Cake flours

1 Chlorine. Traditionally, cake flour was treated with chlorine gas at the flour mill. This produced the so-called high ratio cake flour, i.e. a flour that could be mixed with more than its own weight of both sugar and water. The use of chlorine is being phased out, to be replaced by heat treated flours. The heat treatment of flour does not need permission from anyone. 

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Fine grinding and air classification make possible the production of some cake flour from hard wheat and some bread flour or high-protein fractions from soft wheat. AppHcation of the process theoretically frees the miller from dependence on different wheats, either hard or soft, that change each crop year. The problem is how to market the larger volume of low protein or starch fractions at prices adequate to justify the installation and operation of the special equipment (46). 

Soft-wheat flours are sold for general family use, as biscuit or cake flours, and for the commercial production of crackers, pretzels, cakes, cookies, and pastry. The protein in soft wheat flour mns from 7 to 10%. There are differences in appearance, texture, and absorption capacity between hard- and soft-wheat flour subjected to the same milling procedures. Hard-wheat flour falls into separate particles if shaken in the hand whereas, soft-wheat flour tends to clump and hold its shape if pressed together. Hard-wheat flour feels slightly coarse and granular when mbbed between the fingers soft-wheat flour feels soft and smooth. Hard-wheat flour absorbs more Hquid than does soft-wheat flour. Consequently, many recipes recommend a variable measure of either flour or Hquid to achieve a desired consistency. 

Cake Flour. This is also known as high ratio flour and was made by treating flour with chlorine gas. Originally, the chlorine was used to bleach the flour but it was found that the flour could be used to make cakes where the ratio of sugar to flour and of liquid to flour both exceeded one. Hence the expression high ratio . 

Sodium bicarbonate is soluble in water at 0°C a saturated solution is 6.5% with the solubility rising to 14.7% at 60°C. It can be expected then that sodium bicarbonate will dissolve in the aqueous phase of a batter or dough. It will then react with any acid present, including any acid ingredients such as butter milk. Chlorinated cake flour, where it is still used, has sufficient acidity (110 g of the flour will neutralise 0.27 g of sodium bicarbonate). 

High Ratio Flour Applied to cake flour that can absorb more than its own weight of sugar and water. 

Gorst (Ref 46, p 105) lists Predokhranitel nyi Ammonit contg AN 68, TNT 10, pine bark (or oil cake) flour 2 NaCl 20% Yaremenko Svetlov (Ref 47, p 162) give props, but no compns of Ammonit No 8 (ugol nyi), Ammonit PJV-20 (ugol nyi), Ammonit AP-1 (porodnyi),... 

Finely powdered aluminum (no coarser than cake flour). ... 

At millimolar levels of molecular chlorine, the reaction goes to 99% completion in a matter of a few seconds. Above pH 4.4, essentially no molecular chlorine remains in aqueous solution. Hypochlorous acid is a weak acid (pKa approximately 7.5) and thus, near neutrality, both the protonated form and the anion occur at appreciable levels. HCl-free solutions may be prepared by adding salts such as sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl, commercially available as a stabilized 5.25% [0.7 M] solution as a fabric bleach). Either chlorine gas or hypochlorite solutions can be used in large-scale water chlorination applications. In addition to water treatment, chlorine is also used as a disinfectant for beef, pork, and poultry carcasses and also as a bleaching agent for paper pulp and cake flour (Wei et al., 1985). The disinfecting ability of aqueous chlorine is closely associated with its vigorous oxidant character the redox potential for the reactions... 

Food chlorination is another source by which chlorinated and nonchlorinated organics enter the human body. Chlorine is used to treat cake flour to prevent crumbling on removal from the oven. It has been estimated that over 1.5% of the total flour production in the United Kingdom is chlorinated. Trihalomethanes have also been detected in human milk and serum. Levels detected are 0.30 0.032 /u,g/mL for human milk and 0.88 0.012 yag/ mL for the serum, thus showing the extensive burdens of these trihalomethanes in the human body. 

White A hour of about 80% extraction, which may be milled Fom soft, medium, or hard wheats. Most white flauis. with the exception of cake flour, may be leavened with yeast. 

Special soft wheat cake flours, and whole wheat flours are also available to homemakers. Graham flour is a whole wheat product made from 11.5% protein hard red winter wheat. 

Small retail shops keep a supply of several different kinds of flour. Including hard wheat flour for breads soft wheat or cake flour for cookies, cakes, doughnuts, and cakellke products and In-between flour for certain rolls, coffee cakes, and other pastries. 

Flours are commonly treated with additives and enrichment premixes to standardize quality and meet regulations. The treatments commonly consist of flour bleaching, maturing or aging, enzyme supplementation, and addition of the enrichment to supplement selected minerals and vitamins. Hard wheat flours are, in some instances, oxidized with azodicarbonamide, ascorbic acid and/or, in some countries, with potassium bromate in order to improve functionality. Soft wheat flours are in some instances chlorinated to produce bleached cake flours. The normal range of chlorination ranges... 

Chlorinated flour Wheat flour that has been treated with chlorine for aging and bleaching purposes. The flours that are most frequently chlorinated are cake flours. These bleached flours have an acidic pH and weaker gluten due to disruption of disulfide bonds. 

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