When it comes to baking goods, it is so hard to get the mixture right. Use just the wrong quantity of one ingredient, such as baking powder, and your goods can look wilted and flat. Add in too much flour, though, and your goodies can come out in the completely wrong texture and style. As such, it becomes upon you to come up with solutions that can avoid these problems from needlessly getting worse. For any baker, that means using the right kind of flower!
What, though, are the best baking flours?
Almond flour
While not commonly used today, almond flour is growing in popularity with bakers. It is becoming useful because it offers a very powerful gluten-free flour that s also rich with healthy fat and fiber. It’s also low in fats, which can be useful for anyone looking to bake without the extra fats that are not needed.
This is useful for anyone who wants to try and make things like pancakes and biscuits, or even loaves of bread, with a different kind of flour. Definitely one to try out for ambitious bakers looking to find a new winning recipe.
00 Flour
Some know 00 Flour as Italian flour, and it is very popular with good reason. This particular form of flour is made from a type of wheat that comes with a protein content boasting 10% or more of the total makeup. That is very impressive and ensures that you get this extra-fine texture from the flour, and thus ensuring that you can be left with a very sturdy, durable product.
As you might imagine, given its origins, Italian flour is best used for things like pasta and thin-crust pizza doughs as well as flatbread products made at home.
Self-Raising Flour
If you want to make baking a bit easier, then good old self-raising flour is a good choice. This is great as it gives you a bit of extra taste, too; the use of baking powder and salt together within the flour helps to give it that extra boost and power. It’s also typically a soft wheat product, containing protein counts as high as 9%. This delivers a wonderfully fine texture that is easy to work with and can be great for cooking in just about any environment. However, be sure to stick to self-raising flour and no mixtures as it typically does not play well with other flours.
Pastry Flour
If you intend on making gorgeous pastries like meat bakes and/or apple pies, you should look to invest in some pastry flour. This is useful as it contains around 9% protein and is made for all-purpose baking when it comes to cakes, muffins, pancakes, and breadsticks. It’s also great for pie crust, so if you want to make a big juicy pie then this is the stuff to use.
It’s great for anything that is going to come out with that vintage golden pastry color that we all love so much.