Why You Should Really Opt For These Name Brands When Buying All-Purpose Flour - Tasting Table

"I'm the same way. Whenever I bake cookies, for example, I reach for King Arthur Baking's all-purpose flour, a pantry staple of mine. What sets this unbleached and unbromated all-purpose flour apart is that each bag is reliable and behaves the same, thanks to decades of obsessive testing. That means every batch of my curry peanut butter cookies or ube linzer cookies bakes up exactly the same, time after time. There are no surprises, and this is very important to a baker."

"Ready to bake up a storm this week, but just realized you're out of trusty all-purpose flour? Before you dash to the store and grab another generic bag of flour, let me convince you to reach for one of these trusted name brands instead: King Arthur Baking or Bob's Red Mill. If you're wondering why you should trust me, well, I recently baked thousands of cookies when testing recipes for my upcoming cookbook, "108 Asian Cookies." Some have even dubbed me the "queen of Asian baking.""

"The other solid brand that offers a high-quality all-purpose flour is Bob's Red Mill, which is also unbromated and unbleached. I rank it slightly below King Arthur Baking's all-purpose flour since Bob's Red Mill's protein content ranges from about 10% to 12%, whereas King Arthur's holds steady at a consistent 11.7% every time.The amount of protein in flour matters when baking because protein affects"

Consistent, name-brand all-purpose flours produce more predictable baking results than many store brands. King Arthur Baking's unbleached, unbromated all-purpose flour maintains a steady 11.7% protein content, producing reliable cookie spread and bread rise through consistent milling and formulation. Bob's Red Mill also provides high-quality unbleached, unbromated all-purpose flour but shows protein variability around 10–12%, making it slightly less consistent. Protein levels and milling differences influence dough behavior, including cookie spreading and bread structure. Bakers seeking reproducible results often stick to the same flour brand. Store-brand flours can work, but variable protein and milling lead to less predictable outcomes.

Read at Tasting Table