Wholemeal flour, the whole grain milled as finely as possible with all of the outer bran and inner germ intact, is one of the best white flour improvers I know of. If you want a rich wheat flavour, or a slight moistness in the crumb, or a richer colour to the crust, then spooning in a little wholemeal flour – no matter whether it’s milled from rye grains, barley or wheat – takes the flour from bland to bold for little effort.
In my kitchen there will always be bags of rye wholemeal flour and wheat wholemeal flour (the latter is usually called “wholewheat flour”) in the cupboard because I’ll use them, in some proportion, in most of the recipes I bake. I hold back a little in published recipes because of space and to avoid everyone having to always do what I do. Most recipes work well using just white flour. It’s just that I believe those recipes are often better if some of the white flour is replaced with a wholemeal equivalent.
Most recipes, not all. If delicacy and a smooth texture are an important characteristic then adding wholemeal flour will degrade that. A Victoria sponge or delicate génoise can taste like sawdust was mixed in, and turn out heavier. Chocolate cake, with a soft light crumb, turns weirdly stodgy and slightly bitter. And shortbread turns into an oily digestive biscuit.
However, for most baking you can substitute up to a quarter of the white flour in the recipe with wholemeal flour without causing a drastic difference in the texture, while gaining a boost to the flavour.
Health benefits? The medical and scientific community are divided on this one. On the plus side, using wholemeal flour will aid digestion for some people. Eating wholemeal flour is not quite the same as eating whole grains, as the milling process makes more of the starch available during digestion and this can still spike your blood sugar. However, gram for gram, the will be less starch and simple sugars in wholemeal flour compared to white flour simply because the bran makes up some of the weight. Adding cooked or sprouted whole grains (rolled oats are cooked and dried, so they count) to your wholemeal flour is the best way to increase the health benefits.
The germ of the whole grain found in wholemeal flour is another plus. Cereal ‘germ’ mustn’t be confused with the other use of the word in relation to bacteria. This germ is good, an absolute plus for our health. The word ‘germ’ in cereal science refers to the part of the plant that germinates, and contains important oils rich in vitamins, as well as folic acid and trace minerals that help our cells function.
The minus side largely depends whether or not cereal bran suits our digestion. Some people have difficulty digesting cereal bran easily, so encountering it in their diet isn’t a good thing. There is some evidence that wheat bran lowers the absorption of zinc via our digestion. Also, though additional nutrients exist that are locked in the bran and listed when the healthy attributes of wholemeal flour are written about, some of these minerals and phyto-nutrients aren’t released during digestion. There is some evidence that a long slow acidic process, like the sourdough or leaven method of bread baking, can release these micronutrients but no conclusive study has been done.
So before you jump on the wholemeal bread is the best for health wagon, it won’t take the place of a varied diet rich in vegetables and other wholegrain foods.
General issues to remember using wholemeal flour
1. The bran in wholemeal flour absorbs means it absorbs more moisture, weight for weight, than white flour. So expect mixtures or dough to be a little drier, and think about adding a little more liquid to compensate.
2. The germ of the wholegrain found in wholemeal flour can turn rancid, so don’t keep wholemeal flour for longer than 6 months, and try to use it up quickly. If you need to keep it longer, store it in an airtight container in the freezer.
3. Adding wholemeal flour effectively lowers the gluten, the stretchy resilient characteristic in wheat flour dough, as the bran makes up part of the weight. So don’t expect cakes to rise as high, or dough to stretch as far without breaking, or yeast dough to rise as high before baking.
