Flour Quality

Most British mills are accredited to ISO 9000 or equivalent standard - recognised world-wide as the measure of commitment to quality. However, ultimately the quality of flour is dependent on careful selection of the wheat used in the grist prior to milling and the skill and expertise of the miller.

Over 25 different varieties of wheat are grown in the UK. British millers will carefully select from these, and a small number of imported wheats, those varieties with the characteristics to produce a flour with specific properties. By blending wheats and extracting flours at different stages in the milling process, a British mill will typically produce as many as sixty different flours and some mills may produce more than one hundred blends. However, in Britain, whatever a flour's baking characteristics, most fall into one of the following main categories:

• Wholemeal - 100% extraction, made from the wholewheat grain with nothing added or taken away.
• Brown - usually contains about 85% of the original grain. Some bran and germ have been removed.
• White - usually 75% of the wheatgrain. Most of the bran and wheatgerm have been removed before milling.
• Wheatgerm - white or brown flour with at least 10% added wheatgerm.
• Malted wheatgrain - Brown or wholemeal flour with added malted grains.
• Stoneground - Wholemeal flour ground in the traditional way, between 2 stones.

Search out British flours and work with them. Buy and always keep a selection of different varieties - they are the key ingredient to producing excellent breads, pastries and cakes.

Organic Choice

It's good to see that as more people are looking to purchase organic foods, millers and bakers in the UK are responding to the demand. As more bakers are producing organic breads, these are becoming more readily available in local supermarkets and high street bakeries.

If you are interested in organic flour, take a look at Flours For Home Baking which is in this section, just scroll down and then you can see what's available.
Of course, you need organic wheat to produce organic flour. However, there's not enough organic wheat available in the UK to meet the current demand.

UK flour millers therefore have to import some organic wheat. (Imported) organic wheat tends to be more expensive than its non-organic counterpart, which is one of the reasons why you may find organic bread and flour is a little more expensive to buy.