Does it matter if you substitute whole wheat flour for regular flour when baking?

Answer 1

Yes. WW flour does not have the same properties as white all purpose flour.

If a recipe is written for white flour, it's best to sub up 2/3 of the white flour with WW. Any more than that, you will notice a significant change in texture and mouthfeel.

Her's one recipe calling for WW flour; it was designed and tested to use WW flour and is some kind of good!!!!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

3 cups flour (2 cups WW and 1 cup white A/P)
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans)
1½ sticks butter
1 + 1/8 cups buttermilk
1½ cup mashed bananas

Add all the wet ingredients and beat by hand (I like to hand mash and beat). Then add dry ingredients and mix.

Bake at 350ºF, can use a variety of pans, and works well too with small muffins and small loaf pans. Bake for probably 20-30 minutes but may vary. Just keep an eye on when it looks right to you.

Answer 2

Depends on what you are baking. If you are making a light sponge cake or choux pastry, keep to the white. Pie crusts can use whole wheat. Whole wheat flour is much heavier than the white flour, and your recipe will probably need the liquid content increasing. Whole wheat is just that, all of the wheat kernel is milled, therefore it is much healthier compared to white flour, which has all of the outside of the kernel removed in the milling, and then the flour is bleached. Whole wheat is great for many cakes, such as Banana Loaf, or most muffins, biscuits and bread etc. Even in pancakes, (see my answer to that question and recipe), I use a mix of whole wheat and plain white flour, and get a nice, fluffy pancake. Over the years I have experimented with many recipes substituting whole wheat for white, or a mix of both, to produce healthier food, and everything has been very successful. I also add some wheat germ for extra goodness. This wheat germ container is best stored in the fridge after opening, as the oil content goes rancid if not kept cool, and the whole wheat flour will stay much fresher if stored in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer. Because it contains the whole wheat kernel, it goes stale much faster than white. I also keep my white flour in the freezer to last longer. In some recipes I also add Bran, the real thing, not the cereal. There are a lot of recipes to be found on the internet if you Google them up. The vegetarian or healthy cooking sections have a useful variety of healthy whole food recipes. Good luck.

Answer 3

Generally, you can feel comfortable substituting up to half the amount of flour in a recipe with whole wheat flour without noticing much of a difference.

I recommend white whole wheat flour because it has the exact same nutritional profile as regular whole wheat, yet it tends to bake a more tender product.

I often replace all of the flour in a recipe with white whole wheat. You can also use whole wheat pastry flour, but it has less gluten, and that will make a difference in many baked goods. Again, substituting half of the flour called for with whole wheat pastry flour usually works just fine.

I'm a food writer with an online cooking column -- http://healthycooking.suite101.com -- which features many recipes using whole wheat flour.

Answer 4

Yes absolutely 100%
Whatever you make using whole *wheat flour will not loft as high as white flour will . The result will be a much denser loaf
The reason is the physical nature of whole wheat . Whole wheat contains the bran part of the wheat kernel which as we all know is made of cellulose and unless we're termites it's indigestible . Nutritionists give it a nice name , they call it fiber.
What happens to bran during the milling process is that it gets all chewed up and forms some really sharp edges. Those sharp edges cut into the gluten strands that we just worked so hard to develop and prevents them from achieving their maximum air trapping potential or loft.
* there are two types of whole wheat floor that which is 100% whole wheat and that which contains some white flour. The 100% will make a much denser product. If you do use the whole wheat follow a whole wheat recipe , your oven temp will be lower and your cooking time longer

Answer 5

It will make whatever your baking have a thicker consistency. More like a muffin than a cake. I usually substitute half the flour for whole wheat and it doesn't make much of a difference. I've even done this when baking cookies to add a little fiber and make them a little healthier. If you're baking something like bread or muffins then go ahead and substitute it. I have and it's turned out great.

Answer 6

I have special dietary requirements that strictly limit what I can eat. One of those things is white flour. I substitute all white flour recipes for whole wheat flour. Yes, the texture is different and it is more heavy but I expect that. Sometimes I have to add more liquid in the recpie but just feel it out. Texture and taste WILL deviate from what is intended but if you don't care then do it!

