What is ordinary flour?

Flour is a kind of powder ground from wheat. According to the content of protein in flour, it can be divided into high gluten flour, medium gluten flour, low gluten flour and gluten-free flour. Flour (wheat flour) is the staple food in most parts of northern China. There are many kinds of food made of flour, with many patterns and different flavors.

When choosing flour, the information we want is the classification of different products such as high gluten flour, medium gluten flour and low gluten flour, or the purity grade of flour, as well as the contents of minerals and crude protein. When buying flour, many people mistakenly think that "high gluten flour = high gluten flour". In fact, the meaning of "high-gluten flour" is simply advanced refining, which only means the processing technology of wheat, but not the gluten of flour. Therefore, "advanced refining" may be high-gluten flour, low-gluten flour, special flour or second-class flour. From this perspective, the term "high precision" is actually unscientific, at least not an industry standard term. Therefore, it is suggested that when purchasing flour, we should pay attention to its protein content, that is, gluten, rather than "advanced refining".

High-gluten flour: dark in color, active and smooth, not easy to form balls by hand; It is more suitable for making bread and some cakes, such as Danish cakes. Mostly used in muffins (thousand-layer cakes) and cream hollow cakes (puffs) in western cakes. In terms of cakes, it is only used in high-content fruit cakes.

Medium gluten powder: milky white in color, between high and low powder, semi-loose in constitution; Generally, Chinese snacks are used, such as steamed buns, steamed bread and noodles. (Note: Generally available flour can be regarded as medium gluten flour unless otherwise specified. Moreover, this kind of flour is generally marked on the package, which is suitable for making steamed buns, jiaozi, steamed buns and noodles.

Low gluten powder: white in color, easy to form balls by hand; The average protein content of low-gluten flour is about 8.5%, and the protein content is low, so the gluten is weak, so it is more suitable for making cakes, muffins, biscuits, cakes, etc., and the taste is fluffy and crisp.

Simply put, you grab a handful of flour with your hand, then knead it tightly with your fist, then loosen it and weigh the powder ball gently with your hand. If the powder ball disperses quickly, it is high gluten powder; If the dough can keep its shape in the process of light weighing, it is low-gluten flour.

Wheat grain is mainly composed of three parts: wheat bran accounts for about18%-25% of the grain weight; Only 1%-2% of wheat germ is used for germination. Endosperm accounts for about 80%. There is aleurone layer adhesion between endosperm and wheat bran. Wheat bran, wheat germ and endosperm were separated from wheat seeds by milling technology, and the endosperm was ground into flour for human consumption. Flour processing is a physical separation process, which does not change the original chemical properties of wheat endosperm and the rheological properties of hydrated dough.

Judging from the factors that affect the edible quality of flour, protein content and quality are the most important factors that determine its edible quality, processing quality and market value. For example, to make bread, in order to make it bigger and taste good, high-gluten wheat flour should be used; To make noodles and jiaozi, use medium-strong gluten wheat flour to make it "gluten-free" and smooth; The cakes made of low-gluten wheat flour are soft and the biscuits are crisp. It can be seen that with the development of food industry, the demand for all kinds of special flour is getting higher and higher, and the decisive factor is the "protein content and quality" of flour.