- Season
- Available all year; a shelf-stable dry staple with no seasonal variation in Czech shops.
- Price
- Low
- Nutrition per 100 g
- 361 kcal
- 12 g protein
- 1.7 g fat
- 72.5 g carbs
Medium-Fine Wheat Flour
Pantry staples
Medium-Fine Wheat Flour
Mouka pšeničná polohrubá is the Czech medium-grind white flour milled from common wheat (Triticum aestivum), sold in 1 kg bags in every Czech supermarket next to hladká (fine) and hrubá (coarse) flour. The word polohrubá means "half-coarse".
In practice
How to store
- On the counter
Keep in a cool, dry, dark cupboard away from strong smells. Once opened, move the flour to an airtight jar or tin, or fold the bag closed and clip it. This keeps out moisture and pantry moths and beetles. Use it before the best-before date on the pack. Throw it away if it smells musty or sour or shows signs of insects.
- In the fridge
Not needed. A fridge is too damp for flour unless the flour is in a fully airtight container. Without one it can pick up moisture and smells.
- In the freezer
Optional. Freezing a sealed, airtight portion for a few days helps if you suspect pantry pests, and freezing extends storage. Let the flour come to room temperature in its closed container before you open it, so condensation does not form.
How to choose
Look for "mouka pšeničná polohrubá" on the front of the pack. Do not confuse it with hladká (fine), hrubá (coarse) or krupice (semolina-like grits), which sit on the same shelf in near-identical bags. Some packs say "polohrubá výběrová" (select). This marks a light, high-grade flour of the same grind. Rohlik.cz, Košík, Tesco, Albert and Globus all stock own-label and national brands, such as Babiččina volba, Penam and Český mlynář, usually in 1 kg paper bags. Check the best-before date. Choose bags that are intact and dry, with no clumps, dark specks or webbing, which would point to damp or pantry pests. Fresh flour smells clean. A stale, rancid or musty smell means it is past its best.
What to swap in
Best swap
Hladká (fine) wheat flour works in most recipes, especially cakes and batters. Some Czech cooks mix hladká with a little hrubá to get closer to the medium grind. Expect a slightly softer, less grainy result.
In a pinch
Hrubá (coarse) wheat flour, best for dumplings and crumble toppings. Durum semolina and fine krupice are not like-for-like substitutes: they absorb liquid differently and give a grittier texture.
Preparation
Polohrubá needs no special preparation. Sifting is optional and is mainly done when you mix it with hladká flour. Because the particles are larger, it takes up liquid a little more slowly than fine flour. Give yeast doughs and dumpling doughs a few minutes to rest so the flour can hydrate fully before you judge whether they are too soft. Food safety: raw flour is a raw agricultural product and is not treated to kill bacteria. Do not eat raw dough or batter, and cook flour-based foods thoroughly. Wash your hands and surfaces after handling it.
Don't toss it
Use up the last small amounts in a jíška (Czech roux) to thicken soups and sauces, or in a drobenka (crumble) topping for fruit cakes. Both are traditional uses for polohrubá and need only a few spoonfuls.
In the kitchen
Cooking
In Czech home cooking, polohrubá is the general-purpose flour for: - yeast doughs for buchty (filled buns), koláče, vánočka and bábovka (bundt cake), often mixed half and half with hladká - tvarohové (quark) and kynuté (yeast) dumplings - sheet-pan cakes such as perník (gingerbread cake) and bublanina (fruit-studded sponge traybake) - drobenka (crumble) toppings - jíška, the roux used to thicken Czech soups and sauces It is also used for coating and dredging. Its slightly granular texture holds shape in doughs that are boiled or steamed. Many cooks still prefer hrubá for the firmest yeast dumplings and hladká for sponge cakes and fine pastries.
