"tomkanpa" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Right before Thanksgiving my wife asked me to buy 10 pounds of All
> Purpose flour. She always asks for Pilsbury, but Robin Hood AP flour
> was on sale. So I bought this. She claimed that the flour was the
> reason her pie crusts didn't turn out well.
> Yesterday she baked toll house and peanut butter cookies. She says that
> they are dry, and once again the flour is to blame.
> The pies and the cookies tasted OK to me. Is she imagining things or is
> Robin Hood AP flour inferior to Pilsbury AP flour???

I don't specifically know abut the 2 braind but YES there are differences in
flours and how they are made.


see below from Epicurious;

Dimitri



flour
n. The finely ground and sifted meal of any of various edible grains. Giant
steel or stone rollers are used to break and grind the grain. Most supermarkets
carry steel-ground flour, meaning it's crushed with huge, high-speed steel
rollers or hammers. The heat that is generated with these high-velocity machines
strips away the WHEAT germ and destroys valuable vitamins and enzymes. The more
naturally nutritious stone-ground flour is produced by grinding the grain
between two slowly moving stones. This process crushes the grain without
generating excess heat and separating the germ. Stone-ground flours must usually
be purchased in health-food stores, though some large supermarkets also carry
them. A flour can range in texture from coarse to extremely soft and powdery,
depending on the degree of bolting (sifting) it receives at the mill. Wheat is
the most common source of the multitude of flours used in cooking. It contains
gluten, a protein that forms an elastic network that helps contain the gases
that make mixtures (such as doughs and batters) rise as they bake. All-purpose
flour is made from a blend of high-gluten hard wheat and low-gluten soft wheat.
It's a fine-textured flour milled from the inner part of the wheat kernel and
contains neither the germ (the sprouting part) nor the bran (the outer coating).
U.S. law requires that all flours not containing wheat germ must have niacin,
riboflavin, thiamin and iron added. (Individual millers sometimes also add
vitamins A and D.) These flours are labeled "ENRICHED." All-purpose flour comes
in two basic forms - bleached and unbleached - that can be used interchangeably.
Flour can be bleached either naturally, as it ages, or chemically. Most flour on
the market today is presifted, requiring only that it be stirred, then spooned
into a measuring cup and leveled off. Bread flour is an unbleached, specially
formulated, high-gluten blend of 99.8 percent hard-wheat flour, a small amount
of malted barley flour (to improve yeast activity) and vitamin C or potassium
bromate (to increase the gluten's elasticity and the dough's gas retention). It
is ideally suited for YEAST BREADS. The fuller-flavored whole-wheat flour
contains the wheat germ, which means that it also has a higher fiber,
nutritional and fat content. Because of the latter, it should be stored in the
refrigerator to prevent rancidity. Cake or pastry flour is a fine-textured,
soft-wheat flour with a high starch content. It makes particularly tender cakes
and pastries. Self-rising flour is an all-purpose flour to which baking powder
and salt have been added. It can be substituted for all-purpose flour in yeast
breads by omitting the salt and in QUICK BREADS by omitting both baking powder
and salt. Instant flour is a granular flour especially formulated to dissolve
quickly in hot or cold liquids. It's used mainly as a thickener in sauces,
gravies and other cooked mixtures. Gluten flour is high-protein, hard-wheat
flour treated to remove most of the starch (which leaves a high gluten content).
It's used mainly as an additive to doughs made with low-gluten flour (such as
RYE FLOUR), and to make low-calorie "gluten" breads. All flour should be stored
in an airtight container. All-purpose and bread flour can be stored up to 6
months at room temperature (about 70°F). Temperatures higher than that invite
bugs and mold. Flours containing part of the grain's germ (such as whole wheat)
turn rancid quickly because of the oil in the germ. Refrigerate or freeze these
flours tightly wrapped and use as soon as possible. Other grains - such as
BARLEY, BUCKWHEAT, CORN, OATS, RICE, rye and TRITICALE - are also milled into
flours. flour v. To lightly coat a food, utensil or baking container with
flour. Flouring food to be fried facilitates browning, and coating foods that
tend to stick together (such as chopped dried apricots) helps separate the
pieces. Flouring a pie, pastry or cookie dough will prevent it from sticking to
a work surface; flouring your hands, rolling pin or work surface prevents dough
from sticking. Dusting greased baking pans with flour provides for easy removal
of cakes, breads and other baked goods.
© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S
COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.