The Hard Truth About Flour

You may find this interesting. After doing some reading online last night, I discovered that there is a very distinct difference in the AP (all-purpose) white flour that is available in the north vs. the AP white flour available in the south. Apparently, due to our cool climate, our flours here in the north are made from hard winter wheat and creates a higher protein content which translates to more gluten formation and harder biscuits, breads and crusts.

The flour that is produced in the south is made from soft winter wheat that does better in warmer climates. It has a lower protein content, produces less gluten and therefore creates a more tender biscuit, quick bread or cake.

This lesson was very eye-opening for me, as it explains SO much about the trouble I've had with
baking. You see, I never used cake flour when I lived in Oklahoma or in Florida. AP flour always made a great cake. However, when I had my little in-home cake biz here in the north, I couldn't get an AP flour cake to come out tender to save my life. They were always dense, crumbly and dry. Whenever I wanted to make a cake here, I literally had to buy the expensive cake flour and use it exclusively if I wanted to be tender and soft, as a cake shout be. But what I could have done, was ordered the less expensive White Lily southern AP flour as it has a similar protein content as cake flour (7.5 - 8.0 %) And is much less expensive by the pound. $1.75/lb for cake flour vs. .80/lb for white lily flour. http://onlinestore.smucker.com/display_product.cfm?prod_id=833&cat_id=63 And when you need about 12 pounds of flour for a wedding cake, or five birthday cakes, the price difference is definitely more budget impacting.

Now, northern AP flour has something like 10 - 11% protein content. That is big difference from the 7.5% in southern flour. And all this time, I thought all brands of AP flour were the same and should produce consistent results, just like when one brand of olive oil is pretty much the same as the next. This is not the case with flour. You really have to know which brands have high protein and which have low protein depending on what you want to bake. King Arthur - high / Pillbury - low / Cake Flour and brands like White Lily or White Martha - even lower.

THIS explains why, when even using nothing but the greasy pimp shortenin in my biscuit dough (which I tried last night), I STILL produced a hard-as-tacks biscuit - even when adding a little bit of cake flour.  And why the best biscuits I have ever had were during travels to small unknown ma n' pa kitchens, on the sides of dirt roads, throughout the south and midwest. Melty Soft Heaven!

This also proves why yeast breads made with the higher protein northern flour taste so friggin fabulous here. Nothing beats Del Buono's in Haddon Heights, NJ. And you can go there, get a brown bag, stand by the hot conveyor belt and fill it with hot fresh rolls for about $3 a bag. Chewy n' Tender Heaven!

So, right now, I'm out of butter and shortening and broke as a goat. But after the second snowpocalypse and payday, I will be chomping at the bit to try some biscuit recipes by experiementing with flours instead of fats. I'm still determined to use only butter and no shortening. I saw some recipes online and there is indeed hope for a purely good biscuit. :)