How To Make Whole Wheat Pastry Flour?

Many people desire the lighter texture that whole wheat pastry flour creates in baked goods. It differs from all-purpose flour in its nutritional content. It’s also milled from a different variety of wheat. If you are looking to learn how to make whole wheat pastry flour from your homestead, this is for you!

What Is Whole Wheat Pastry Flour?

This type of flour is made just like any other flour from wheat. The difference is that this pastry flour is made from soft white wheat instead of hard red wheat. Hard red wheat is what makes typical all-purpose flour.

The different variety of wheat means you need to be growing soft white wheat on your homestead if you want to make it yourself from the farm.

Is There A Difference Between Whole Wheat Flour And Whole Wheat Pastry Flour?

Other than the different variety of wheat, it offers different nutritional qualities that affect the baked goods it makes. Both of them are whole grain, but pastry flour is better for certain types of recipes.

Pastry flour is graft for muffins, pancakes, pie crusts, cookies, and other baked goods that require a delicate texture.

How To Make Whole Wheat Pastry Flour On The Homestead

Step 1 – Grow And Harvest Your Wheat Berries

This isn’t a guide about growing and harvesting wheat berries, so we are going to assume you have grown and cut your wheat, cured and threshed it and have wheat berries ready to be milled.

Step 2 – Choose Your Miller

A grain miller designed for home use is the obvious best choice for grain milling at home. If you produce a lot of grain on your homestead and plan to mill flours often, it’s a good investment.

If you are trying this out for the first time and aren’t sure if you are sticking with grain crops and flour milling in the long run, you can mill wheat into flour using a few common household items:

• Blender
• Coffee Grinder
• KitchenAid Milling Attachment
• Food Processor

All of these substitutes won’t produce as consistent and fine as a grain miller will be able to produce. But, they will still work.

Step 3 – Mill Your Wheat

You can mill your wheat to different textures which can add variation to your baked goods. Since freshly ground wheat will have a more pronounced nutty flavor, more texture may be welcomed in certain recipes.

If you are using a miller, the process is pretty easy: just pick your setting and proceed. If you are using something like a blender, you’ll be pulsing the wheat until you reach the desired texture.

Step 4 – Store Or Bake With Your Fresh Flour

Once the flour is milled, you can cook with it immediately or store it for later use. In the absence of preservatives typically found in store-bought products, you’ll be surprised about how fast your flour may go bad.

If you are storing it, here is a simple guide:

• Room Temperature: 3 Days
• Refrigerator: 1 Week
• Freezer: 6 Months

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour Nutrition

Whole wheat pastry flour is lower in protein than all-purpose flour. This nutritional difference lends itself to lighter textured baked goods.

The lower protein content makes pastry flour much more useful for recipes like cookies, pancakes, and muffins than bread. Bread typically requires more protein content in the flour to create a bread that most are looking for.

It is a whole grain product, so the bran and germ are not removed during processing. Because of this, you get the health benefits of whole-grain foods when you make this flour.

FAQs

Can I Use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour To Make Bread?

The only type of bread that is recommended to make with pastry flour is Soda Bread. The bread that requires yeast instead of baking soda or baking powder doesn’t typically work well with pastry flour.

Can I Use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour For Sourdough?

Sourdough is known as dense and chewy. The protein content of the flour used is responsible for this texture and density. That makes pastry flour a bad choice for sourdough, and most other types of bread as well. Choosing a regular whole grain flour is the better option.

Is There A Substitute For Whole Wheat Pastry Flour?

No, pastry flour has distinct qualities that make it the best option in certain recipes, like delectable pie crusts. All-purpose flour or cake flour can be used but they won’t result in the same quality in the baked goods.

How Do I Substitute Whole Wheat Pastry Flour For All-Purpose Flour?

If you only have pastry flour, you can use it in recipes that call for all-purpose flour in the same amounts. But, as mentioned before, pastry flour isn’t the best choice for bread and certain other recipes that require more protein in the flour.

Time To Get Cooking!

Making whole wheat pastry flour on the homestead isn’t much different than milling any other flour. Make sure your wheat is grown in optimal conditions and harvested properly. Mill the flour to the right consistency. Then you are ready to enjoy it in whatever you’d like to use it for!