How is pastry flour made

Pastry flour is a low-protein, specialty flour that is ideal for baked goods. But how does it differ from all purpose and cake flours? And what about whole wheat pastry flour?

We break it all down for you. We know what you're thinking: What is pastry flour, anyway? Is it really worth spending money on? I barely have room in my pantry as it is.

Doesn't all-purpose flour work well enough? All-purpose flour is made with only the endosperm, which makes it more shelf-stable than flours made from grinding the whole seed head. That protein content leads to better gluten development, which is useful in anything that is supposed to come out chewy and textural, like bread or bagels.

Avoid using bread flour in anything that is supposed to be tender, like cakes and pastries. Pastry flour is milled to a finer texture than all-purpose flour, and is made with soft wheat for a lower protein content, which helps baked goods like pie crusts and pound cake recipes produce very tender results and a fine crust.

Avoid using pastry flour for anything that demands structure, like bread doughs or pastas. When water is added to flour, these two proteins combine to form gluten. Gluten is what provides structure and elasticity to dough.

We want this in bread dough so our bread bakes up tall and is nice and chewy. Mostly the protein content. All-purpose flour has a protein content of between 9. What is Wondra flour? It is an flour that has been pre-cooked and dried. Because the whole wheat berry is used instead of just the endosperm in whole wheat flour, it has a lower protein content and will act like pastry flour. If you are making from scratch versions of very delicate pastries, especially puff pastry or filo dough, it may be well worth a little looking to find this soft flour.

While the average piecrust can withstand being made with all-purpose flour, extremely delicate pastries, especially if they have to be worked significantly, will be crisper and less tough if you use lower- gluten flour. Essentially, using pastry flours is much up to the individual taste of the cook, and the type of pastry dough being prepared.

As mentioned, you can make a pretty decent piecrust with all-purpose flour, but if you really want the crumbly tenderness of pastry, pastry flour is the better choice.

The standard ratio to create lower gluten flour is four parts all-purpose to two parts cake flour.