In baking, it is very important to identify and choose the right kind of flour for different kinds of pastries. There are three main types of flour that we come across a lot: all-purpose flour, cake flour, and bread flour. Of course, there are many more types of flour like almond flour, coconut flour or rice flour, etc… However, those 3 types of flour are the ones that decide the texture of the pastries.
Here are my thoughts on the three main flour. They are concluded from my knowledge and personal opinions. So, if you think otherwise, please feel free to leave a comment below! I would love to know what you think.
Cake flour contains less protein than all-purpose flour. Therefore, we use cake flour to get the spongy and light feeling of the cake. On the other hand, if we use all-purpose flour, the texture of the cake will be denser and gives a heavy feel of carbs. As a result, all-purpose flour is more suitable to make cookies and fried pastries. As for bread flour, it contains more gluten and protein than the other two. This characteristic creates the chewy and low moisture in bread texture.
Recently, I have gotten really into baking, and so cake flour is at the top of my must-have list at all times. However, because I rarely used it, I always looked for all-purpose flour when grocery shopping. Whenever I needed cake flour, I would just make it by mixing all-purpose flour and cornstarch. A couple of years ago, I found this recipe for making cake flour from all-purpose flour online and still use it now. It is said that to make a cup of cake flour, you need a cup of all-purpose flour, from which you take out 2 tablespoons and replace them with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. The use of cornstarch is to saturate the protein in all-purpose flour.
When I think about how often I use cake flour, it is more convenient to premix a big container for later use. Therefore, I rewrote the recipe and would like to share it with you here.
To make the ultimately huge batch of cake flour from all-purpose flour, you will need:
- 7 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cornstarch
I hope this will help you prep the right amount of flour without having to remake it frequently whenever it runs out.
Happy mixing flour!
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