Differences in cooking with whole grain flour?

Question

I'd like to start cooking with whole grain flour. How differently does it cook than regular flour? Any suggestions on how to adapt recipes? Thanks!

Answer 1

Whole wheat is more dry because it absorbs the liquids. So you can either substitute some of the flour for whole wheat flour or just use only whole wheat flour but use about a 1/4 less flour for every cup of flour the recipe calls for. (i.e. only use 3/4 if asks for 1 cup).
Just experiment with it. that's what i do and sometime you end up with something completely new and good on accident.

Answer 2

A lot of recipes can't handle substituting all the flour with whole wheat/grain flour. An easy way to make all your current recipes more healthy would be to substitute 1/4 of the flour in the recipe with the whole wheat/grain flour. Also, whole wheat/grain flour absorbs more liquid which could make your recipe dry. Make sure to add a little more liquid to the recipe i.e. apple sauce, butter, oil. In a typical recipe for 1 loaf of bread (when substituting with some whole wheat/grain flour) you would add about 1/4cup more liquid.

Answer 3

Whole wheat flour has far less gluten that whie flour. So if you're making bread, you really DO need to use about 1/3 - 1/2 white or bread flour.

It can aso make baked products have a tougher bite/mouthfeel. Again, this can be tempered by using part white flour to get the tenderness you want but the health benefits you desire.

Answer 4

I use whole wheat flour because it doesn't have the sugar like regular flour does. I just use it in place of regular flour.