Wheat flour 8, also known as versatile flour, is an extremely popular flour in baking. At the beginning of the baker road, Taky had been confused about the sugar powder, the immature experience made me not sure which flour to choose and what to do, and then, flour 8 was my end.
Surely there are also many friends like Taky, when he started his career with the basic knowledge can not distinguish all kinds of baking dough. Starting to learn, I was no different than getting lost in the maze of these flour. And finally, Taky decided that when he didn't have enough knowledge about flour, he asked for "flour" right away. 8. Choose this flour in part because they were called all-purpose flour, but heard the word " all-purpose ”is probably suitable for many types of cakes. And the results are as expected, though not as good as the professional bakers, but the cakes made from wheat flour No. 8 are quite good in appearance and taste.
Wheat flour 8 - kind of "magic" flour in baking
Until now, when you have a better understanding of the dough and know how to choose the right bread for each type of bread, then sometimes, in some emergencies, the number 8 noodle is still my choice. Kate believes that there are many similar to the beginning Kate wants to learn about this powder. Therefore, in this article, Kate will summarize some knowledge about wheat flour 8 for your reference!
What is wheat flour number 8?
Wheat flour No. 8 - all-purpose flour is one of the most commonly used flour in baking. This flour does not contain floating powder, is made from soft wheat flour and hard wheat. Wheat flour No. 8 usually has a low gluten content between 8-9% and high humidity, so when used to make cakes, it will be softer and more porous than other flour.
Wheat flour No. 8 is the raw material for many types of cakes
I often call jokes that flour 8 is a magic flour because they can replace other ingredients for making cakes. That is also the reason that those who are new to making cakes will choose them as a safe method for their cakes. For professional bakers, they rarely use this type of flour because they will choose each specific flour to make each type of cake. But if in some emergencies, wheat flour No. 8 is still an ideal choice!
In addition to its versatile uses, wheat flour No. 8 also has ingredients that are beneficial to human health. As a product made from wheat, in addition to starches, flour No. 8 also has quite a lot of vitamins, minerals and amino acids beneficial to the body.
Versatile uses of wheat flour 8
As mentioned above, flour number 8 has quite a miraculous use because it can be used as a raw material for many types of cakes. In addition, they have a number of other uses in the baking process too! That's why Kate's kitchen never seems to be short of flour # 8. You can review some of the uses of wheat flour 8 such as:
- As the main ingredient for making cakes (almost all kinds of pastries) such as cream cakes, cakes, cakes, cupcake, pancake, waffle, muffin, .... When used in baking recipes, flour No. 8 plays a role in stabilizing the structure of the cake as well as helping the ingredients to stick together to create the finished product with the best flavor.
Wheat flour 8 is the raw material to make muffins ...
…cream puff…
... until the sponge cake is made from flour no.8
- Wheat flour 8 can also be used to cook thicker sauces such as worcestershire sauce or added to the cooking process to make the soup have the desired thickness.
- In addition, I often use flour number 8 for the process of kneading or rolling dough. Using a layer of wheat flour 8 when the dough will keep the dough from sticking, covering with a layer of wheat flour No. 8 on the rolling dough will help the stick rolling and stick to the dough easier. Not only that, you can also use flour number 8 to prevent sticking to the mold before baking!
- A quite special use of wheat flour no. 8 when mixed with nuts, dried fruits will help these ingredients float to the top when mixed with wet mixes.
With this versatile use of wheat flour 8, surely many of you will wonder whether wheat flour 8 can make bread. And the answer is possible but your finished product will not be satisfactory, it is best to make bread with bread flour. Why is that?
As mentioned, wheat flour No. 8 has a high starch content, protein and gluten content is quite low (lowest in all flour made from wheat) and high humidity, so bread made from this flour will have soft, porous, certain light cotton. Meanwhile, to make bread requires a flour with high protein and gluten content to be able to create elasticity in the structure of the bread and make the bread have a certain toughness.
Bread flour must be high in protein and gluten
Where to buy wheat flour 8? How much?
Wheat flour No. 8 is probably the most popular flour on the market today. A small grocery store, in addition to the flour store in the market, supermarket or stores that sell baking materials, sells this type of flour. So, even if you are not in the big cities, where there are points specializing in selling baking materials, please rest assured, you can still easily find this powder.
The price of this powder usually ranges from 20,000 - 25,000 / kg for the flour produced in Vietnam. For the imported powders, the price may be 3 or 4 times higher than this price. In fact, you do not need to buy imported powders because in my experience, they do not differ too much! Baking is expensive for other ingredients, so the better you can save it, right!
Storage of flour number 8
Preserving flour No. 8 in a cool dry place to ensure the quality of bread during processing
Perhaps when you start to learn about baker and read the recipes, many times I read the advice to use new dough to make cakes. But we will not always use up the purchased flour. So how to preserve flour is something that many people are interested. According to the experience of
Taky, you should store flour No. 8 in a very dry place, avoid places where the temperature and humidity is too high, this will greatly affect the quality of the flour! The mouth of the dough packaging must be carefully tied or hot pressed for our preservation to be easy.
Wheat flour 8 when properly stored will be able to extend its shelf life of up to 6 months. However, before using, you should also carefully check the dough for signs of mold or mites before using it! If this sign is immediately removed, do not regret using it because it will greatly affect our cake quality!
Above are some of Taky's share about flour No. 8, these are the experiences that Taky references on the internet as well as drawn from the baking process. Hopefully with these shares, you can better understand this powder and use it more properly! Wishing you every success on the road to making cakes!