Make Your Own White Flour

NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN IN EARLY APRIL 2020, DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC.

It's not fair! Some of us have been making our own bread forever, but now all those amateur newbie breadbakers are hoarding all the flour!

Every time I place an online food order, it arrives minus the flour I ordered.

Except for my last order. There it was: a 5-lb bag of whole wheat flour.

But sometimes you really really need white flour, so Im making my own until better times.

You see, whole wheat flour is just white all-purpose flour with some bran added. (Honest, unless you grind your own wheat berries, there is no wheat germ in your "whole" wheat flour.) So all you have to do is sift the bran out of your whole wheat flour.

Last night, I made the above test. I already knew about sifting the bran out; the test was about making my own sieve out of cheesecloth and an embroidery hoop, because my fine flour sifter seems to have disappeared during my recent move.

As you can see, there is a substantial amount of bran in whole wheat flour. Save it for another use.

Another solution to render the bran less gluten-destroying is to run the flour, or just the bran, through the food processor. At times I've separated it out, as in the photo, and ground it in my spice grinder.

You've got time, these days, so experiment!

Happy Baking!