foodonastump - There are technical differences between whole grain (or wholegrain, or whole-grain) and whole wheat, in accordance with the laws that dictate such things, when you talk about commercial "whole wheat" flour and labeling. And to add to the confusion, there is also "whole wheat" flour called whole meal or unbolted flour, and graham flour. Most of these names have been used interchangeably for "whole wheat flour". For all practical purposes, because these commercial flours have a certain percentage of the whole grain in it, by law it can be called "whole wheat". "The original "Definitions and Standards for Food Products" published by the Department of Agriculture specified Graham flour as "unbolted wheat meal" and further described meal as "the clean sound product made by grinding grain." This means nothing added and nothing taken away. Graham flour was also a coarse flour, instead of being milled into the superfine flour most flours are milled today. This definition would exclude the reconstituted whole wheat flour products by modern roller mill factories." Bolted flour (or reduced bran flour) is whole wheat flour that has about 80% of its bran sifted off. Some "whole wheat" flour is nothing more than white flour (bran and germ removed) with some of the bran raked back into it to make it "brown", which occasionally is directed by law to meet these standards, to give the flour longer shelf-life without refrigeration. The wheat germ oil quickly oxidizes once the grain is milled into flour and the oil goes rancid quickly. The bran is the "coat" that protects all of this from happening to grain. Once that bran is cracked/shattered, the oxidizing starts to degrade the oils and the nutrients in the grain within 3-hours of milling. In some instances, commercial whole wheat flour is processed like white flour, with the bran and germ separated from the endosperm. Then bran, germ, and white flour are recombined according to some standard formula. This gives the flour consistent results in baking and flavor. This flour is NOT 100% whole wheat flour. King Arthur and Hodgson Mills mill their whole wheat flours from the whole grain into 100% whole wheat flour, nothing removed and nothing added. This is also known as 100% extraction. Then you can get into speciality flours like Irish Wholemeal Flour, which is a coarse grind of American whole wheat flour. It can often be milled from a soft wheat, or low-protein wheat, which is a traditional wheat variety used for making scones and quick breads, without as much gluten in it as in high-protein hard wheat flours. The endosperm can be milled into a fine flour, but the bran and germ milled into a coarse grind and the 3 recombined to certain specifications. All commercial flours are milled from a combination of wheat with different protein levels to give it a standardized protein level. Within the same field you can have wheat that is 14-16% protein, and in an area where it gets run-off water and sits in too much rain water, or it gets a bit of shade from trees, it might be 8-9% protein. So the protein level is based on a mixture of wheat proteins. -Grainlady

White Lily is a low-protein (9 grams per cup) Southern All-Purpose Flour - lower in protein than National Brand All-Purpose (Pillsbury or Gold Medal - 10-11 grams per cup) or Northern All-Purpose Flour (King Arthur, Robin Hood - 12+ grams per cup). White Lily is suggested for use in pastry, or anywhere you don't want a lot of gluten-development -- such as quick breads, cookies, biscuits... It will be an excellent choice for pastry. Just don't use the self-rising variety. Every part of making pastry is geared towards preventing gluten-development, so starting with a low-protein flour is a big plus. -Grainlady

