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Essential Guide: My Honest Review of North American Baking Flours ❤️
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爱做面包的太阳花
爱做面包的太阳花
Apr 29, 2021
中文
BunsLevain

Essential Guide: My Honest Review of North American Baking Flours ❤️

干货‼️北美面粉不完全总结❤️

After ten years of baking bread, I have tried plenty of flours. Here is a summary of the ones I have used over the years.

When choosing flour, I follow two general rules: 1. Never buy bleached flour. 2. Buy organic whenever possible.

Let's take a closer look below.

By function, flour is divided into bread flour, all-purpose flour (used for steamed buns, mantou, and handmade noodles), and cake flour.

By brand, the most common ones in North America are King Arthur, Bob's Red Mill, Gold Medal, and Central Milling, along with various grocery store house brands that I won't list one by one.

Here are my impressions of each category of flour.

🎈All-purpose flour (Photo 1): These are all flours I have used, liked, and recommend. I left out the ones I tried and didn't like. All six of these are great, but following my rule of choosing organic whenever possible, my top recommendation is Central Milling. If you can find it at Costco, the price is fantastic too. My second choice is King Arthur Organic.

🎈Cake flour (Photo 2): All of these are good. The Central Milling one in the bottom right corner is organic. Ever since I discovered it last year, it has been my go-to.

🎈Bread flour (Photo 3): King Arthur and Bob's Red Mill are the two I have used the most over the years. Both are excellent and equally great. White Lily is one I spotted at Walmart last year and bought to try. It was a wonderful surprise, producing Pullman loaves with a great feathery shred and a fine crumb structure, so I recommend it. I might have had overly high expectations for Central Milling's High Mountain high-protein bread flour. The bread didn't turn out as fine-crumbed as I imagined. Looking at the specs, although the protein content is high, the ash content is also quite high, which is probably why. The last one in the bread flour photo is what I bought when I first started baking bread and knew nothing. It makes loaves with a great feathery shred, but the downside is that the flour is bleached.

Whole wheat flour (Photo 4): I highly recommend the Central Milling one in the bottom right corner. It is super fragrant and high in protein, making whole wheat loaves with great crumb structure and tall oven spring. You can check my whole wheat loaf posts for photo proof, and it is organic too. The third one in the top row of the whole wheat photo makes super fragrant naan. It is organic, offers great value for money, and is also what I use daily to feed my sourdough starter.

Photo 5 is listed separately because I use it specifically for pizza, and it makes super fragrant pizza crust.

I also added notes on a few other specialty flours directly onto the photos due to the word limit.

As for where to buy, regular grocery stores carry most of these, except Central Milling. Costco only carries their all-purpose flour, so I buy the rest from their official website. If you live near one of their stores, you can order online and pick it up in store to save on shipping. They never offer free shipping regardless of how much you buy, and shipping gets expensive for big orders because flour is heavy.

💡 Baker's Q&A & Troubleshooting (8)

Distilled from Author's Notes
Q:Why is it so hard to find Japanese bread flours like Super Camellia or Yumechikara in North America?
A:I have seen them on Amazon, but they are way too expensive to justify buying.
Q:Have you used the Gold Medal bread flour in the yellow bag? How is it?
A:I used the yellow Gold Medal one many years ago, but in recent years I have mainly stuck to King Arthur and Bob's Red Mill.
Q:How should I store instant dry yeast?
A:I keep it in a glass jar in the fridge. I buy it in 2-pound bags, so I put half in the freezer and half in the fridge. It stays good for a year without any issue, and some fellow bakers say it still works great after two years in the freezer. Every time I use it, I scoop what I need and put it right back into the dark fridge. Make sure to use a glass jar with an airtight seal.
Q:Could you please share your recommendations for rye flour?
A:Sure, I will put that together and add it in. Thanks for the reminder! Because of the text limit, I added the info directly onto the photos. If anything is unclear, we can discuss it in the comments.
Q:Oh no, I bought Walmart's Great Value flour for my first try and it's not even on your list!
A:Don't worry at all! Major grocery store house brands are actually quite good. I just haven't used that one myself yet. Once I try it, I will share my notes.
Q:Can all-purpose flour be stored at room temperature after opening?
A:I usually slip a plastic bag over the package and keep it in a cool, dark place, or pour it into an airtight container stored away from light.
Q:Where can I buy the whole wheat flour you recommended? Thank you!
A:I bought it from the Central Milling official website. I get the medium-coarse grind.
Q:Awesome post! I always use that organic all-purpose flour from Costco and it works really well, though I rarely make bread or buns since it takes so much time and I'm lazy, haha.
A:You are a cast-iron skillet pro who even polishes cast-iron pans! Truly impressive 👍👍

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