Knowledge about flour

About French Flour What do they mean T45 / T55 / T65 ?

Flour is the most commonly used raw materials for bakery. Cake, bread, biscuits all need to use flour, different flour play different roles in the variety of baking food , but generally are from the “skeleton” role. Do baking, you’d better understand these knowledge about flour. 

The type of flour: according to the content of protein , we usually divide the flour into three categories:

1.High gluten flour (strong gluten flour, high protein flour or bread flour), protein content is 12% to 15%, wet gluten weight> 35%. High-gluten flour suitable is for making bread, from pastry pasta, bubble and pine crisps and so on.

Low gluten flour (weak gluten flour, low protein flour or biscuit flour), protein content is 7% to 9%. Wet surface weight <25%. Low gluten flour is suitable for making cakes, biscuits, mixed cakes and other pastries.

Middle gluten flour (generic flour,middle protein flour) is a kind of flour which is between the high gluten flour and low gluten flour. Protein content is 9% to 11%, wet gluten weight between 25% and 35%. Medium gluten flour suitable for fruit cake, can also be used to make bread. 

Besides the special flour, premixed flour and whole wheat flour get more and more popular by bakery enterprises and get the application.

1、Special flour: Flour suitable for the production of special food, which is specially prepared by using flour as raw material.

2、Premixed flour: Flour premixed by the flour, sugar,oil powder, milk powder, improver, emulsifier, salt, etc according to the formula of bakery product. The sponge cake premixed flour, cookie premixed flour and muffin premixed flour sale in the market are this kind of flour.

3、 Whole wheat flour: Flour milled from the whole grain wheat including germ, most bran and endosperm. Bran and germ is rich in protein, cellulose, vitamins and minerals, with high nutritional value.

France, the largest agricultural producer in Europe, has its own system of flour. All kinds of flour are so dazzling. Today to introduce the most normal flour – wheat flour.

 Flours produced by wheat milling have different characteristics. But the main ingredient is nothing more than starch and protein.

The French classification of wheat flour, based on the ash content of wheat flour, is roughly divided into 6 categories.

* Ash – refers to the mineral composition included in wheat bran . In simple terms, it can also be understood as impurities in bran.

According to the ash content, with the size of the figure, to limit the form of flour.

For example (T45 / T55 / T65 / T80 / T110 / T150)

The smaller the number after T, the higher the degree of refinement of the flour, the more white the color of the flour.

The larger the number after T, the lower the degree of refinement of the flour, and relatively the darker of flour.

Ono Chih Kwan said French flour is very personal, compared to Japanese flour the operation is more difficult, the French flour tendons is higher than the Japanese flour ,is more difficult to knead, different seasons, different batches of French flour , Even with the same section of flour, flour characteristics will be greatly changed. 

Champion baker Wu Baochun said with the French T55, T65 flour roasted bread, thick skin, taste more hard ,wheat incense is also more rich.

The above two masters have mentioned the French flour, such as T65, T55 like the powder, why these powder so classification ? 

In general, the flour classification is according to the protein content but the classification of wheat flour in French is decided by the proportion of ash content, such as T45, that is about 0.45% of the fly ash content. The higher  the ash content, the darker the color of flour, mineral content more. The ash is minerals contained in wheat, this also determines the richness of wheat flavor, ash ratio is one of the classification method in French wheat, which is on base of production process of French wheat flour, it is wheat grinding ratio. 

T45

The ash content less than 50%, and the grinding ratio of wheat grain is 60 ~ 70%

We can make desserts, toast, and brio and other heavy cream bread with T45,

When we using T45 to make the Brioche, the water needs to be reduced compared with the Japanese wheat flour.

Because of the powder of T45, in the making of bread, it will retain the aroma of the wheat, not to be taken away by the cream. 

T55

The content of ash is 0.50%~0.60%, and the grinding ratio of wheat grain is 75%~78%.

We can make baguette and Croissant with T55..

When we use T55 to makes bread with natural yeast after a long time fermentation. The skin has a small blisters in the skin, and the inner texture is like a mochi, the color is darker than French bread, and the skin is thicker.

T65

The content of ash is 0.62~0.75%, and the grinding ratio of wheat grain is 78%~82%

It can be used to make French bread.

T65 made French baguette, crisp skin, not using natural yeast for a long time fermentation, skin bubble less,

Compared with T55, the color yellow, thick skinned and crisp

As the number increases, the ratio of ash to wheat grains increases

T80 (half stick powder with liquid yeast)

T110 (large French bread) quasi whole grain powder

T150 (whole wheat bread) whole grain powder

The above is about the introduction of French T flour  

Shijiazhuang Hongdefa Machinery do the wheat flour mill machine which process raw wheat to wheat flour with high quality.

If anyone who need wheat flour mill machine, contact with us or visit www.maizewheatmill.org for more details.