Different Uses for Different Types of Flour Cheat Chart

Flour is not flour is not flour! Everything from the soil the wheat is grown in to the amount of rainfall before harvest can influence the flour you get. Luckily for us, we don’t need to worry about the temperature of the soil of the wheat when it was harvested to determine if the flour is right to use, but knowing the different types of flour available in your every day grocery store and what to use them for is incredibly important when it comes to baking. The biggest factor that will affect the quality product your flour will product is the amount of protein in the flour.

**As a general rule, high protein bread flour is best for yeast breads and low protein cake flours is best for cakes.**

The higher the protein breads produce more gluten, which gives elasticity, strength and a great chewy texture to yeast breads but is disastrous for quick breads, cakes, muffins and pancakes and anything that needs tenderness.

Here is a quick chart of flours from low protein to high protein and the best uses for them.

You can also play around too! I remember when I was creating recipes for my cookie company, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE chewy cookies, I played around with using bread flour for even a little more gluten and chewiness, but in the end I stuck with All Purpose Flour because they could get a little tough. But who knows, you might just love that! 🙂