Why do many whole wheat bread recipes call for white flour?
Most recipes call for white flour to increase the percentage of gluten in the dough. (White flour has a higher gluten because the germ and bran portions have been removed, leaving the gluten-containing endosperm to be ground into flour) The higher the gluten content in the dough the easier it is to bake a loaf of bread with good volume. Another factor to consider is that whole wheat flour can have large flakes of bran which tend to cut the gluten strands in the dough limiting the loaf’s growth. Great River whole wheat flour would be considered fine by most bakers. The bran is milled into tiny pieces and is less abrasive creating a higher loaf. Coarse flour does add good texture and “chew”, so the baker has to decide what they want in the finished loaf.