Goes well with
- Yeast
- Milk
- Butter
- Eggs
- Tvaroh (Quark)
- Plums
- Apricots
- Poppy Seeds
- Vanilla Sugar
- Lard
What it is
Mouka pšeničná polohrubá is the Czech medium-grind white flour milled from common wheat (Triticum aestivum), sold in 1 kg bags in every Czech supermarket next to hladká (fine) and hrubá (coarse) flour. The word polohrubá means "half-coarse". Czech flours are classed mainly by particle size, not by protein content. Polohrubá sits between the smooth, powdery hladká and the gritty hrubá. Czech decree 18/2020 Sb. sets its limits. At least 96 % of it must pass a 366 µm sieve, and at most 75 % may pass a 162 µm sieve. So at least a quarter of the flour is made of particles larger than 162 µm, whereas in hladká flour at least 75 % passes that sieve. The decree also sets ash at no more than 0.50 % of dry matter and moisture at no more than 15 %. Some brands also print a type number on the pack, for example T400. It is not semolina. Durum wheat semolina and Czech wheat krupice are coarser, granular products used for different purposes.
How it tastes
Neutral and mildly wheaty, like other white wheat flours. It is white with a slight yellowish tint, which is the colour the Czech standard expects. It should smell and taste only of flour, never bitter, sour or musty. Rubbed between your fingers it feels slightly grainy, unlike the silky hladká flour.
Common questions
What is the difference between hladká, polohrubá and hrubá flour?
Is polohrubá flour the same as semolina?
Can I use polohrubá instead of hladká flour?
Which flour is best for Czech buchty and koláče?
Is it safe to eat raw dough made with polohrubá flour?
Does polohrubá flour contain gluten?
Deep dive
2 min read
Varieties
Polohrubá and polohrubá výběrová.
Retail polohrubá flour is a light, white, common-wheat flour. "Výběrová" (select) appears on some brands to mark a premium, light grade of the same grind.
Sister Czech flours.
Hladká (fine) is the finest, powder-like grind and is used for sponges, sauces and delicate pastries. Hrubá (coarse) has the largest particles and is traditionally used for yeast dumplings and noodles. Celozrnná (wholemeal) wheat flour includes the bran and germ and behaves differently in dough.
Related but different products.
Pšeničná krupice (wheat grits) is coarser still and is cooked as porridge or used for semolina dumplings. Durum wheat semolina (semola) is a separate product made from a different wheat species for pasta. Neither is polohrubá flour. Austria grades flour by grind in a similar way (glatt, universal, griffig), but those flours follow Austrian standards and are not identical to Czech polohrubá.
History
Dividing wheat flour into fine, medium and coarse grinds is a long-standing practice in Czech and Central European milling and home baking. Czech food law now codifies it. Decree 18/2020 Sb., which replaced the earlier decree 333/1997 Sb., defines polohrubá by sieve fractions and ash content, and sets a moisture limit for all flours. Little else is documented about its origins as a separate retail category.
Science
Flour is graded by sieving: progressively milled wheat is separated by particle size and mineral content. Larger particles have less surface area, so polohrubá absorbs water more slowly than hladká. Its doughs often feel looser at first and firm up as they rest.
Ash content, at no more than 0.50 % of dry matter, measures how much mineral-rich outer grain made it into the flour. A low value means a light flour made mainly from the starchy endosperm. When the flour is mixed with water, the wheat proteins gliadin and glutenin form gluten. Common-wheat flour forms enough gluten for yeast doughs. In a jíška, heating the flour in fat cooks the raw taste out of the starch and lets it thicken liquids.
Sourcing and ethics
Czech polohrubá flour is mostly milled in domestic mills from wheat grown in Czechia and Central Europe. Producers often print the country of origin on the bag. Under EU rules, gluten must be highlighted as an allergen on the label, and, like all food sold in the EU, the flour must be safe under EU food law (Regulation 178/2002). Organic (bio) versions follow EU organic certification. Buying in paper bags and storing the flour well cuts packaging and pest-related waste.