John Myers
Smooth, grippy, or double grip? What reads like an attribute for a component is actually baker’s jargon. Types of flour with these additional designations have certain properties that enable baked goods to turn out optimally.
What is sticky flour?
In Germany, most people are familiar with the type number when buying flour, which stands for the mineral content and provides indications of the fineness. For example, wheat flour type 550 contains hardly any grain surface layers rich in minerals: it is very fine and light. For whole wheat flour, on the other hand, the entire grain is ground and it is coarse and dark. Designations commonly used in Austria in particular, such as “grippy flour type 550” provide information about the degree of grinding. A non-slip or even double-grip flour actually feels coarser between the fingers than a smooth flour. The structure also affects the ability to absorb liquid. A non-slip flour binds more water or milk than a smooth flour. Anyone who knows this and can decipher the term “grippy flour + type number” will always choose the best type for their recipes with flour.
When is it advisable to use non-slip flour?
The coarse flour always demonstrates its properties when semi-solid doughs are required. It swells up slowly and is therefore ideal for dumpling dough, quark dough, choux pastry, and spaetzle dough. Non-grip flour is also more suitable than smooth flour for sprinkling the work surface for rolling out the dough and for breading – it is best to use flour with a double grip as a breading for a Wiener Schnitzel and the like, but single-grip varieties also work. If you don’t have any in the house, non-slip flour can be substituted by using spaetzle flour or flour type 550. Grain mill owners can also simply grind a handy flour themselves by choosing a coarse grinding degree. Pay attention to the shelf life: the expert gives tips on this and on how to store it correctly when answering the question “Does flour go bad?”.
Recipe ideas for handy flour
Whether you buy tacky flour or make your own, recipes for the coarse grain product abound. For example, you can make your own pizza, fresh potato dumplings, or cheese spaetzle with roasted onions. Especially with these dishes you will notice an enormous difference in taste compared to ready-made products – the effort is worth it! A delicious quiche, quark bread or rolls as well as cookies and cakes made from quark dough also work wonderfully with the medium-coarse flour. For fine, smooth dough, it is better not to use non-slip flour, but rather smooth flour. Sponge cake, pancakes, or strudel are the domain of this variety.
