Here’s how to pick the right flour for your next baking project.
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Stacey Ballis is a novelist, cookbook author, and food writer with 20 years of experience. She has authored a cookbook called "Big Delicious Life,"in addition to ghostwriting, recipe development, and recipe testing for chefs.
Updated on October 3, 2023
The flour aisle can be a bit confusing these days. There are high-protein options, varieties for specific purposes, and even regional and freshly milled flours. Sending a friend or spouse to the store with just “flour” on the grocery list means you are likely to get a frantic phone call from the baking aisle, or the wrong flour when they get home. If baking is your passion, as it is mine, your pantry is likely to be stocked with all kinds of flours for different purposes. So what are all the different types of common flours and what are they used for? Here’s a quick primer.
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All-purpose flour
Like its name, this flour can pretty much do it all, from cakes to bread, muffins, pastries, and pizza. All-purpose flour is blended with both hard and soft wheat, which means it has a medium level of protein in it; more than cake flour but less than bread flour. If you don’t have the pantry space to store a lot of different flour styles, this is the one to buy. This is also the best flour to use for vintage recipes that were developed when there was only one kind of flour available at the market.
Bread flour
Bread flour has higher protein content than all-purpose, which helps it create the gluten structure necessary for baking a quality loaf of bread. Bread flour can also be useful for pastry recipes that require good gluten development, like laminated doughs, or popovers.
Cake or pastry flour
On the other side of the spectrum, these superfine flours have less protein content than all purpose flour. You use these flours for recipes where you want a tender crumb and don’t need to create gluten structure. Cake recipes that specify cake flour are usually lighter and more delicate than cakes that call for all-purpose flour. If you want to experiment with converting a cake recipe, start by swapping in half of the all-purpose flour called for with cake flour, and then keep adjusting the ratio until you get the texture you prefer.
Pizza or 00 flour
This Italian-style flour, which was developed for making pizza and pasta, is high in protein and finely milled. While there are American brands who are making this style of flour, the wheat in America has different properties than what is grown in Italy, so if you want to go down the pizza/pasta rabbit hole, it is worth seeking out flour from Italy at a local Italian market or online.
Self-rising flour
Self-rising flour is all-purpose flour with both baking powder and salt added to it, making it a great shortcut for things like biscuits, scones and quick breads. The additional leaveners and seasoning mean that making drop biscuits or flatbread can be as simple as combining self-rising flour and buttermilk or yogurt. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can easily make it from all-purpose flour.
Southern flour versus northern flour
On top of these different varieties of flour, keep in mind that weather and other growing conditions mean not all wheat has the same amount of protein. Flour from wheat grown in the South is milled from soft winter wheat, which is naturally low in gluten and protein. It yields tender baked goods, and is especially good for making biscuits and light cakes, which is why brands like White Lily have something of a cult following for Southern bakers. Southern all-purpose flour is more similar to cake or pastry flour than northern all-purpose flour. Northern all-purpose flours are made from hard winter wheat and have higher percentages of protein and gluten.
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