Whole Wheat Flour

[Suzieq14]

I have a question, I just started on this diet a few days ago and made a meal plan with recipes from the McDougall cookbook. A couple of the recipes called for whole wheat flour, so I went to the health food store and bought organic stone ground whole wheat flour. I tried it in pizza crust last night and then blueberry muffins this morning. The problem I'm having with it is it's coming out doughy, almost like it's not done. I used a toothpick on the muffins and it came out clean, but if I take a chunk out of the middle its slightly sticky on my fingers. I cook it at the temperature and for the amount of time the recipe calls for, and for the pizza I cooked it even longer than the recipe called for. Is this just how whole wheat flour is? I've never used it before, I've always used all purpose flour. So I'm not sure if there are differences in texture, ect. So any help or tips would be appreciated.

[Vanilla Orchid]

If your products are coming out doughy, then you need to cook them a bit longer. Are you using the same recipes and just substituting flour, or are you using recipes calling for WW flour. Also, not all flours are alike. WW pastry flour is best for things like muffins and cakes. Stone ground is nice for yeast products like bread and pizza crusts. Get out your big fat cookbook (something like Joy of Cooking or Good Housekeeping) and read about flours).

It could also be your oven. I nearly always have to bake things 5-10 minutes more than most recipes specify. Practice until you get it right.

[Suzieq14]

Thanks for the reply

Yeah the recipes I'm using came from the McDougall cookbook, it calls for the whole wheat flour. I think it might just be the flour instead of under baking. From what I've read on the internet it says items baked with whole wheat flour will be heavier and more dense compared to things baked with regular flour. I just tried a bite of muffin again and it doesn't taste or feel as doughy since they've cooled down, but they still taste too heavy/thick for my liking. I might just stick to unbleached all purpose flour for any recipes in the future.

[Plumerias]

DH makes my flax 'n' fruit muffins for me. The RV oven and I DO NOT get along. Plus, he's the better baker. Plain old whole wheat flour is too heavy for muffins, like Vanilla Orchid said. When we can find it, he uses spelt flour. It's available in the bulk bins in a lot of health food stores, many Whole Foods Market locations, etc. When that's not an option, he uses whole wheat pastry flour. Sometimes that's also in the bulk bins, but we have had to buy a five pound bag of it on occasion. So perhaps you could try that before you go back to the white all purpose flour.

It's been ages since he made pizza, but he did made his dough from King Arthur whole wheat flour, the red one pictured here. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/flours/ It was a yeast dough and needed to rise and all that.

[Vanilla Orchid]

The difference between WW pastry flour (or any other pastry flour) and other wheat flours is the amount of gluten. Gluten is the protien that makes doughs streatchy. You need that for making yeast breads. You don't want it so much in making batters for things like muffins and cakes because it can be tough. That's why muffin recipes caution you to stir just until moistened and not over mix, whereas yeast breads are usually kneaded to develop the gluten and make a good dough.

Make sense?

Also, if you just don't like the "heavy" (some people even consider it bitter) taste of whole wheat flour, you might want to try "white whole wheat flour". It's made from a lighter colored grain, but actually uses the whole grain, unlike all-purpose flour.

Another thing, the amount of moisture in flour varies. You may need to adjust to use a little more or less liquid, depending on your climate.

And, as you discovered yourself, if you cool your product before you eat it, it will be a bit less "doughy". That's why most bread recipes say to cool completely before slicing. But, then, there's nothing like baked goods hot out of the oven.

[kmisz]

Make sense?

I'm not the one who asked, but it does. Your answer helped me understand why some recipes call for extra gluten and why it's important not to overmix others. Thanks for that!

[Joseph65]

From memory it seems the Starch Solution recipes combined whole wheat flour with some type of white flour for many items.