Flour is insanely complicated. There's spring vs. winter wheat, there's northern vs. southern wheat, and the flour itself can be milled into about 80 different products. Most of that hinges on the amount of protein in the flour, which affects the ratio of protein to starch. Southern wheat tends to be softer, and winter wheat tends to be harder, with softer equaling less protein and harder equaling more. But I have to go back to work now, so I can't write for another half hour about it :(
Oh, yeah, I forgot that bit, didn't I? What it changes is what you can do with it. For example, northern/hard/higher protein flour is better for bread, generally, because protein in flour is glutein. So the more glutein, the more chewy the bread is, and the better it will rise. Southern/soft/lower protein flour is generally better for cakes, since it has a more tender crumb. You can even experiment with this, by making the same recipe with the same technique with two different kinds of flour. A lot of people bake bread with all-purpose flour, which is fine if you want a really tender, cake-like bread. Or if you want cake but all you have is bread flour, you'll wind up with tough, chewy cake.
Of course some other factors come in to play too - how much you stir/work the flour, how much liquid you add, how long you let it rest/rise, what sort of leavening you put in it, and so on.
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Flour is insanely complicated. There's spring vs. winter wheat, there's northern vs. southern wheat, and the flour itself can be milled into about 80 different products.
Most of that hinges on the amount of protein in the flour, which affects the ratio of protein to starch. Southern wheat tends to be softer, and winter wheat tends to be harder, with softer equaling less protein and harder equaling more.
But I have to go back to work now, so I can't write for another half hour about it :(
...
you did ask!
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What it changes is what you can do with it. For example, northern/hard/higher protein flour is better for bread, generally, because protein in flour is glutein. So the more glutein, the more chewy the bread is, and the better it will rise. Southern/soft/lower protein flour is generally better for cakes, since it has a more tender crumb.
You can even experiment with this, by making the same recipe with the same technique with two different kinds of flour. A lot of people bake bread with all-purpose flour, which is fine if you want a really tender, cake-like bread. Or if you want cake but all you have is bread flour, you'll wind up with tough, chewy cake.
Of course some other factors come in to play too - how much you stir/work the flour, how much liquid you add, how long you let it rest/rise, what sort of leavening you put in it, and so on.
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