Whole wheat flour is denser, has more protein and tends to dry out products. To compensate, sift more, do not overmix, and up your wet ingredients slightly. From eHow. TLC confirms that whole wheat flour is higher in protein because it is milled from hard wheat which is naturally higher in protein, and then ground whole wheat flour is 25% higher in protein than all-purpose flour.
Some sites (including TLC) recommend only subsituting out up to half of white flour with whole wheat, except if you're using white whole wheat flour (see below).
My secret weapon is white whole wheat flour, which is lighter than standard whole wheat flour and tastes more like white flour but has the same health benefits as the whole wheat flour we're used to. Because so many people are looking for whole wheat recipes, you may want to try a recipe that is specifically designed for whole wheat flour--both for taste and texture. Try King Arthur Flour for recipes (they make my favorite white whole wheat flour, and they have a recipe for whole wheat biscotti!).
The way restaurants do it is simple, straightforward, and also very easy to make organic by using organic ingredients.
Standard 3-bowl breading
1) Bowl One: Seasoned flour -- flour, salt, pepper, and seasonings (for me: thyme, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley flakes)
2) Bowl Two: Egg wash -- Beaten egg with a 1-2 TBSP milk per egg yolk added
3) Bowl Three: Panko (or other bread crumbs) -- alternately, add some salt, pepper, and seasonings to them
Procedure:
Dredge the item to bread through the bowls in order, then repeat if desired to build up a thicker layer. You only need to change your seasonings to switch from breading chicken, fish, or even doing fried green tomatoes.
If you make your own bread and breadcrumbs, the ingredient list will read: flour, water, milk, eggs, yeast, salt, and spices. Hard to get more straightforward than that!
It's simple, fast, and works beautifully every time. Here's why it's the best way: the flour sticks to the wet surface of your item, leaving a dry, starchy surface for the egg wash to adhere to. The egg wash allows the panko to stick. For the next layer, the flour fills in the gaps between bread crumbs and absorbs residual moisture from the egg wash.
Best Answer
I don't know why About.com warns that "additional protein will increase toughness" when the whole purpose of adding corn starch is to reduce the protein.
All purpose flour should have around 10% protein and 90% starch. Pastry flour has 8% protein and 92% starch. Cornstarch has 0% protein. You only have to mix cornstarch and all-purpose flour in the mathematically correct ratio to get a mixture which behaves like pastry flour in terms of protein toughening.
The numbers above are rounded, but then, different manufacturers will produce flours with different percentage of proteins, and some wheat proteins also get tougher than others depending on the cultivar, and recipes still work with that kind of tolerance. So I use them and mix 80 g AP flour and 20 g cornstarch for every 100 g pastry flour I need, which results in a flour mixture with roughly 8% protein content. I use it primarily for flaky crusts, and it works quite well there.