Toast half your flour before baking. Game changer in my kitchen.

Last week I was watching this old baking show from the 90s and this lady mentioned toasting flour for bread. She said it adds a nutty flavor without extra ingredients. I thought she was nuts so I tried it with a basic white loaf. I took 2 cups of my all-purpose flour and spread it on a sheet pan at 350 for about 10 minutes. Let it cool down and used it in my usual recipe. The crumb came out darker and the taste was deeper like a whole wheat but lighter. My husband asked if I bought expensive bread from the bakery haha. I'm gonna mess with different flours next time like maybe rye or spelt. Has anyone else tried this or found it works better with certain doughs?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace4191mo ago

You just made me remember something my grandma used to do with her pie crusts. She'd toast a cup of the flour in a dry skillet on the stove, shaking it around until it got that golden color and smelled like popcorn. Then she'd mix it with the regular flour for her crust. That extra nutty taste made her apple pies stand out from everybody else's at the church potlucks. She always said it was her secret.

henry_webb681mo ago

Your grandma's pie crust trick makes me wonder about ratios. How much toasted flour did she mix in with the regular flour for the crust? I tried a 50/50 split once and the dough got crumbly and hard to roll out. Toast takes away some of the gluten strength from what I can tell. Maybe 25 percent is the sweet spot for pie crusts so you don't lose all that flaky structure.