Baking Flour

A person who is trying their hands at the art of baking must know what it is they want and then try to learn a few tips about getting it. To make good baked products, baking requires a lot of patience and knowledge of baking process and baking ingredients. One of the important things that they have to know is baking flour as an ingredient.

There are many different kinds of baking flour that is used in baking.
- High protein flour or bread flour, made from hard wheat flour. Used as baking flour for bread and yeast bread or loaves. Bread flour has high and strong gluten to provide good texture of the baked bread.
- Medium protein flour or general purpose flour is used for almost any kind of baking.
- Low protein flour or soft flour, made from soft wheat flour, used to make fine cake, cookies, biscuits and wafer. Soft flour has less gluten.

In stead of the above flour, in baking flour we also familiar with plain flour item. Plain flour is also called all-purpose flour. Plain flour can be used for dessert and cake-making purposes. Self-raising flour is the most commonly baking flour in cake recipes. If you are using this flour, there is no need to add baking soda or baking powder. It can also be used to make pancakes, muffins and cupcakes.

Baking flour should be stored in airtight containers in a place that is cool and dry, but never more than 6 months. In tropical climate, it only can stand for 4 months.

Baking Chocolate

Gourmet Baking Chocolate

By Donna Monday

Several types of chocolate may be used when baking cookies, pies, cakes, bars, and other sweet treats. The amount of cocoa butter and sugar can affect the texture and taste of chocolate-from bitter to very sweet.

Below is a quick guide to the most popular kinds of chocolate used in baked goods.
- UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE – Unsweetened chocolate contains nothing but pure chocolate and cocoa butter. There’s no sugar added. This chocolate is dark in color and has a strong flavor.
- UNSWEETENED COCOA POWDER – Unsweetened cocoa powder is pure chocolate that’s had a majority of the cocoa butter removed.
- SEMISWEET AND BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE – Semisweet and Bittersweet chocolate contains at least 35% pure chocolate. Cocoa butter and sugar have been added. This type of chocolate is often used in cookies and can be used interchangeably.
- MILK CHOCOLATE – Milk chocolate contains at least 15% of pure chocolate, and is mixed with cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids. It has a creamy texture and is often used to make chocolate candy.
- WHITE CHOCOLATE – White chocolate is unique in that it contains no pure chocolate. However, it does have cocoa butter. Other ingredients are sugar and milk solids. When buying white chocolate for baking, be sure to check the label first to avoid confusing it with other similar looking white baking products.
- SWEET CHOCOLATE – Sweet chocolate contains at least 15% pure chocolate. Other ingredients are sugar and cocoa butter. Use sweet baking chocolate when you want your baked goods to have a rich chocolate flavor, without the bitterness of other types of chocolate.

Bread Flour

Bread Flour

By Amy Riv

Bread flour is white flour made from hard, high-protein wheat. Bread flour is also call hard flour or high protein flour. It has more gluten strength and protein content than all-purpose flour. This high gluten has certain toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Bread  flour is unbleached and sometimes conditioned with ascorbic acid, which increases volume and creates better texture. This is the best choice for yeast products. Bread flour has high percentage of protein. This harder (stronger) flour best suited to chewy, crusty breads and other yeast-risen products.

Which type of wheat flour is best for bread making? Flour is made up of carbohydrates or starch, proteins, and in the case of whole-wheat flour, a bit of fat. Of these three nutrients, protein matters most to the baker. The proteins in wheat are called gluten-forming proteins, and the quantity and quality of these proteins determines how a flour will perform in the baking bread.

The value of high protein (strong) wheat flour in final bread dough is common knowledge amongst bakers. Generally speaking strong flour enables levain raised dough , stronger. Stable structure, fermentation and proofing tolerance , better bread volume, better crust color, chewy texture better dough symmetry and overall appearance. Higher proteins means there is more of the structural and soluble proteins that have beneficial effect on the critters and the dough .