What is the difference betweem T55 and T45 or durum and common wheat? What materials do you need to make your own flour at home?
"The first thing you should know when referring to flour is that durum wheat and common wheat are two different varieties. In shops, bread is generally made with common wheat and pasta with durum wheat - that is the rule!
Common wheat (or bread wheat - the same thing) contains gluten. When the flour is kneaded with water, the dough becomes elastic. Through the action of the yeast, bubbles of gas are formed, but because the dough is elastic the gas remains trapped and the dough rises. This is bread-making flour.
Apart from brand names, all common wheat flours are graded using a ""T"" followed by a number - T55 or T 45 for example. The lower the number, the more the flour is white or ""pure"". Flour is sorted by type depending on the amount of bran that remains after it has been milled.
To find out the exact amount of bran, the flour is burned in a very high temperature oven and once is blackens, the ashes are weighed. The more ashes there are, the more bran there is. The ""T"" means ""type"" and the number that follows corresponds to the weight of the ash in grammes for 10 kg of tested flour.
This is a far cry from domestic mills and home-made flour.
Good to know:
If you make your own flour using a domestic stone ground mill, you are approaching something ressembling artisanal production from the past. The flour is not heated. You can grind coarse or fine flour for making pastries and as the mills do not finely grind the bran, you can easily separate it with a sieve.
A stone ground mill can alse be used to make spelt, corn or hard wheat flour. You can put the flour through a second time if you are making pasta. Above all, you can make blends of flour on demand. When it comes to freshness, there´s nothing better!"
