Bread, Cake and All-Purpose Primer

• Bread, cake and all-purpose flour are all varieties of white flour – flour milled from a specific part of the wheat kernel known as the endosperm – but each is manufactured from a different variety of wheat. Bread flour is typically made from hard red spring wheat, cake flour from soft winter wheat and all-purpose flour from a combination of hard and soft wheat.

Protein Power

• The protein content of flour varies depending on the type of wheat that was used to make the flour. Flours milled from hard wheat have a high protein content, while flours milled from soft wheat have a lower protein content. The protein content helps determine the texture of a baked good; the higher the protein content of the flour, the more gluten it will form and the more stability it will lend to the pastry’s final structure. Artisan breads, for example, are made with high-gluten flours and have a chewy texture while cakes made with low-gluten flours are soft and tender. The average protein content of bread flour is 12 to 13 percent, the average protein content of all-purpose flour is 9.5 to 11.5 percent, and the average protein content of cake flour is 6 to 8 percent.

Add-Ins and Enhancements

• Flours also vary in terms of their additives. Some ingredients are added to flour intentionally to enhance it; malted barley flour is sometimes added to bread flour to aid in yeast fermentation and all-purpose flour is often enriched with vitamins and minerals. Other additives are introduced as a result of the processing the flour undergoes; cake flour is sometimes referred to as chlorinated flour because it is bleached with chlorine, an agent that not only whitens the flour but also weakens gluten.

Flours With a Purpose

• Because flours vary so greatly in their makeup, they have very distinct uses.
  There are times that substitutions may be appropriate but, in general, flours are named according to their specific purposes. Breads, rolls, and croissants are best made with bread flour, cakes and cake-like cookies with cake flour, and most other baked goods with all-purpose flour.