Know Your Wheat - Hard or Soft / Red or White!

When I started buying whole wheat flour from the grocery store some 25 years ago, the only choices on the grocery shelf were "whole wheat" flour - whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, stone ground whole wheat flour.  There was no distinction between hard or soft, red or white.

Nowadays, you CAN find flour with a hard or soft/red or white distinction.  There are still a lot of just "whole wheat" flours out there though.  And I can tell you from experience that making bread with the whole wheat flour that you buy from the store DOES NOT make the same kind of bread that grinding your own can yield.  Obviously you have to start somewhere if you don't have a grinder yet and so I suggest that you put forth a little more effort and purchase specialty flours from Amazon or a whole food store nearby.

Once you start purchasing whole grain wheat, a basic knowledge of varieties is beneficial.

1)  Soft White Wheat Berries - Soft white is the type of wheat you would use for ALL your quick bread or pastry needs, such as, pancakes, muffins, brownies, biscuits, tortillas, or cookies -- anything that you might make with baking powder or soda.  Due to the low protein content of this wheat it doesn't work well with yeast breads.

2)  Soft Red Wheat Berries - Soft wheat also comes in a red variety.  Interestingly enough, this soft red wheat is grown in the TN valley.  I regret to say that I have NEVER used this one.  Perhaps it is because most of the sources I purchase from are out west.  Anyway, this variety would be used in the same capacity as the soft white.  Due to it being a red variety, it will yield darker results in cookies, cakes, etc.

3)  Hard White Wheat Berries - This is a variety used in yeast breads or any kind of recipe calling for yeast.  Because it is white in color - almost a golden - it will yield lighter in color breads than its red counterpart.  I most frequently use this variety when making my french bread recipe.  I have tried it in other bread recipes and actually know several others who use it solely in their bread recipes, but I am a creature of habit, and I simply love my bread made with a hard red variety or spelt especially.

4)  Hard Red Spring Berries - This variety distinguishes itself from the other red wheat because it is planted in the spring and harvested late summer or early fall.  The hard varieties of wheat are higher in protein content which produces more gluten making these ideal for yeast breads.  For more details you can click here, but basically the hard red spring is supposed to be the highest protein content wheat there is.

5)  Hard Red Winter Berries - Very similar to the hard red spring, the main distinction of this variety is that it is planted in the fall.  There are many sources that say the protein content of the hard red winter wheat is just slightly lower than than of the spring red.

So to recap in simplicity!
     *Soft wheat for baking needs where you use baking powder or soda for leavening.

     *Hard wheat for baking needs using yeast.

Hopefully this will give you a good overview of the differences between the basic wheat.  Perhaps someday I will touch on the many other varieties.  ;-)

NOTE:  I may be shooting myself in the foot here, but after placing my Amazon links on this post I will say again -- in order to get the most bang for your buck, the best way to buy bulk grains is going together with a group of friends and ordering from a co-op such as Cloverdale.