[GonnaLooseitagain]

I am trying to cut out white flour, so I have got some whole wheat flour now, and I love whole wheat so taste I am not worried about, but what I am curious about is can Whole WHeat be substituted (generally speaking) for "all-purpose" flour? Is there anything special I should know?

[ladyinweighting]

There is Whole Wheat "baking" flour you can get that will create baked goods that have the same consistency as white flour.

If you bake with only Whole Wheat flour (that is not baking flour), your items may not have the same consistency as they would if you used white flour.

[funniegrrl]

Just as with white flour, whole wheat flour comes in various types, with varying protein/gluten content. Flours with a lot of gluten are best for making yeast breads; pastry flour (with a low gluten content) are best for things like pie crusts that need to be flaky. GENERALLY, if you purchased your WW flour in a supermarket and it doesn't say "bread flour" then you can probably consider it equivalent to an all-purpose flour.

You need to be careful, though, about making baked goods that call for white flour and just doing a complete sub with the WW. Unless the recipe was developed specifically for WW flour, you get the best results by using half white flour and half WW. So if the recipe called for 2 cups of flour, I'd use 1 cup white and 1 cup WW. From the Baking911 web site:

Whole wheat flour may be substituted for part (50 %) of the white flour in yeast and quick bread recipes, but the recipe will be denser. Bran particles cut through the gluten during mixing and kneading of bread dough, resulting in a smaller, heavier loaf.

You might want to take a look at the page on flour: http://www.baking911.com/pantry/flour,grains.htm. The discussion of WW flour is about halfway down.

P.S. Because of the fact that WW includes the bran, it can go rancid. It's best to store WW flour in the freezer.

[GonnaLooseitagain]

oh THANKS funniegirl for the information! I will check out that site, and I will put my flour in the freezer, since I dont use flour TOOOOO much.

[kykaree]

When I was a kid, and put on a wholefoods diet, there was only one type of wholewheat flour available, and we used it for everything. Occasionally mum might have lightened it with plain flour, but not very often.

It can make some goods heavier (but you're probably not going to be making cakes and cookies with it!) but for breads, pancakes etc it's fine, IMHO.

[GonnaLooseitagain]

thanks ky!