Grain
Wheat flour
Also called plain flour, all-purpose flour, bread flour
Wheat milled to a powder. Soft flour is for pastry, plain (all-purpose) for everyday batter, strong bread flour for chew. Scooping without weighing is how recipes fail.
Origin
Wheat was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent; roller mills later made white flour cheap.
Flavour
Fresh white flour tastes mild and faintly sweet. Rancid flour smells of old oil and greys pastry.
How it is made
Grain is cleaned, tempered and crushed between rollers. Protein percentage is a milling specification, not a taste you can guess from the bag.
How to use it
Weigh it. A packed cup can hold a third more than a spooned one, which wrecks pastry hydration and dumpling wrappers. Bread wants kneading or a long rest; short pastry wants cold fat and almost no working or it turns tough. Korean jeon and okonomiyaki need a thin batter of plain flour and cold water or dashi, rested so the starch hydrates โ lumps fry into dry pockets. Salt tightens gluten; sugar tenderises. Substitute bread flour for plain only when you want chew.
Storage
White flour keeps months airtight and cool. Keep it away from steam and spices.
Recipes using it
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