It is the food with the simplest recipe but with the most complex symbolic value: how many memories and how many emotions, but also how much history and how many meanings accompany bread, such a humble food, made as it is only of three ingredients: water, yeast and flour. Eventually also salt. And it is precisely the essentiality of his recipe, however, that makes it a "complicated" food. Just choose poor raw materials, work them badly or add other (useless) ingredients to ruin the taste and pleasure of a good bread. It is an experience that we have all had to be conquered by strands and michelles displayed in the shop and then find ourselves disappointed by the flavor or baffled by the rapid hardening of the crust and crumb. And this is also why many prefer to make bread at home. Yes, but with what flour? Let it be whole or refined, wheat or rye, in any case it is good to choose it well and know how to use it best. Let's find out how to navigate the maze of the dozens of flours found on the market.

Blessed gluten
The "secret agent" that transforms the mixture of water, flour and yeast into fragrant loaves is gluten. It is this complex of protein substances, contained in the flour, that gives the dough strength and elasticity, because it traps the fermentation gases and thus allows to obtain a well-leavened bread and a soft crumb. But not all flours contain gluten. And those that do not
they cannot be used to make bread, at least in purity. Fortunately there are many bread-making flours. But not all of them give the same results. The flour n.1 to make bread is that of Wheat, rich in starch but low in fiber and protein. For a quality bread it is better to mix it with a flour that is richer in gluten (like the manitoba flour). On the market there are different types indicated on the packaging by a number indicating the degree of refining. The whitest e
refined is the 00, which is also the most used by bakers in recent decades. But today we prefer less refined flours (such as 1, 2) or wholemeal, because they bring more fiber (of which modern nutrition is lacking) and minerals, and give a bread that sates more and makes the blood sugar rise less . If you do not like the particular taste of wholemeal flour, you can choose flour 2: practically semi-wholemeal, it has a good nutritional profile and is easier to work with than wholemeal flour. So it is a good compromise for a natural bakery.

Here you need help
There are cereals with which you can prepare delicious breads but you need a little help. It is the case of durum wheat, from the grinding of which the semolina is obtained, a rough and grainy flour, of amber yellow color, with a more protein structure
compact that makes it perfect for the production of dry pasta. By subjecting the semolina to a second grinding, the "rimacinata", also called "durum wheat flour", is used to produce the golden bread and long life, typical of central-southern Italy. The "regrind" is rich in protein (and therefore gluten) and absorbs a lot of water: therefore it has an excellent yield. The durum wheat is also kamut, with whose flour a delicious bread is obtained, with a characteristic nutty aroma.

Alternative flours
In the bakeries they appeared a few years ago, quietly, and since then they have become very popular. These are the loaves made with alternative flours, such as rye or spelled. An idea to copy even at home, given that it is cereals of good nutritional value. There spelled flour provides more proteins and minerals (especially magnesium, with an anti-stress effect) compared to wheat. Mixed with that of
soft wheat gives delicately aromatic bread and focaccia. For a particularly healthy and nutritious bread it can be mixed with oat flour, rich in proteins and particular fibers (beta-glucans), effective in controlling cholesterol. There Rye flour it is the basic ingredient for German bread, aromatic and sour, which lasts long and has a high satiating power. Rich in fiber, energetic but low in calories, it has been associated with the reduction of cholesterol in the blood because it reduces the absorption of fats. Its limit is that it contains little gluten and therefore, to make it bread, it must be mixed with soft wheat flour.

Gluten-free flours
Bread can also be prepared from gluten-free cereals, such as corn, whose flour, mixed with that of soft wheat, gives rustic loaves and tendentially doci. It is also gluten-free rice flour, which represents an excellent
base because it has the ability to "dilute" the taste and character of the ingredients to which it is combined (for example, it mitigates the bitterness of lupine flour or the seared dessert of soy flour). These flours can also be used on their own, following the specific recipes of gluten-free breads, which include more ingredients than common bread, and applying the tricks of experts, such as those provided by Cécile Decaux and Florence Solsona in the beautiful book "Bread with seeds and healthy flours "published by red !. In fact, "gluten free" flours should also be evaluated by those who do not have celiac disease because, combined in small doses with the dough of traditional bread, they give it a new and particular taste. A dowry that they own above all buckwheat flour and teff flour: just add them
rice flour to obtain a bread with a rustic taste, similar to that of homemade loaves. A successful pairing is also the one with the legume flour (like that of chickpeas, peas, lupins or lentils): a fragrant bread with an excellent flavor is born from their dough. Those who love sweet tastes will not be disappointed by the bread made with mixing the rice flour with the Chestnut flour, naturally rich in sugars and intense aroma. Surprising is the hemp flour, with a light nutty flavor, which should be used in small quantities together with rice flour.
Minimum doses are also recommended for the amaranth flour, whose rustic taste is emphasized by the addition of sunflower or poppy seeds.

Manuela Soressi
September 2017