Whole wheat flour is flour ground from the whole grain, without the bran being removed first. Not removing the bran can interfere with gluten development, so sometimes additional gluten is added to this flour.
Semolina flour and durum flour are made from hard durum wheat with high gluten content. These flours are used to make pasta, noodles, couscous, and cereals.
Graham flour is a coarsely ground whole wheat flour.
It’s used to make graham crackers and is also used in baking. Whole wheat flour can be substituted, but the texture will be changed.
All-purpose flour is a mixture of high gluten hard wheat flour and low gluten soft wheat flour. Because it is a mixture of the two, it can be used to make a variety of breads, cookies, cakes, and pastries. It’s also used to thicken sauces and gravies and as a coating or breading for fried or sautéed foods.
Bread flour contains more hard wheat flour and therefore more gluten, which makes it excellent for making breads, particularly yeast-risen breads.
Cake flour is finely textured low gluten flour made from soft wheat. It has high starch content and is used for cakes and pastries. To make 1 cup of cake flour, remove 2 tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
Pastry flour has more hard wheat flour than cake flour, but less than all-purpose flour.
It is high starch flour like cake flour, but it has a bit more gluten and is suitable for cookies and crackers and biscuits. The choice of flours for these products is based mostly on individual taste, as all-purpose, cake, and pastry flours can be and are used for the same products.
By: DIANA RATTRAY
www.thespruce.com