If you bake bread, you may have heard of 00 flour. It’s Italian flour usually used for pasta and other pastries. If you bake bread regularly, it’s worth considering switching to this flour. But what makes it so unique? And how can you use it in your kitchen? Let’s look at some of the most important factors when you buy 00 flour.
What is 00 Flour?
00 flour is a finely milled flour with a low protein content, which makes it ideal for making pasta and pizza dough. It’s used to make fresh pasta because it has high gluten strength and absorbs water well. This allows your dough to hold up well as you roll it out into delicate noodles or flat sheets of lasagna. When baking bread in your kitchen, you’ll often find that recipes call for all-purpose flour instead of 00—that’s because the higher gluten levels in regular flour make it easier to shape into loaves when kneading by hand.
It has lower protein content, so it is prone to crumbling and falling apart when working with it.
What’s the protein content?
The flour’s protein content is a measure of the gluten it contains. Gluten is a plant protein that helps give the dough a stretchy texture and elasticity, which makes it ideal for making bread, pasta, and other baked goods that need to hold their shape.
As you might imagine, more protein means more gluten, which can make your pizza dough chewier and more elastic than one made with low-protein flour.
How finely ground is it?
00 flour is finely ground flour, but it’s not as refined as other types of flour. Specifically, 00 refers to the number of times the wheat has been ground and sifted through a mesh screen. But because it’s less finely milled than most flours (usually medium-ground), you’ll notice that your doughs made with 00 flour are slightly dense and heavy. That’s because this particular type of grain retains more moisture during the milling process, resulting in an enriched texture that makes baked goods richer and tastier—and sometimes leads them to brown faster than expected!
Is it organic?
Organic flour is defined as being grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. Organic flour is usually milled using a stone mill and packaged in a vacuum-sealed bag to preserve freshness.
If you are concerned about food quality, organic is what you want to buy. This is because conventional agriculture uses pesticides on crops that humans can ingest through eating or breathing them in through air pollution caused by agricultural machinery etc. These pesticides are endocrine disruptors that mimic hormones inside our bodies, causing health problems such as hormone disorders in men and women before they even hit puberty!
Is the 00 flour packaged to preserve freshness?
If you’re buying 00 flour in bulk, it’s important to check the package to ensure that it is sealed tightly and has not been exposed to air. If air gets into dry goods containers like flour, they will go stale faster. If you buy 00 flour in a well-constructed package that keeps out moisture and other elements that can cause spoilage, your product will stay fresh for weeks or months.
Conclusion
When buying 00 flour, it’s important to remember that what might work for one baker won’t necessarily work for another. There are so many variables in baking that sometimes it can be hard to know where to start and what will work best for your needs. But with the right information and practice, anyone can find their perfect recipe!
