The correct ingredient for the correct purpose – we all recognise this and flour is no exception; that with the lowest gluten content used for pasta making and the highest for bread. When buying flour from the supermarket its intended usage is normally explained on the packet but here is a general guide to wheat flour:


Wholemeal

100% wheat grain
Brown

About 85% of the grain
White

About 75% of the wheat grain with most of the bran and wheat germ being removed during milling

Wheatgerm

White or brown flour with at least 10% of wheatgerm, added during processing

Malted Wheatgrain

Brown or wholemeal flour with added malted grain

Stoneground Wholemeal

ground between two stones, the traditional milling method

Organic

Grain that has been grown to organic standards

Plain

White or brown general purpose flour

Self-raising

White or brown flour with the addition of raising agent, normally used in cake making

This general range of flour is available in France and though I haven’t researched the manufacturing specifications I do find that I need to add extra baking powder to Farine pour Gateaux when I am cake making. Additionally, French flour is graded in a slightly different way to British but the higher the classification the higher the gluten content:

T 45

lowest gluten content, equivalent to the Italian ‘00’ and used for pasta
T 55

for fine pastry
T 65

general purpose pastry and cake making, Italian ‘0’ equivalent
T 80

high gluten for bread making
T 110

wholemeal bread flour
T 150

wholemeal