Flour Power: Your guide to different types & their uses

Springtime in the mountains brings the blossoming of flowers, and it also draws our attention to a “flour” of a different sort – the one we use in the kitchen every day. March is National Flour Month, a time to explore new ways to bake with flour.

Corn Flour: the versatile flour

At The Old Mill General Store, you can step back in time to the 1800s with some old flours and explore some relatively new ones we have on our shelves.

For example, we’ve been milling Corn Flour as long as we have been stone-grinding grits. Corn flour is a type of flour that's milled from dried whole corn kernels. It’s the fine powdery flour that is sifted off in the process of making grits and is considered a whole grain flour. The texture is fine and smooth, similar to whole wheat flour.

It’s perfect for folding into cornbreads, muffins, pancakes, and cookies. And it makes some of the best homemade corn dogs! Here’s a great recipe for those who want to try out corn flour. The end result has an interesting texture and flavor that you won't be able miss if it's not your usual type of bread! RECIPE: Corn Flour Dutch Oven Bread with Cheddar and Chiles

Whole Wheat Flour: the flour with flavor, fiber and nutrients

Whole Wheat Flour, also ground right in our historic mill, is the most delicious and fresh whole wheat flour you will ever taste. We use soft red wheat and stone grind the entire wheat kernel, including the bran and the wheat germ, so you get a true whole wheat flour with all the flavor, fiber, and nutrients that too many modern, industrial mills leave behind.

This flour is perfect for muffins, like Morning Glory Muffins, as well as pancakes, cheese straws, and loaf breads. Use our whole wheat flour anytime you want a better and more nutritious substitute for white flour.

Morning Glory Muffins

White Whole Wheat Bread Flour: the lighter-looking version

Another interesting whole wheat flour sold at the General Store is a White Whole Wheat Bread Flour. That’s right – it’s white. White Whole Wheat Bread Flour sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not. It tastes and bakes like whole wheat.

Our white whole wheat bread flour is made using the entire kernel of a higher-gluten wheat known as white wheat. This produces a highly nutritious, lighter-looking whole wheat flour. Best of all, it can be substituted one-on-one for processed all-purpose flour in all your favorite recipes, with exquisite results!

This special flour is just right for baking into loaves like our Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe, dinner rolls, and even pizza crust.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

American Rye Flour: a substitute for whole wheat flour

From America’s West is our medium Rye Flour, which bakes much like whole wheat flour, and can be substituted in any baking recipe that calls for whole wheat. Frontier cooks used this nutty-flavored sacred ingredient when wheat wasn't available.

According to the Whole Grains Council, rye has health benefits as well including reduced body weight, slightly improved insulin sensitivity, and lower total cholesterol.

At The Old Mill, we offer a fine, “bolted” (sifted) Rye Flour that is ideal for creating light, delicious bread with that signature rye tang, but it's also perfect in sweets like cakes or chocolate chip cookies!

Buckwheat Flour: the popular gluten free flour option

Buckwheat Flour was most commonly grown in the northeast and northwest parts of the country and it’s not even really wheat, it’s a fruit seed. However, it’s still considered a grain due to their similar uses from a culinary and nutritional perspective.

At The Old Mill we’ve been selling buckwheat flour and buckwheat pancake mixes to happy customers for many years, but with the rise in interest in gluten-free baking, more people are getting interested in buckwheat. And if you think “gluten-free” means “tasteless,” you’ve never baked with buckwheat flour! Loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein and fiber, our gluten-free Light Buckwheat Flour adds a deep, rich flavor and marvelous texture to bread, muffins, pancakes, waffles, cookies, and more! Try this buckwheat pancake recipe and taste the difference.

Self-Rising Flour: the time-saving flour

Without a doubt, the Southern flour that has the deepest history in our region is Self-Rising Flour. It’s a staple in kitchens throughout the South, wherein the early 1900s it became the flour that made the best, most reliable, biscuits.

The secret is a soft winter wheat flour that is lower in gluten (protein) than other flours, and the baking powder and salt are mixed right into the flour. There’s no measuring of leavening, and that’s a time-saver we can appreciate today. Because all ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the mix, your baking will get the same fluffy lift every single time you use it. But don’t worry, your secret is safe with us! Try it in your biscuits, cornbread, pancakes, and cakes. Here’s a recipe for Sweet Cream Biscuits.