What Is White Whole Wheat Flour?

food cooking

White whole wheat flour is all grain wheat flour that has been milled using "white" or albino wheat rather than the traditional red wheat. It retains many more nutrients than the traditionally bleached white flour. This type of flour produces products that taste more like they were made with bleached flour, so it is often considered the ideal compromise between taste and proper nutrition. Increasingly, supermarkets carry packaged loaves of bread that are made using white whole wheat flour.

White whole wheat flour may be utilized in any recipe that calls for the use of bleached flour. This means that it is possible to make loaves of bread, cakes, puddings, pie shells, and gravies using this type of enriched flour. There is little difference in the taste when compared to bleached flour, so the substitution will not impact the flavor of the recipe. At the same time, the use of white whole wheat flour helps to ensure that the daily diet contains some of the essential vitamins and nutrients that people need to consume each day.

The basis for creating white whole wheat flour involves the choice of wheat used to produce the product. Standard whole wheat flour is made using what is known as red wheat. This wheat is darker in color and tends to naturally retain more of that darker hue during preparation. By contrast, while whole wheat flour is made with the use of what is commonly referred to as albino wheat. This type of wheat grain has a lighter hue and requires much less treatment to produce a shade of flour that is identical to that of bleached flour. While some people believe that white whole wheat flour has a sweeter flavor than bleached flour, most people cannot taste the difference between the two.

Purchasing white whole wheat flour products has become much more convenient. Many supermarkets now carry one and five pound bags of white whole wheat flour along with the traditional bleached flour. In some cases, it is now possible to purchase both plain and self-rising versions of the flour. While white whole wheat flour tends to cost a little more than bleached flour, the difference in nutritional value makes the product well worth the higher price tag.

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7
In the first paragraph of this aticle you say that whole white wheat flour is "all grain wheat flour that has been treated to remove the natural hue of the ground substance"...

In the third paragraph you go on to say that creating whole white wheat flour depends on the choice of wheat used to make the product - albino wheat.

So which is it? Is whole white wheat flour bleached or is it a different variety of wheat than the traditional red wheat?

It also states that "much less treatment" is needed to produce the lighter hue?

Is this a naturally occuring "albino" grain or was it genetically modified, and is the grain processed at all to remove the color?

I am not interested in purchasing a genetically modified grain that is processed in any way to remove color and/or add nutrients stripped by any processes used to remove color. Please clarify.

- anon42644
6
What are you saying mdt? Buckwheat is entirely different than wheat. Buckwheat isn't even a grain! No, substituting wheat for buckwheat will not give you the same results.
- anon38748
5
It is flour that is grown with a different strain of wheat, white, rather than red, it has all the fiber and nutrition of traditional whole wheat flour, with milder flavor and lighter color.
- anon33810
2
It should - just make sure that if the recipe calls for plain buckwheat flour that you use plain white whole wheat flour. Also, note that the taste and texture will be a little different. But the loaf should still be tasty.
- mdt
1
i am making scrapple and the receipe calls for "buckwheat" flour. If i use whole grain wheat flour will it work the same as the buckwheat flour??
- anon8824

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Written by Malcolm Tatum
Last Modified: 22 August 2009

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