How To Replace White Flour With Whole Wheat

Replacing white flour with whole wheat flour is a good way to increase the nutritional value and health benefits of your food. While white flour has almost no nutritional value, whole wheat flour adds fiber to your diet and plays a role in preventing heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. Substituting wheat for white whenever you can also helps you follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2010 Dietary Guidelines that recommend a minimum of half the grains you eat be whole grains.

Step 1

Substitute whole wheat flour for up to 50 percent of the white flour in baked goods, such as bread, and replace every 1 cup of white flour with 7/8 cups wheat flour in muffins and biscuits. This substitution also requires cutting the amount of baking powder in the recipe by 50 percent and adding 1 to 2 tsp. of additional liquid, such as skim milk or applesauce, to prevent baked goods from becoming too heavy.

Step 2

Spoon or sift whole wheat flour into a measuring cup rather than scooping it directly from the container. This allows air to mix with the flour and lightens the texture of foods you bake with whole wheat flour.

Step 3

Avoid over-mixing as this will cause dough to become dry and tough. Instead, stir just enough to moisten the ingredients.

Step 4

Increase moisture levels in whole wheat yeast dough by skipping instructions to knead. Instead, allow the soft dough to rise once and then move on to baking the bread.