Expert: Ralph Onesti - 8/4/2011

Question
Hi there,  I have a few recipes that I would like to alter to be a bit healthier.  I would like to replace some or all of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.  Is there a standard conversion that I can just plug amounts into?  1 cup ap flour = X amount of whole wheat flour.

Answer
Hi Kelly:

There is really no "conversion".

If you are talking about bread recipes, I would use the same amount of flour and up the hydration (add more water).

There are many, many, many recipes out there that replace all purpose with whole wheat, and if you use these formulas, the guess work will be taken out.

Are we talking bread or pastry?

In Bread, the addition of honey is almost a staple in whole wheat breads as they will be a bit more bitter.

Two of the books I really love for bread is: Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman, and for Pastry, it the Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg.

Both of these texts have loads of examples of formulas using whole wheat flour, and they work.

If you have a specific formula in mind for an old family recipe, let's have a look and we'll see what we can do to get you off the all purpose and on to whole wheat.

Ralph