Wholemeal or spelt? - different types of flours explained (Part 1)

Flour is one of the most popular ingredients of many dishes in almost every cuisine. 

There are so many different flour types, and they all have different properties, which may be a bit confusing sometimes. What flour makes the best bread? Which flour is great for sponge cake? From wholemeal to plain, here's the list of flours you should stock in your kitchen pantry. Learn more about different kinds flours and enjoy baking and cooking at home. 

Wholemeal flour

Wholemeal flour is made using the whole grain of wheat, which means the entire spelt grain is processed, including the bran, endosperm and germ. Thanks to this process, the flour keeps its natural flavours and nutrients. 

It is more nutritious than white flour, but it's also a bit stronger, heavier and has a more intense flavour. You can store it in a cool, dark, dry place for a few months. Wholemeal flour is especially great for bread making, but wholemeal bread is quicker to perish than white bread. 

Finely milled, stone-ground organic wholemeal flour is an excellent ingredient for healthier biscuits, cakes and pastries. Because the wholemeal flower is quite heavy, you can use a combination of white and wholemeal flour if you want to achieve any specific results. It is suitable to use in bread machines and home ovens. It contains gluten. 

Buy Organic Strong Wholemeal 
Buy Organic Strong Wholemeal Bread Flour (Biobake)
Buy Organic Fine Plain Wholemeal Flour (Stoneground) 

White plain flour

White plain flour is often called all-purpose flour because it's the most versatile and can be used in many applications, from baking goods to soups and sauces. White plain flour contains approximately 75 per cent of the wheat grain, with the bran and wheat germ taken out. 

White flour is often artificially whitened, but you can buy unbleached white flour in organic whole food shops. When flour is labelled as self-raising, this means it contains a raising agent such as bicarbonate of soda or baking powder. If you add more raising agent to self-raising flour, it will give a lighter texture to the dough or batter. 

It is an excellent flour for cakes, biscuits, scones, muffins and pastries. It is suitable to use in bread machines. It contains gluten. 

Spelt Flour 

Spelt flour is made from spelt grain, a wheat species. It has a more nutty and tangy flavour and contains about 12-15 per cent protein. Spelt flour has brown and white specks mixed in. There are two types of spelt flour, white (made from the endosperm only) and whole grain (when the whole spelt grain is processed). Both types of spelt flour can develop a solid gluten network, which will give the bakes some additional volume but be careful not to over-mix the dough. 

Spelt flour's texture and density are comparable to wheat flour (both whole grain and white). It is suitable for making bread cakes, muffins and even pasta. It can be used in bread machines and home ovens. 

Rye Flour

Buy Organic Rye Flour 

Malthouse Flour

Malthouse flour is a combination of wheat flour and rye flour with toasted malted wheat flakes. It offers a wholesome crunchy texture and richness of flavour to all your baked goods. It is ideal for baking a tasty light brown loaf of bread. It can be used in bread machines and ovens. It contains gluten. 

Buy Organic Malthouse Flour

Barley Flour

Barley flour is made from dried and ground barley. There are two types of barley flour coarse and fine. Fine barley flour is made with pearl barley, and coarse barley flour is made with milled barley groats. It is used to prepare barley bread, flat bread and other yeast breads.

As it is packed with fibre, barley flour has more health benefits than wheat flour. It also contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It can be helpful in lowering cholesterol and reducing blood sugar and insulin levels. It is suitable to use in bread machines and home ovens. 

Buy Organic Barley Flour 

To be continued...