Wholemeal Flour

Also known as wholewheat flour, this type of flour consists of the whole of the wheat grain, including the bran, germ and the endosperm. As it contains 100% of the wheat, it may also be referred to as 100% extraction flour.

Wholemeal flour is speckled brown in colour, and creates baked and cooked items with a warm earthy taste of wheat. Stone-ground flour has a better flavour than roller-milled flour since the slow grinding of the stones doesn't overheat and destroy the vitamins in the wheat germ. Both stone-gound and roller-milled flour is sold in a number of different varieties:

• plain, for making pastry, sauces, cakes and for coating raw meat or fish before frying;
• self-raising, for making sponge cakes and scones; and
• strong, for making bread.

Wholemeal flour tends to create a denser product than items made with white flour; this is because the bran contained in the flour prevents dough from rising fully. Consequently, wholemeal flour is often mixed in equal quantities with plain or strong white flour to produce breads and cakes with a greater volume and a lighter texture. Wholemeal pastry may be made by sifting the flour and using the fine part to make the dough. After the dough has been kneaded, the remaining particles of bran may be rolled in before the pastry is shaped and cut.

As it contains the entire wheat berry, wholemeal flour contains twice the amount of fibre of brown flour, and three times that of white. It also contains higher levels of iron, thiamine, calcium and niacin; however, by law, white and brown flours are fortified in the UK to increase the levels of these nutrients up to (and in the case of calcium, higher than) the levels found in wholemeal flour.