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What brand of all purpose flour?

13 years ago

I have not been happy with the flour I'm presently using. King Arthur's unbleached is what it is. What brand do you prefer?

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Comments (10)

teresa_nc7
13 years ago
What is available and what I can afford is either Pillsbury Unbleached A-P flour or Gold Medal unbleached a-p flour. I think both are very good for my purposes, breadmaking, a cake now and then, cookies sometimes, etc.

Teresa
mustangs81
13 years ago
I have used White Lily for many years. However, I am not a prolific baker, just biscuits, a few cakes and cookies.

I use White Lily Bread Flour for yeast breads and other baked goods that require kneading of the dough.
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Thanks, Grainlady. Actually, I went ahead and experimented by sort of combining the above recipe and a recipe I found on line for spelt bread. I used a combination of King Arthur whole wheat flour and the white spelt flour, about half and half, partly because I had already made the biga with the whole wheat flour. Then, I used the following recipe, adjusting the spelt flour amounts and water amounts to try and have the correct total for each ingredient. I used the technique for making ciabatta, where I let it sit, turned the dough, let it sit, turned the dough, until I was ready to bake the bread. It ended up making 2 loaves, which I baked in loaf pans, instead of ciabatta style. Surprisingly, it turned out surprisingly well, considering at the last, I tried to make one loaf out of it, and when I saw the dough spilling out of the pan I realized I had to deflate it yet once again and put it into two loaf pans. Here's the other recipe I used. I used dark honey instead of brown sugar. It's from Versagrain.com. Spelt Flour Recipes Sweet and Hearty Spelt Bread Recipe To cook this Spelt bread recipe you will need a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and patience. Unlike white bread this recipe for Spelt bread will take twice as long to leaven. From start to finish, it will take 2 - 3 hours. Ingredients (Makes 1 Loaf) 1 1/2 cups warm water (just barely hot to the touch) 1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce) 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon whole flaxseed (optional) 2 1/2 cups whole spelt flour 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon salt 1 3/4 cups whole spelt flour 1 tablespoon butter, melted Directions In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon of flaxseed (optional). Mix in 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly. Mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter, 2 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and salt. Stir in 1 3/4 cups of spelt flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with spelt flour until it pulls away from the counter but is still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 1 to 2 cups of spelt flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 30 minutes). Punch down and place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Allow to rise until dough has topped the pan by one inch. Depending on your yeast this will take between 1 - 2 hours. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not over bake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 1 tablespoon of melted butter when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely. TIP: Place a loaf pan of the same size over the top of the loaf while baking to create a better crust. Substitutions and Additions Honey can be substituted for the brown sugar in this whole spelt bread recipe. Substitute white spelt flour, hard white wheat flour, or bread flour for the 2 1/2 cups of whole spelt flour to create an even lighter and fluffier loaf of whole grain bread. To give this recipe a crunch, consider adding walnuts. In this whole grain bread recipe we included the option for flaxseed because here at versagrain.com we are big proponents of incorporating flaxseed into your diet. Its high protein, fiber, and omega 3 fatty acids makes flaxseed a nutritional powerhouse your body can use to fight depression, cancer, and heart disease.
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gwlolo
13 years ago
King arthur seems to have higher protein%. Infact their website has yeast bread recipes that use their AP flour instead of the bread flour.
grainlady_ks
13 years ago
What all-purpose flour you use should be determined by what you want to make with it and how much protein/gluten you need.

Southern All-Purpose Flour (White Lily, Martha White, Gladiola, Red Band) - 9 g. protein - milled from soft wheat varieties - work best for baked goods where you don't want a lot of gluten development, such as pie crusts, biscuits, quick breads, muffins

National Brand All-Purpose Flour (Gold Medal, Pillsbury) - 11 g. protein - milled from a blend of hard and soft wheat. A little too much protein for best pie crusts, quick breads, muffins, or pancakes; too little protein to make outstanding yeast breads. As the name indicates - all purposes - but it's not the optimal flour for most things we make with it.

Northern All-Purpose flour (Robin Hood, Hecker's) - 11-12 g. protein. Use for yeast breads, cream puffs, puff pastry.

King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour - 13 g. protein. Use for yeast breads, cream puffs, puff pastry, pasta, pizza.

We are fortunate enough to have some good flour mills here in Kansas and I would suggest Hudson Cream (milled in Stafford Co., KS) and W-R Flour milled in McPherson, KS, which have excellent flour products (similar to National Brands), if you happen to have those available to you.

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jadeite
13 years ago
I use King Arthur's almost exclusively, and I bake a lot. I use their AP for cakes and cookies, their bread flour for bread (duh!), and cake flour for biscuits. What do you not like about KA's?

Cheryl
User
13 years ago
I don't think there is really an "all purpose" flour. I have a variety of flours - White Lilly, King Arthur AP, King Arthur white whole wheat, Irish Macroom extra coarse stoneground whole wheat flour - the coarsest flour I've ever seen, there may actually be pieces of stone in it , as well as Gold Medal. I use most of them for a variety of different baking products, and to some extent, interchangeably. Though the White Lilly is great for biscuits, and the Macrooms makes an amazing soda bread, and I've added it to my regular bread and it adds such a wonderful flavor.
jude31
13 years ago
White Lily Self Rising and either White Lily or King Arthur AP. Trying not to eat bread, and that's hard, but not using any bread flour at the moment. Loosely following the Mediterranean way of eating. Was doing well, had lost about 10 or 12 lbs., then along came the holidays.-(
mustangs81
13 years ago
Good for you Jude! Although you look great to me.
annie1992
13 years ago
like Cheryl, I use King Arthur all purpose almost exclusively for baking. I use it for breads, cakes, pastry crust, cookies, muffins, pancakes, scones and biscuits. I do think that a softer wheat flour like White Lily makes better biscuits but everything else comes out fine.

I use King Arthur whole wheat for bread and the white whole wheat in brownies and pancakes/waffles. King Arthur all purpose for bread, I never buy bread flour.

In my small grocery they have Robin Hood, Gold Medal and Pillsbury. Occasionally I'll buy any of those three and use them pretty much interchangeably, depending on what's on sale and what's available, as I have to drive to a neighboring town to get King Arthur.

Annie
westsider40
13 years ago
Another vote for KA all purpose flour.

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