The New Baker’s Guide to Choosing the Right Flour
Flour is one of those seemingly simple ingredients that, upon closer inspection, can turn out to be completely mysterious. This seemingly harmless powder has many more properties than you might think, and while it is found in almost every recipe, it can be difficult to know which variety to buy for the best baked goods, breads and cakes. Let’s take a look at this real bouquet starting with the basics.
Whole wheat versus white flour
Classifying flour as “white” has nothing to do with bleaching, despite what you may have heard. Instead, it all comes down to which parts of the wheat plant are being used. Cereal fruits are made up of three parts that make flour: the endosperm , which provides starch and some protein; the embryo , which provides most of the fat and some protein; and the bran in which the fiber lives.
Whole grain flour is obtained by grinding whole fruits, while white flour is obtained only from the endosperm. Because of this, whole grain wheat is more nutritious , but also much more absorbent and requires additional fluid to be added. Because of this, the dough turns out to be complex, sticky, which takes some getting used to. If you want to add fiber and bulk to your baked goods, whole grain flour is a good option, but start by swapping 25-30% white flour for wheat flour instead of going broke. This will allow you to get used to changing the dough and texture.
General purpose flour
Next, let’s talk about all-purpose all-purpose flour: all-purpose flour (“AP” for its brothers). AP flour is a white flour containing only endosperm and can be found both bleached and unbleached. Because it lacks germs (which contain oils), it is more shelf stable than whole grains and can be stored for several years. (By the way, to prevent your germ whole grain flour from going rancid, freeze it. )
All-purpose flour is suitable for almost any application, and if you only have room for one bag, this should be it. I use AP for most of my breads, cookies and cakes and have never had any problems. Sure, you can get a taller cake or a chewy pretzel from other specialty flours, but AP flour will do the trick. In terms of brands, it’s hard to beat King Arthur , but Cook’s Illustrated ranked Pillsbury as second place .
Flour
I bet you can guess what bread flour is for. Yes, it is bread, especially bread with a little chewing. Bread flour is made from durum wheat , which contains more protein and therefore produces more gluten when kneaded. Gluten is formed when two proteins, glutenin and gliadin , are stitched together to form an elastic elastic network that holds everything together. The more protein you have, the more gluten you get, and your bread will be much more chewy. (Again, King Arthur takes the cake or, if you prefer, a loaf for the best brand.)
The factors that make bread flour so perfect for bread are precisely what make it so awful for delicate, delicate baked goods like crumbly cakes or puff pastry, so don’t use it for them. (Or yes, I’m not your mom, just know your cake will be weird.)
Flour for cake and pastry
As with bread flour, the names of these ground wheat bags tell you a lot about their best uses. The difference is how it’s done. Both are made from soft (low protein, about 7-8.5% for cake flour and 8.5-9.5% for pastry) wheat flour, but baking flour is usually bleached to damage proteins, resulting in which makes a more delicate flour. A lack of protein makes this flour one of the structurally weakest, allowing your tortillas to rise high into the sky. (Classic swan fluff is my personal favorite and can be found in almost any grocery store.)
However, most of us don’t bake enough cakes to justify keeping a box of cake flour. If that’s you, then you can use his nifty formula from The Kitchn to make a pretty decent replacement:
1 cup AP flour – 2 tablespoons AP flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch = 1 cup baking flour
As with cake flour, the lack of protein in pastry flour makes it brittle, ideal for making delicate pie crusts and crumbly cakes.
Self-rotating flour
Almost every baked product needs sourdough, and self-rising flour comes with flour already built into it. Most commonly used in cookie and pancake recipes, this flour also generally contains less protein than AP, resulting in a more tender product. I personally don’t go into self-growth – I make cookies from sifted AP flour and baking powder and I’ve never had any complaints, so I think it’s a little overkill.
If a recipe specifically calls for self-rising flour, you can make a pretty decent substitute with this formula from Epicurious :
Add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt to one cup all-purpose flour.
00 Flour
The “00” in flour “00” only refers to how finely ground it is, not what kind of wheat is used or how much protein it contains, and that material is fiiiiiiine. The protein in 00 flour may actually be slightly different, but in the States it usually hovers around 11-12% (about the same as in AP flour). It’s delicate nature and tiny particle size is what makes it so great for pasta that often needs to be rolled very thinly, and it can be a (slight) problem with bulkier flours.
That being said, I don’t know that flour 00 is a necessity. You can make AP flour pasta just beautifully, but it’s a little more difficult to roll out, so it’s up to you if the extra money is worth the lightness.
But pizza is a completely different matter. Serious Eat’s Kenji vows to Antimo Caputo 00 for the pizza dough:
So what’s the difference between Rinforzato and a pizzeria? Caputo guards this secret very closely, although it can be assumed that it is due to the mixture of wheat trapped in the bag. When it comes to baking with them, I haven’t noticed a huge difference between the red and blue bags – both produce a perfectly working dough that gives a great crust with a very thin layer of crunchiness, a nice open and airy hole structure and just a little chew. I prefer the red bag because it is the easiest to find.
What about whitening?
Bleached flour is chemically treated, usually with an organic oxidizing agent such as benzoyl peroxide or chlorine , to lighten the color (which turns yellowish when freshly ground), facilitate work and increase the “gluten-forming potential.” It also produces flours with a softer texture due to protein damage.
This can also be achieved by simply leaving the flour to stand under the influence of oxygen, which will react with the proteins in the flour to form longer gluten chains , but it takes longer and time is money, so naturally “bleached” flour will be more expensive. Conversely, you can simply buy unbleached flour and let it sit for a while before using.
It all depends on the manufacturer, of course, but these basic guidelines should help you find gummy breads, tender pies, and fluffy cookies.