Wheat Flour
<p ><b>Wheat flour</b> is a powder made from the grinding of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat" title="Wheat" >wheat</a> used for human consumption. More wheat flour is produced than any other flour.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" >[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" >not verified in body</a></i>]</sup></p>
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Wheat varieties are called "clean," "white," or "brown" or "hard" if they have high gluten content, and they are called "soft" or "weak" flour if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten" title="Gluten" >gluten</a> content is low. Hard flour, or <i>bread flour</i>, is high in gluten, with 12% to 14% gluten content, and has elastic toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer or crumbly texture.<sup id="cite_ref-engineers_0-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_flour#cite_note-engineers-0" >[1]</a></sup> Soft flour is usually divided into cake flour, which is the lowest in gluten, and pastry flour, which has slightly more gluten than cake flour.</p>
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In terms of the parts of the grain (the grass <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryopsis" title="Caryopsis" >fruit</a>) used in flour—the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endosperm" title="Endosperm" >endosperm</a> or protein/starchy part, the germ or protein/vitamin-rich part, and the bran or fibre part—there are three general types of flour. White flour is made from the endosperm only. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grain" title="Whole grain" >Whole grain</a> or <i>wholemeal flour</i> is made from the entire grain, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran" title="Bran" >bran</a>, endosperm. and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereal_germ" title="Cereal germ" >germ</a>. A germ flour is made from the endosperm and germ, excluding the bran.</p>