Learn how you can toast flour to use in sauce recipes, dough recipes for pizza, and your favorite cookies and pies! What can make your recipes even better, help you thicken soups and gravies, make a roux for sauces or add that extra distinct flavor to the baked goods? The answer is toasted flour.
If you are not sure how toasted flour can make your pizza dough better and tastier, here is what I will tell you. Our ovens at home are not as hot as the professional ones used in restaurants. And a perfect solution to the problem is to pre-toast flour before making the dough for pizza and pies. You will have a perfect roasted browned deliciousness.
As for the sourdough and bread, toasted flour is there to give a better crumb texture and crustier taste. It will be perfect for any recipe where you want to add a nutty flavor. You will definitely have your mouth watering while cookies are baking in the oven!
How long to toast flour?
How long to toast flour in a dry pan? Toast flour on medium heat for 2-3 minutes to get light blond color; you will spend 3-5 minutes to get a caramel color. Seven to ten minutes will get you a dark rich toasted flour that can be sometimes overpowering in flavor for most dishes. Keep in mind that the color of dry-pan fried roux and the classic one differs a bit. Only when you mix it with some liquid; it fully reveals itself.
How long to toast flour for roux with butter? We can divide types of roux roughly into three categories. The first one is the white roux. It will take you up to 5 minutes to get rid of the flour flavor. It has the best thickening effect for dishes, especially sauces. To get a more distinct nutty flavor, you should make the blond roux by cooking flour with butter for 10 minutes on the stove. You need to use vegetable oil instead of butter for the so-called brown roux. It is easier to prevent the sauce from burning with this type of oil (mostly used for Cajun dishes).
How long to roast the flour in the oven? Roasting time depends on how dark you need to get it for your recipe. The lower the heat, the longer the time in the oven. It is one of those methods where you need to keep an eye on what is going on in the oven. Start checking the result at 5 minutes for a lighter shade and keep the flour in the oven for up to 30 minutes for a darker richer result.
How to toast flour
Here are some peculiarities to consider of how to heat treat flour on the stove before attempting to make your toasted flour:
- You had better choose all-purpose flour of high quality.
- To prevent lumps from forming, always sift your flour before toasting it in a heavy skillet or roasting it in the oven.
- Keep stirring and stirring, and stirring.
- Do not overcrowd the skillet. Less is definitely more here.
- Use a heavy skillet for toasting both the dry roux and the classic one.
- Use from low to medium heat (depending on the stove). Watch the toasting flour as it can finish fast.
- The longer you toast the flour, the darker its color gets. The darker color of flour gets, the deeper its flavor becomes.
- If you want a hint of nuttiness, add a blond roux; a distinctive taste, then add a browned thick roux.
With all of the listed information above, let’s have a look at the process of toasting flour for the roux. You will find that this is a fairly straightforward process that has only one difficult part. That is getting the timing right for your recipe.
Dry “Roux” Recipe
Dry “Roux” Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- a skillet
- a spatula
Instructions
- Heat a heavy saucepan/skillet over medium heat.
- Sift measured out the amount of flour into the pan.
- Toast flour by constantly stirring it with a wooden spatula. 2-3 minutes will be enough to make flour golden, and 3-5 minutes to make it brown and to get it darker and richer keep up to 10 minutes. It depends on your further usage and preferences.
Notes
The key to a perfect Roux is to have flour constantly moving in the skillet!
Traditional Roux Recipe
Butter Roux Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 part butter
- 1 part all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Measure out the ingredients. For this method of cooking, you should always keep the ratio of ingredients as follows, one part flower for one part butter.
- Melt butter in a heavy skillet over moderate heat. Make sure to keep heat low, as we do not want to make a bitter and burned roux. The cooking process of the classic roux is a delicate one. Therefore, you need to develop some patience.
- Add sifted flour to the pan and cook it by constantly stirring with a spatula (I even used a whisk once). It will take you 3 to 5 minutes to get the mixture to a light blond color. If you want to have a more rich distinct flavor added to the sauce, then extend the time of cooking to 10-15 minutes.
Notes
Sometimes you can see the mixture of butter, flour, and milk called a roux. The fact won’t be right. The mix of these three ingredients is called the White Sauce or Sauce Béchamel. You can find its recipe here.
Toasting flour in the oven for roux
The process of how to toast flour in the oven is a bit more time-consuming. However, you can have more amount of dry roux made in this way. Preheat oven to 300 F/150 C. Sieve 2-3 cups of all-purpose flour and spread them evenly across the sheet pan. Place the sheet pan with sifted flour on the middle rack of your oven and roast it from 5 minutes to 30 minutes (depending on the desired effect). Do not forget to stir every ten minutes to ensure even roasting.
Share your experience in the comment section below! It will be great to have on whether my tips were used and came in hand.
