what is the difference between, all purpose, bread, sifted, unsifted,bleached & unbleached flour, also?

Question

what does sifting do to flour and can I sift the flour whether it calls for it to be sifted or not, how does the sifting affect the end result.....

Answer 1

There are three different things you're asking.

Difference between all purpose and bread flour -
flour contains gluten which gives bread structure.
Bread flour has more gluten than all purpose flour.

Sifted versus unsifted
Sifted means to pass through a sieve to break up the clumps of flour and to aerate. So unsifted flour has not been aererated and not been de-clumped.

Bleaching:
Bleaching helps whiten the flour. Bleaching is mainly done for appearance... so a white cake is truly white. The downside of bleaching is that it's done with chemicals. Unbleached flour has not been treated with bleaching chemicals.

Answer 2

Although there are many types of flour, all-purpose (or occident) flour is used most frequently. Bread flour is higher in protein. Unbleached flour is simply not as white as bleached. (Recipe Zaar) All-purpose flour is a blend of hard and soft wheat; it may be bleached or unbleached. It is usually translated as "plain flour." All-purpose flour is one of the most commonly used and readily accessible flour in the United States. Flour that is bleached naturally as it ages is labeled "unbleached," while chemically treated flour is labeled "bleached." Bleached flour has less protein than unbleached. Bleached is best for pie crusts, cookies, quick breads, pancakes and waffles. Use unbleached flour for yeast breads, Danish pastry, puff pastry, strudel, Yorkshire pudding, éclairs, cream puffs and popovers. Shelf-Life: for cabinet storage, up to 8 months if properly stored in a sealed container or if tightly wrapped, and for refrigerator storage, up to one year Hope that this helps....basically there is not a lot of difference between unbleached all purpose flour and regular all purpose flour.

Answer 3

Sifting aerates the flour and removes any lumps - making the result lighter, fluffier. You can always sift - it won't hurt anything. On fine cakes, tho, not sifting make make the cake heavier.

All purpose is self evident - suitable for anything.

Bread flour has a higher gluten content, which makes better bread - gluten is a wheat protein.

Bleached is whiter.

Unbleached is left more natural colored - no bleaching is done.

Good luck with your baking! And remember that baking is more chemistry than cooking is - making changes can make disasters.
:o)

Answer 4

Sifting the flour prevents the flour from becoming packed and you ending up with a too dense product as a result of too much flour in your recipe. As for bleached and unbleached, it is self explanatory,. The unbleached has not been processed with bleach like the standard bleached one has and so it retains a few more of its nutrients and you are not ingesting even more chemicals. Wheat, oat, bran and soy flour are the best as they retain their natural nutrients and are not over processed. Bread flour has more wheat protein and cake flour has less so your product comes out lighter.