Flour is a crucial ingredient when baking. However, different recipes require different flour textures to achieve the desired result. However, most people are often ignorant or don’t know what to look for when buying their flour. They often buy low-quality flour that fails to meet the standards of making certain products. It’s important to note that not all wheat varieties are suitable for consumption. It’s important to look for brands that sell high-quality Wheat Flour and contain protein and other nutrients. So, how do you know the quality of the wheat? This article will explore ways to determine the quality of wheat flour.
The Composition of the wheat flour
When looking to know about the quality of wheat flour, you need to know its composition. It’s important to know how much protein, water, and ash is in the wheat to know the type of flour it will produce. The composition of the wheat depends on what the flour can be used for.
- The Protein Content
Wheat contains gluten proteins, which greatly determines how the flour will behave. When making cakes or cookies, you don’t need large protein gluten composition as you would when making bread. The protein content of wheat flour can range from 6% to 20 %. The percentage of protein in the flour will depend on the type of bread you want to make, and it can mostly range from 9-15%. There are different methods to measure the protein content, such as the Kjeldahl method. It’s important to note that gluten is key when making bread and cakes because it helps the dough stretch and puffs up nicely in the oven. When buying a wheat floor, it’s crucial to know the composition of proteins to ensure it will help promote what you are baking.
- The Moisture Content
Wheat requires water for growth. However, the water should be sufficient to help grow great wheat content. However, if the wheat is too wet, bad microorganisms will grow, which will lower its quality. For this reason, farmers need to control the moisture to at least 14% and ensure they harvest the wheat when dry. It’s important to know the composition of the moisture in the wheat kernel when calculating the overall content of the kernel.
- The Ash Content
Wheat comprises organic components, including water, proteins, starch, fat, and fibers. However, it still contains a small number of inorganic components, such as minerals which are often captured the in the ash content of the wheat. The ash content is often 15% of the overall flour. The extraction of wheat to flour determines the composition of the ash content. The ash’s content is very low for white flour.
Last Words!
Millers will determine the compositions to put in different flour depending on the floor used. After conducting some testing, they will decide on the best mill to get the desired result. Knowing the above will give you an idea of what to look for when making different bread or cakes.
