Types of flour in the Netherlands / オランダの小麦粉について / 關於荷蘭的麵粉

 

Bread flour from a windmill

Types of flour in the Netherlands

オランダの小麦粉について（まとめのみ）

關於荷蘭的麵粉（只有概要）

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I've been baking a lot more since the beginning of the pandemic. Before this, I was only the occasional baker so getting flour from the supermarket would suffice. But once you start getting a bit pickier with the flour quality, your nearby Albert Heijn or Jumbo might not be the best place to look. In this post, I'd like to share my experiences with flour in the Netherlands (NL). 

Gluten: why it matters

As a baker, one thing you want to know is the gluten content in the flour. High gluten flour aka bread flour is used for baking bread, while low gluten flour aka cake flour is used in cakes and cookies. The amount of gluten is quite important in baking because:

• Too little gluten results in less fluffy bread.
• Too much gluten and your cake could turn hard and gummy.

Flour in NL supermarkets

When I was living in Japan, it was very easy to determine which type of flour you were buying at the supermarket as they were clearly labelled: 強力粉 for bread flour (高筋粉) and 薄力粉 for cake flour (低筋粉). That's why I was quite surprised when I moved to NL, and discovered that this was not the case here, despite being a country where bread is a staple. The flour that you usually find at Dutch supermarkets is either tarwebloem (wheat flour) or patentbloem (all-purpose flour). The gluten level is not marked on the packaging. This kickstarted my research into the different types of flour in NL. The Weekend Bakery, which also served as my reference point, has a more in-depth explanation of Dutch flour.

  

Regular white flour (tarwebloem) from my local Albert Heijn supermarket

Unfortunately, the difference between tarwebloem and patentbloem is not clear and it seems the quality also differs considerably between brands. In short, the next best alternative is to check the protein content:  

• Bread flour: approx. 13-14% protein content.
• Cake flour: approx 9% protein content. 

Gluten/protein in supermarket flour

The protein (eiwitten) content of the flour from my AH supermarket is between 10 to 11% which is in between cake flour and bread flour. This is what we call all-purpose flour (中力粉 or 中筋粉). All-purpose flour can be used to make both bread and cakes; jack of all trades, master of none. 

 

The protein content of regular white flour from my local Albert Heijn supermarket

The irony is that if you visit Asian grocery stores like Amazing Oriental and Wah Nam Hong, you can actually find high gluten and low gluten flour imported from Asia. If you're an infrequent baker but still picky about your flour, I would recommend getting your flour there. For more frequent bakers, the price per kilo of these flours is not very economical. 

Another trick I used to get bread flour and cake flour is to adjust the protein content of all-purpose flour. I added bread improver (50.9% protein) into the flour at about 3-6% to increase protein/gluten content. To reduce the protein content, I would mix all-purpose flour with 10-20% wheat starch or cornflour. This is not exactly scientific but it helped me get my desired results. 

Bread improver

High or low gluten?

If you're not sure if your flour is high or low gluten, there is apparently a quick way to check. I find this explanation on many Japanese baking sites but don't seem to find anything similar in English:

High gluten flour is smoother while low gluten flour is lumpier. 

If you understand Japanese, a YouTuber I follow explains the difference here while this video shows how the texture between the two flours differs. The reason for this is because high gluten wheat is harder than low gluten wheat so when it is milled into flour, high gluten flour is finer. 

I did a simple check and it seems to confirm the statement above. 

Bread flour on the left and cake flour on the right.

Flour from Dutch windmills

While looking for cheaper alternatives in NL, I got a tip from a fellow baker, Angie from Angie's recipe and review, to check flour from windmills. I didn't think of this earlier but this is definitely one perk of living in the NL. I tried looking for a windmill store that:

• has an online webstore and an acceptable delivery fee,
• has affordable high gluten/low gluten flour,
• is (relatively) close to Rotterdam (my attempt to buy as local as possible).

Xandra bakt brood has a very nice list of the windmills where you can get flour in NL from.

Ultimately, I got my flour from Molen de Pere on their website, thuisbakkerswinkel.nl. I bought the Americana for bread and Zeeuwse bloem as cake flour. This windmill is not exactly the closest to Rotterdam (possibly closer to Belgium 😅) but fits the conditions I was looking for best.

 

American (left, bread flour) and Zeeuwse bloem (right, cake flour). 

The cake flour was already opened. So excited to bake I forgot to take a picture first. 

Summary

• Flour (tarwebloem/patentbloem) in Dutch supermarkets is usually all-purpose flour.
• All-purpose flour can be used to bake both bread and cakes but
• High gluten flour is better for baking bread while low gluten flour is better for cakes.
• Surprisingly, Asian grocery stores sell these different flours.
• For larger/more economically-priced high/low gluten flour, try your local windmill or an online store.
• Protein (eiwitten) content: high gluten flour (>12%), all-purpose flour (10-11%), low gluten flour (<10%).

Thanks for reading. Hope you found this informative. 

I would love to hear your comments and suggestions.

You can also find me on Instagram or Facebook. 

まとめ

• オランダのスーパーで置いてある小麦粉（tarwebloem / patentbloem）は、通常、中力粉です。
• 中力粉はパンもケーキも焼けますが
• 強力粉はパンを、薄力粉はケーキを焼くのにより適しています。
• アジアスーパーで強力粉や薄力粉などが置いてあります。
• より経済的な方法は、地元の風車からまたはオンラインストアで買えます。
• タンパク質含有量(eiwitten)：強力粉（> 12％）、中力粉（10-11％）、薄力粉（<10％）。
  

読んでいただいてありがとうございます。 これが参考になれたらうれしいです。

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概要

• 一般在荷蘭超市裏的麵粉（tarwebloem / Patentbloem）是中筋粉。
• 中筋粉可以烤麵包和蛋糕，可是
• 高筋粉更適合烤麵包，而低筋粉更適合烤蛋糕。
• 荷蘭的中超可以找到高筋粉和低筋粉。
• 比較經濟的方法是從本地的風車或在線購買。
• 蛋白質含量(eiwitten)：高筋粉（> 12％），中筋粉（10-11％），低筋粉（<10％）。

謝謝閱讀。 如果有任何意見或建議的話，請告訴我。

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