Instructions: To achieve success with your baked goods, one of the most important and easiest things to do is read labels. This ensures that you use the right flour or grain for the job. Yeasted bread, for example, can be made with all-purpose white flour, which is a blend of hard and soft wheats, or can be made with bread flour, which is made with hard wheat and has a higher gluten content for better rising. Tender, non-yeasted baked goods such as biscuits and pie dough are better made with pastry flour or all-purpose flour, as high-gluten bread flour makes them tough. Other grains, such as buckwheat and barIey, are low in gluten and need a gluten boost from all-purpose white flour.

1. SOFT WHEAT: A lower protein wheat 6 percent to 10 percent) that yields flour with lower gluten. Most suitable for biscuits and cakes. Pastry and cake flours are made from low-gluten soft wheat.

2. BUCKWHEAT FLOUR: Buckwheat is not a grain, but the seed of a plant related to the rhubarb. It is ground into two dark and white varieties: the dark has more of the seed hulls in it. Both varieties are low in gluten, and must be mixed with white flour or a blend of white and whole wheat flours.

3. UNBLEACHED, ALL-PURPOSE WHITE FLOUR: A blend of hard and soft wheat flours without the bran and germ. Has less protein (hence less gluten) than white bread flour, but more than cake or pastry flour. It is bleached naturally by aging.

4. WHOLE WHEAT PASTRY FLOUR: Milled from soft wheat, this flour contains the whole grain, but has been ground to a finer texture and lighter consistency than unbleached white flour or whole wheat flours.

5. WHEAT BRAN: Also referred to as millers bran. Purchase unprocessed, toasted wheat bran, which is the outer coating of the wheat kernel. It is high in fiber and low in calories. Add it to recipes as a fiber booster.

6. WHITE BREAD FLOUR: Milled from hard wheat, white bread flour has a high protein (hence gluten) content, and is especially suited to breads. Look for bread flour that is naturally white (unbleached) without chemicals, and not bromated. Bromated flour, used by some commercial bakers, is flour that has been treated with potassium bromate to speed up natural aging and toughen the dough for machine kneading.

7. CORNMEAL: Dried corn is processed as stone-ground or enriched degerminated.

Stone-ground cornmeal is more nutritious, and contains the ground up hull and germ. It is softer in texture, richer in flavor and more perishable than commercially ground cornmeal, which is kiln-dried and ground between steel rollers that remove both hull and germ. Both are acceptable in baking.

8. RYE FLOUR: Milled from rye, one of the most ancient cereal grains, this is available stone-ground or commercially ground. Stone-ground is preferable because more nutrients are retained. Low in gluten, rye flour must be mixed with unbleached white flour or a blend of white and whole wheat flours.

S. GLUTEN FLOUR: A mixture of white flour and concentrated wheat gluten extracted from specially processed wheat flour; it can boost rising capacity.

Gluten acts like a web that traps carbon dioxide gas caused by yeast fermentation. The gas bubbles cause the bread to rise. Unbleached white flour and whole wheat flour contain gluten.

10. HARD WHEAT: A higher protein variety (10 percent to 13 percent) that yields a flour high in gluten especially suitable for yeasted breads. Durum wheat, although high in gluten, is not good for bread because it produces a dense flour that does not rise well. It is used to produce semolina flour, the basis for high-quality pasta.

11. SPELT: An ancient form of wheat lower in gluten than regular wheat, it is now available at specialty stores. Good for individuals with gluten intolerance.

12. WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR: Made from ground wheat kernels. Purchase stone-ground whole wheat flour, which contains all the wheat germ and bran.

13. OATS: Some bread, muffin and scone recipes call for rolled oats. Oats are also low in gluten, and must be mixed with white flour or a blend of white and whole wheat flours.

14. WHITE WHEAT FLOUR: A new type of flour that contains the bran and germ of the wheat. White in color like all-purpose flour, but has flecks of germ and bran. It is milled from 100 percent hard wheat, and is a nutritionally attractive substitute for regular unbleached white or whole wheat flour.

15. WHEAT GERM: The embryo of the wheat kernel separated in milling, used especially as a source of vitamins.

Makes a nutritious addition to bread and muffin recipes. Substitute 1 tablespoon wheat germ for 1 tablespoon flour per cup measure.

16. BARLEY FLOUR: Low-gluten flour milled from ground whole hulled barley and sieved to remove the outer hull, Mix it with unbleached white flour, or a mixture of white and whole wheat flours.

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