Book of American Baking / A Practical Guide Covering Various Branches of the Baking Industry, Including Cakes, Buns, and Pastry, Bread Making, Pie Baking, Etc.

by Various

Flour Mixing.

Many bakers mix flour from different mills, thinking they receive a more uniform and better blend of flour, that when one flour is poor the other usually is good and helps it along. In reality the opposite is the case.

Every mill has its own separate system of bolting flour, so that they have the small particles of flour of the same uniform size. The sizes of flour particles from different mills will differ, consequently if these flours are blended, there will be flour particles of varying sizes. When mixed into dough, the smaller particles take up the water first and much faster than the larger particles, and fermentation begins immediately on the smaller particles. The larger particles require a longer time to take up the water, therefore the fermenting dough is not uniform—the dough from the larger particles being slower than that from the smaller particles. Thus, part of the dough will be “too old” and the remainder “too young.”

Some mills select their wheat and mill the flour by systematic chemical and baking analyses, so that the gluten is of uniform quality and gives the best results when it is handled alone. If another flour is mixed with it, the gluten being of a different character will make an inferior gluten of the first flour and it will not give as good results as when handled alone.