberries, wheat germ, and cracked wheat represent various stages in the processing of wheat–further reducing them results in the final flour product.  Wheatberries and cracked wheat make nice texture additions to bread–they’ll be distinct and crunchy–while wheat germ is flaky enough to not be overly noticeable.  (Wheat germ is one of the most nutrient-laden foods on the planet; it’s used as a supplement by many bodybuilders and athletes.)  If you’re looking for more oomph in the morning, try putting wheatberries, germ, or cracked wheat into your muffins!
• Oat flour is finely-ground oatmeal; you can easily make your own in a blender.  (Nut flour is a little bit more difficult to grind finely because nuts are oily by nature.)  Use oat flour in heavy breads (multi-grain/health-food), waffles, or pancakes for a hearty breakfast.

These are only a few of the flours available on today’s grocery shelves.  Check out the “Know Your Ingredients” section in the Joy of Cooking to read about more.

Tags: almond flour, baking, bean flour, cooking, corn flour, cornmeal, nut flour, oat flour, rye flour, white flour, whole wheat flour