Make your own Whole Wheat Flour

Whole wheat flour is nothing more than all purpose or white flour with added wheat bran. Yes, believe it or not, you can MAKE your own whole-wheat flour! It is a straight 1 to 1 ratio. of every cup of all-purpose flour, you add the same amount of wheat bran. But keep in mind because whole flour has different structure and taste, not all baked goods should be substituted for whole wheat flour.
If you are making delicate sponge or chiffon cakes, I would not recommend using whole wheat flour. However, less delicate baked items such as muffins, coffee cakes, biscuits, scones and breads are very whole wheat flour friendly.

In the category of quick breads (i.e. scones and biscuits), I suggest using 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour and 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour. For breads, I like to use a 1 to 1 ratio for whole wheat to white flour. Also, because whole-wheat flour has less protein (gluten) you may want to add either gluten or bread flour which has a higher protein level to give your bread some lift and structure.

Here are some very important things to keep in mind when using whole wheat flour:

• Whole wheat flour is more dense than white flour, so you should sift, or if you are too lazy to sift, quickly aerate your whole wheat flour with a whisk.
• If you are substituting whole wheat flour, you must increase your wet ingredients ever so slightly. The bran in the whole wheat flour acts like a sponge, therefore absorbs more than the required moisture in your recipe.
• Lastly, avoid over mixing when you use whole-wheat all-purpose flour in baked goods such as cookies and muffins because the denser flour mixture will create unwanted gluten and make your baked goods tougher and chewier.

Happy Baking!

Lori Tinella
Little Chefs