Modern wheat
Soft Red Winter Wheat
Triticum aestivum
Modern pastry wheat
In the atlas
Before the Plains wheat boom, eastern farms grew softer reds for biscuits, pie, and layer cakes. Soft wheat is what made American biscuits a national dish and what still fills the pastry bins at southern mills. It is the opposite of bagel wheat — and that is the point.
Origin. Eastern and Midwestern U.S.; old American farm wheat
Flavor. Delicate, slightly sweet, faint grass.
Worth knowing
- Low protein is a feature: tender crumb, short gluten strands.
- Never your only flour for yeasted bread unless you add vital wheat gluten.
- Cookies spread more; pie crust shatters instead of chewing.
- Often cheaper per pound than hard wheat at the same mill.
Flours you can make
| Flour | Extraction | Protein | Gluten | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole-grain flour | 100% | 9.8% | 7.4% | Everything the berry holds — bran, germ, and endosperm. Mill 1:1 by weight. Use within days, or freeze. |
| High-extraction (85%) | 85% | 9.6% | 7.6% | Sift once through a #30–#40 sieve. Keeps most flavor and minerals, slightly stronger dough than 100%. |
| Bolted bread-flour style | 75% | 9.4% | 7.8% | Second sifting (#50–#60). Lighter crumb, longer shelf life, less fiber. Bran left behind is gold in porridge. |
Nutrition / 100 g
- Calories
- 332 kcal
- Protein
- 9.8 g
- Carbs
- 74 g
- Fiber
- 11 g
- Fat
- 2 g
- Iron
- 3.2 mg
- Magnesium
- 110 mg
- Zinc
- 2.2 mg
- Thiamin
- 0.35 mg
- Selenium
- 50 µg
Typical whole-grain flour / 100 g.
Sources & USDA linksBuy it retail
- Anson Mills
- Barton Springs Mill
- Janie's Mill
- Azure Standard
- Pleasant Hill Grain
- Local southern gristmills
Availability rotates by harvest. Search the berry name plus “food grade.”
Bakes well as
Mill Soft Red Winter Wheat now
Miller’s desk
Grain to flour
Vital wheat gluten booster
Most bags of vital wheat gluten are 75–80% protein. The booster is added on top of the flour, not swapped in.
Whole-grain flour · Weak gluten
- Whole grain needed
- 505 g
- Flour you’ll get
- 500 g
- Bran left behind
- 0 g
- Protein in that flour
- 49 g · 9.8%
- Natural gluten
- 7.4%
- Add VWG
- 25.8 g
- After VWG
- 13% protein · 10.6% gluten
About 2.8 cups of berries → 4.4 cups of whole-grain flour. Whole-grain milling is essentially 1:1 by weight; sifting is where you lose bran.
How to mill it
Sift aggressively if you want a cake-flour analog from home berries.
Open the stones a click versus hard wheat — it powders easily.
Tempering: Skip it. Soft wheat already mills into a fine flour.
Everything the berry holds — bran, germ, and endosperm. Mill 1:1 by weight. Use within days, or freeze.
Milling 101 →Next: bake it
Pick a loaf for this flour
13% protein after VWG · Soft Red Winter Wheat whole-grain flour. Sandwich loaf, focaccia, sourdough — the kitchen will scale dough, hydration, and times to this mix.
Brioche
Soft Pretzels
Country Sourdough
Ciabatta
Pizza Dough
Sandwich Loaf
Country Hearth Loaf
Focaccia
Challah
Bagels
Baguette
Pita
English Muffins
Rye Loaf
Naan