Answer 7

It does make a difference, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. It makes baked goods denser, and you usually need to add more fluid and adjust cooking time to a little longer. Whole wheat pastry flour is lighter, and mixing half white, half whole wheat is a good way to start experimenting. Cookies will not be as crisp. I like whole wheat in already dense recipes like banana bread, and I add 1/2 cup plain yogurt to that for the extra moisture and to make it lighter.

Answer 8

In pastries, it can sometimes makes your food turn out too heavy. But in bread, you can safely substitute 1/2 whole wheat flour for a good-tasting and healthy result.

Answer 9

Quite simply: yes. Most recipes that call for all white flour cannot be simply converted to whole wheat flour. The rising of any baked good, whether leavened or not, is drastically changed by using whole wheat flour. Also, obviously, the flavor and texture is vastly different.

A good rule of thumb when adding regular whole wheat flour to your recipes is to replace one quarter of the white flour with whole wheat flour. That means if the recipe calls for 2 cups of white flour, replace 1/2 cup of that amount with whole wheat. Your recipe then would be 1 1/2 cups white flour + 1/2 cup of wheat flour.

If this doesn't seem like enough whole wheat flour to you, (although every little bit helps) there are a couple of options you can try.

-Search the interenet (epicurious.com is a great place to start) for 100% whole-wheat-flour recipes. These recipes are specifically formulated to work with all whole wheat flour. There is usually significant adjustment to the amount or type of leavening (yeast, baking powder, soda, egg whites, etc) to compensate for the heavier whole wheat flour, and there is often an added sweetening agent (like honey) to offset the all-whole-wheat flour's tendency toward bitterness.
-Try using whole wheat pastry flour and substituting one quarter to one half of your white flour with the whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is still 100% whole wheat (Arrowhead makes a good whole wheat pastry flour) but it is milled more finely than regular whole wheat flour. This works well in biscuits, scones, muffins, pastries, and even cakes, but DON'T use it when making bread.
-Definitely do try milling your own whole wheat flour at home. You buy wheat berries (which is just unmilled whole wheat -- and usually very cheap, too, at a health or natural foods store) and grind them yourself into flour. The KitchenAid mixer, if you have one, has an attachment you can buy (the grain mill) for this. The reason that I mention this is that home-ground whole wheat flour tastes much, much better than store-bought. The reason for this is that whole wheat still contains the bran of the wheat, which contains oils that rapidly can get rancid. Most whole wheat flour you buy in the store has been sitting for a while, and that rancidity makes it bitter. A freshly-milled whole wheat flour is really much less bitter-tasting than the store bought. This problem doesn't happen as much with white flour because the oils and the bran are stripped away in the refining process, and therefore white flour has a much longer shelf life.
-Keep your whole wheat flours, either store bought or if you milled them yourself, in the refrigerator or freezer. Toss them after a few months as they can get rancid even in the fridge. If you keep it in the cupboard 1-2 months is really the maximum shelf life for whole wheat. The exception is the whole, unmilled wheat berries. These keep very well -- even for years. Keep it in the refrigerator and it will keep a long time. Then take it out to mill it when you're ready to bake. The resulting flour is a much higher-quality product than store bought whole wheat flour.
-Keep whole wheat breadcrumbs in the freezer and use them whenever white breadcrumbs are called for. They usually make anything you're making have a bit more texture and flavor (meatballs, breaded chicken breasts, etc) and they are an easy way to use whole wheat that doesn't require recipe conversion.
-Buy a book with great recipes for whole wheat flour. One very good one is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. A great book (although none of her recipes are 100% whole wheat, but there are many recipes which include whole grains) is The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

So use caution when substituting. Many cookbooks (including even the old 1960 Betty Crocker) will have a few recipes which include whole wheat -- so check out what you have at home. Start experimenting with adding some whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour, a little at a time, to see how it works out.

Happy baking and cooking!

Answer 10

Unless you're on a diet, maintaining weight control, blood pressure, your cholestrol, etc., there shouldn't be any harm in substituting regular flour instead of wheat. Depends on what you are baking/cooking. But, there is still no harm in it. Hope that answered your question.