Flour Facts

Fine-Tune Your Technique

March 20, 2024

Can you use pastry flour for cakes (or cake flour for pastries)? What if you don’t have either and don’t have time to go to the store? What’s gluten got to do with it? Get the scoop on some of the most common baking quandaries with these fun (and functional) flour facts.

Bleached vs. Unbleached: Unbleached flour is aged to naturally lighten, whereas bleached flour is treated to speed up the process. They are generally interchangeable in most recipes.

All-Purpose (AP) Flour: With a medium level of protein and gluten (more gluten is good for stretchy breads, but not delicate pastries), this go-to flour is great for most cooking or baking recipes. Consider it your bell curve bestie!

Whole Wheat Flour: Milled from entire wheat kernel, this flour keeps more of its original nutrients and is on the high side of protein. Mix half and half with AP flour to get benefits without the density.

Bread Flour: Made from hard wheat, this flour has the highest protein of standard flours, with strong gluten capacity that's especially great for denser, chewier bakes like yeasted bread (hence the name).

Self-Rising Flour: Made with an extra boost of baking soda and salt, this flour with built-in leavening is great for baking things like biscuits or pancakes, where you really want a rise.

• Make your own by sifting together...
  • 1 cup AP flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon fine salt

Cake Flour: Made with soft wheat and low on the protein spectrum, this flour is great for (you guessed it) cakes, because it lends itself to finer, tender crumb structures.

• Make your own by sifting together (for 1 cup total)...
  
  • 14 tablespoons AP flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Pastry Flour: With just a little more gluten than cake flour, this flour has just enough protein to make the flake so prized in pie crust and pastries like croissants.

• Make your own by sifting together...
  
  • 2 parts AP flour
  • 1 part cake flour

“00” Flour: A fine grind of Italian durum wheat, this flour has medium protein and gluten, making it ideal for homemade pasta and Italian doughs like pizza or focaccia.

Rye Flour: Made from whole grain rye, this flour can be high or low protein and light or dark, depending on the type of rye used. Use to add color and flavor to recipes like bread, crackers and pancakes.

Almond Flour: A.k.a. almond meal, almond flour is made from ground almonds and has a higher fat and richness. Unlike other gluten-free flours, it can usually replace AP flour in recipes at the equivalent amount.

Gluten-Free Flours: Tapioca, rice, corn, potato, chickpea, coconut, oat, buckwheat... the list goes on and on! However, most of these cannot be substituted straight for glutenous flours in recipes due to their unique structures.

Gluten-Free Flour Blends: Along with straight gluten-free flours, some brands have also created pre-made blends of non-glutenous grains, nuts and starches that you can use one for one in place of all-purpose flour in recipes.

Learn more about another baking staple with our Butter Basics blog!