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

1. Part is absorbed by the air.

2. Part is used by the gluten in the aging process.

When water is added to aged flour in mixing dough, the loss in moisture is more than made up by the larger percentage of water it will absorb. Flour which is aged will on the average absorb 5 per cent. more water than flour which is freshly milled. The baking value of the flour is greatly increased by proper aging. The gluten is much more elastic and tough and makes a much better handling dough. The flour is whiter in color, the fermentation period is more easily handled, and it makes a much better loaf of bread in general.

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.

Color of Flour.

The progressive miller is a close student of the wheat berry. It is necessary that he understand thoroughly the constitution of wheat to obtain the best results in the flour he grinds.

Milling in its simple form is merely the separation of the bran coats and germ from the floury part of the kernel. To make these separations as thorough as possible requires a vast amount of machinery and a large number of operations.