--Whole wheat pastry flour is milled from low-gluten, low-protein, soft wheat varieties. I use soft white wheat for pastry flour, or anywhere I don't need a lot of gluten development. Spelt is another good wholegrain choice when you don't need a lot of gluten development. Spelt has a gluten level that is 5,000 parts per million; compared to wheat which begins at 50,000 parts per million and go up from there. --Technically, "all-purpose" flour was developed commercially for bleached/unbleached flour from a mixture of hard wheat and soft wheat. There's enough hard wheat so it has enough gluten to make yeast breads, and enough soft wheat flour so it makes decent quick breads, pastry or cakes - so it covers "all purposes", but it's NOT the optimum choice of flour for most things, other than soft dinner rolls. We've just developed our flour use from the most common commercial flour available - all-purpose - with occasional moves to Southern all-purpose for biscuits and quick breads, and the even more elusive cake flour for beautiful tender cakes. Even in the world of commercial bleached/unbleached all-purpose flour there are great differences... Northern all-purpose flour (King Arthur and Robin Hood - 11-12) have a higher protein level than National Brands (Gold Medal and Pillsbury 10-12). Southern all-purpose flour (7.5-9.5) is milled from soft wheat, so it's best used for quick breads, biscuits, muffins, pastry, cookies, cakes - foods where you don't want a lot of gluten development. A mix of 3:2 hard wheat to soft white wheat is a great "all-purpose" mixture when you want soft yeast rolls. Otherwise, choosing a mix of hard wheat and soft wheat is less than optimum for other baked goods. --Whole wheat "bread" flour would mean a high protein level milled from hard wheat. Bleached/Unbleached bread flour has a protein level of 13-14. I've milled wheat that was 16% protein and made yeast bread with it, but it takes a lot more kneading to develop the gluten and you find you have tough bread as a result of the high protein level. This also happens when you add too much vital wheat gluten to a recipe, so more (protein/gluten) is not necessarily better. The protein levels of wheat I purchase is generally between 13% and 14% protein, which is more than enough to raise a lofty loaf of bread. If you tend to get short squatty loaves of 100% whole wheat bread, there are other factors you need to address besides protein/gluten levels - such as stop using a (quick mix) direct dough method and switch to a sponge method. A sponge will help soften the bran - the sharp edges of bran can cut the gluten strands. A sponge method also helps develop the gluten without kneading. Adding an acid ingredient (vinegar, lemon juice, ascorbic acid, etc) to the recipe has a positive effect. There is a substance in wheat germ called Gluthione which breaks down the gluten strands. Adding an acid, such as ascorbic acid, counteracts the negative effects of Glutathione. Ascorbic acid helps to prevent the gluten bonds from breaking down and will repair the gluten bonds, so you'll get a high-rising loaf of 100% whole wheat bread. I generally add 1/8 t. ascorbic acid per loaf of bread when making bread that includes wheatgerm (as a single ingredient or from whole wheat flour). -Something we tend to forget, or possibly didn't even know, hard wheat wasn't even available for milling until the late 1870's when the German Mennonites arrived here in Kansas and brought the granddad of all hard winter wheat varieties, Turkey Red, with them from Europe. Prior to the developing of the hard winter varieties of wheat, all flour was milled from soft wheat. The mills liked soft wheat for milling into flour because it was easy to grind in one pass through the mill, and had a much larger extraction of flour. Soft wheat tends to be a plumper seed with more endosperm, while hard winter wheat is small and rather wrinkled with more bran and less endosperm. You can tell the difference between hard and soft wheat when you mill it at home - the hard wheat flour is more coarse and gritty from the bran, while soft wheat renders a very soft, talcum powder feeling flour. --"Bread flour" or high protein flour milled from hard wheat, was available to commercial bakers and they referenced it by calling it "strong" wheat flour. Strong and weak wheats indicate a wheat or flour's baking strength. It wasn't until the advent of the bread machine in the 1980's that high-gluten bread flour became available for home use. Up until that time all-purpose flour, which is a medium-protein level flour, was about the only kind of flour available for home use. If "whole wheat bread flour" is called for, it means use a "regular" whole wheat flour which is milled from hard wheat, instead of "pastry" whole wheat flour, which is milled from soft wheat. -Grainlady

A poppy seed torte doesn't sound like the kind of flyaway feather cake that absolutely requires Swansdown. Cake flour has less protein than AP flour. AP is actually a mix between high protein (like bread flour) and lower protein (cake flour). If your AP is a standard bleached flour, like Gold Medal or Pillsbury, or similar house brand, it should really be fine on its own for most cakes or any baking that's slightly denser, like my concept of a "torte". A "heavier" unbleached flour like King Arthur AP is more likely to have a bigger effect on the outcome. My assumption is that the purpose of the cornstarch substitution is to lessen the quantity of gluten forming protein, while maintaining the bulk of flour. I might use potato starch instead, or rice flour, because they have less flavor, but more people have cornstarch. You probably can't taste the difference in a flavored cake anyway. It sounds like a good idea for maintaining the texture you're accustomed to, but I've never tried it.