Have you ever stood in the aisle at the grocery store in front of the flour and found yourself thinking, ‘What is the difference between all these? Isn’t flour just flour?’
Well I’m here to tell you the answer. No. The answer is no. Let’s take a quick look at what flour is composed of, then dive into those flours you can find on the shelf in your local grocery store. For this post, I will be focusing on wheat flours.
Personally, I always shop for flours that are non-GMO and unbleached. I simply prefer my foods to be minimally processed to feel good about what I am bringing to the table for my family.
What is Flour?
As you can see, most of flour is comprised of starches that provide the bulk of any baked good.
Second, moisture is always present and it is important to keep it below that 14% to avoid spoilage.
As bakers we are primarily concerned with the third component, the protein content of the flour. The difference in protein is what marks each variety of flour. Those proteins, once combined with water, form gluten. Gluten is essential for wonderful bread dough formation, but when preparing cookies or cakes, you don’t want much gluten development. This is why bakers choose bread flour for bread, but opt for cake flour when crafting more delicate desserts.
Gums in the flour refer to various carbohydrates that aid in absorbing water and also provide dietary fiber. That tiny bit of fat found in the flour aids in emulsifying and gluten development, but it also can spoil and give flour that “off” flavor.
Ash refers to the mineral content of the flour which is found by burning a sample of the flour. All the other components will burn away and evaporate leaving a pile of mineral ash behind. In general, the higher the ash content, the darker the flour. People often seek white flours, but I would keep in mind, you are sacrificing nutrients for color.
Now let’s look at a few flours specifically.
All-Purpose Flour
As the name suggests this go-to flour will get the job done for any baked good, though you are not likely to find it in a professional bakeshop. All-purpose flour typically has a protein content of 10-11.5%. It is specifically formulated this way to have sufficient protein for simple bread doughs, but not too much for more delicate cakes and cookies. It is for convenience, so that the home baker may have that single flour for anything they may wish to make.
My current favorite is Bob’s Red Mill because I prefer to opt for non-GMO and minimally processed whenever possible.
Self-Rising Flour
I have never bought this flour, and I don’t recommend doing so either. Self-rising flour is all purpose flour with baking powder and/or salt already mixed in.
Baking is chemistry and your formula is going to be very off if the quantity of the ingredient is outside of your control. Unable to know how much baking powder or salt is already in the flour you could very easily add too much more or not enough and the results will not be what you are aiming for.
Cake Flour
As my professor did in school, I must begin with a simple statement. No, you can’t mix your own cake flour at home. Adding cornstarch to all purpose flour does not make it cake flour, it only dilutes your flour with an unnecessary thickener that could negatively impact your baked good.
With that out of the way… Cake flour is simply a naturally low-gluten flour made from soft wheat. It is pure white, smooth and soft in texture and has a protein content of 8%. As its name implies it is ideal for cakes and baked goods where a more delicate crumb is ideal.
My favorite is Unpretentious Baker from Amazon, but I understand not everyone wants a five gallon bucket of cake flour, so I also recommend King Arthur which you can likely find at your local grocery store.
Bread Flour
Bread flour, referred to in professional baking as patent flour, is ground from hard wheat. It is ideal for yeast breads with its protein content typically between 11-13%. The strong gluten proteins are perfectly suited for machine mixing and molding.
In Europe, they grade their flour by the ash content and their bread flour tends to be slightly weaker with a protein content of 11-11.5%. This is great for artisan breads crafted entirely by hand.
My all around favorite bread flour for flavor and quality is of course Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour. In my little blue kitchen when making my breads I use a combination of machine and hand mixing and shaping with this flour always yielding the perfect bread crumb, with exceptional flavor.
Whole Wheat Flour
A wheat kernel has three parts, the endosperm, the bran, and the germ. To make white flours, the wheat bran and germ are removed and only the endosperm is ground into flour.
Whole wheat flour, as the name implies, is the entire wheat kernel ground into a rich brown flour full of natural dietary fiber, b-vitamins, fats, proteins, and minerals. White flour is enriched because these vital nutrients are removed with the bran and germ in the processing of the wheat.
Whole wheat flour is different to work with than a typical white flour. It is dense and highly absorptive with a beautiful strong flavor. My favorite is again, Bob’s Red Mill.
Armed with your new knowledge of flour, get out there, Sweetsters, and bake something magical!
Is your kitchen well stocked? Make sure you have my 8 essentials.
Try my Cornbread!
Please leave any questions for me below!
Happy Baking!
