Baking with whole wheat flour--what is the difference?

In my experience there hasn’t been much difference other than it just tastes… wheatier. I’ve made pasta, pizza dough, and pancakes with it. I’m not sure what kind I used.

It may be okay for some things, but I’ve used it in things that I had to throw out. Never again.

As a general rule, WW flours absorb more liquid than white flours because the bran soaks it up, so you’ll need to increase the liquid component of the recipe. The bran also interferes with the ability of the gluten (protein) in the flour to form pockets that contain the CO2 released by the leavening agent (yeast or baking powder); this means that the same product made with WW flour will always be heavier/denser. There’s not much you can do about that.

King Arthur sells a white whole wheat flour that’s made from a softer spring wheat. It performs better in most pastry-type recipes than traditional WW flours.

@Harp that sounds like a good alternative. The one time I baked a cake with WW flour, it was a disaster. It looked fluffy like regular flour, but it had little grainy things in it yet after the cake was baked. It was terrible.

@jbfletcherfan Cakes that are meant to be light and fluffy really don’t work well with any WW flour. The little grainy bits are the wheat bran, and you’re always going to get that with WW, even the “white” WW. It’s less noticeable in cakes that are meant to be denser, or have other stuff in them creating texture, like carrot cake or zucchini bread.

@Harp Yeah, I sure found that out! So much for my experimenting, LOL. I’ll just stick with good old white flour.

@Harp I’ve found whole wheat pastry flour works quite well for cakes. (though I wouldn’t use it for an Angelfood cake… it does nicely for a genoise cake

It sure didn’t work in my chocolate cake recipe.

@christine215 Really? A genoise is the kind of cake I specifically wouldn’t want to use WW in. The bran texture would really bug me in a sponge that delicate.

First off, let’s clarify what the difference between whole wheat and regular/enriched flour is. Whole wheat flour contains the entire wheat berry, both the endosperm (the nice inside bit) and the bran (the outer shell). White flour only contains the endosperm of the wheat berry. Prior to the industrial revolution I believe white flour was rare or produced only for kings and royalty due to the amount of effort in refining it, thus things that taste best with white flour (cakes, pastries) were similarly “better” for royalty.

It is this refining that removes nutrients from the flour due to the elimination of the bran. This is why whole wheat flour is considered “more healthy”, because it has more natural nutrients in it. But this comes at a cost, the bran is not as fine as the endosperm, thus it leaves bits inside of the baked item, as @jbfletcherfan found out.

So it depends on what item you are baking. If you were baking a cake or pastry, white flour would be best because the little bits are undesirable. But if you were making a carrot muffin, whole wheat bread might in fact add a desirable crunchiness to the muffin. Or if you went all out and made a [your favorite number]-grain bread, you purposefully add crunchy bits in, thus you wouldn’t want to use a white flour for it.

As @Harp has mentioned, the bran in the whole wheat flour affects the baked item in a few ways. The bran will absorb moisture, so if you simply substitute WW flour for white flour and do not give more moisture, your item will probably be a bit dry. When it comes to things like angel food or puff pastry, the amount of liquid is generally precise to the point where this unmitigated absorption could completely ruin the item. And then the affect of the bran on the gluten must not be discounted or else you will end up disappointed and confused. The amount of liquid to add in to compensate is something that varies from recipe to recipe (and altitude to altitude, and oven to oven, etc), so you will have to experiment to find out what’s best.

So if you view the crunchiness and healthiness of the WW flour as its attributes, you can extend this to create baked items which exemplify these traits. Examples: whole wheat nut and fruit cookies, whole wheat coarse carrot muffins, whole wheat breads. Similarly, these attributes do not sync with items like chocolate covered croissants or chocolate cake, thus I would not use WW flour in these items. Cutting the white flour with whole wheat is a good way to get used to the texture, but it will not make the bits of bran magically go away, so I would not use such a mixture for delicate items.

As for healthy baking, one trick I love to use is simply portion scaling. One cupcake is one cupcake, so if you make that cupcake 10% smaller you’ve cut out 10% of the calories perception-wise. I also put plenty of veggies in my baking to compensate for the massive carbohydrate-ness, I love making zucchini and banana bread (whole wheat zucchini would be great I think) and carrot muffins, etc.

So, if I have a basic cookie recipe that calls for 2 cups of flour, and I use WW flour for half of that, do I still need to up the liquid? How different will the cookies taste to my kids if I don’t use only WW flour?

Stories like @jbfletcherfan ‘s are what have made me only use white flour up to this point, but I see a lot of reviews for recipes on the websites I use where people sub half the flour with whole wheat routinely. I guess I’ll just have to try it and see how it turns out.

My sister in law made a strawberry shortcake using whole wheat flour, and it turned out very nice. Although the strawberrys and whipped cream did dominate the dessert.

Hodgsons Mill makes a whole wheat pastry flour which is more finely milled so it gives a lighter texture… it works with a genoise, (or any sponge) as well as batter recipes. (Though I’ve never tried it with an Angel food cake…)

If you’re concerned about the “weightiness” of whole wheat flours, this is a good place to start. If you still have trepidations, use half and half to start.

@MissAusten Cookies would be about the most forgiving kind of recipe for flour substitutions because they don’t have the same kind of aerated structure that cakes and muffins have. Even with a 50/50 mix, you’ll still need to bump up the egg or other liquid somewhat, or you’ll end up with hockey pucks. You’ll also find that the dough won’t spread as much in baking.

Just a thought—If nutrition is your main concern here, the bran has essentially no nutritive value (it just provides fiber), but it’s what complicates things in baking. Why not buy some wheat germ, which is nutritious but is removed in making white flour, and add some of that to the white flour in your regular recipe? That way, you have all of the nutrition of WW flour, with none of the liquid and texture complications of using WW.

@harp nailed it.

Allow me to add that, if you want to improve the texture of your non-King Arthur whole wheat, let it soak in the wet ingredients since the night before. It takes planning, but it comes out softer.

Also, be advised whole wheat flour just has more fiber which—though great—you can /add/ to your unbleached all purpose flour after the fact. Sprinkle some coarse-milled Metamucil in it and ta’da! Easy colon-scraping, to keep the gluey wheat starches off your innards.

…what’s what the bran in whole wheat does, anyway….

I personally like my baked goods a little dense, chewy, and wheaty, so I often substitute ¼ of the flour for whole wheat and make no changes to the recipe, though.

P.S.: Fine-milled, unflavored fiber works fine too. But I like the coarse one. Mmmmm-mmmmmm! Poops!

Use whole wheat pastry flour for baking not plain whole wheat flour. It is alot lighter. There are also alot of other whole grain flours you can use.

I usually use two thirds ww and one third white, I also add at least a tablespoon of gluten. I find that if you put more vigor into your stirring, or stir a little longer, you get a lighter product.

I don’t usually add more liquid, but occasionally a tablespoon or so might help. Don’t overdo the liquid. My family likes a sweeter taste, so instead of adding extra water or milk, I use apple juice for the extra Tablespoon.