Why the Flour You Bake with Matters

All-Purpose Flour

Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour is aptly named as you can use it for everything from cookies and cakes to pies and bars. Because of its utility, it is the most common flour – you’ll never catch us without a big bag of Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour in the pantry!

Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Unbleached All-Purpose Flour is all-purpose flour that has not gone through the bleaching process. It’s cream in color, instead of bright white. Unbleached all-purpose flour can be used in place of all-purpose flour in Betty Crocker recipes.

Cake Flour

Cake Flour is made from soft wheat, which gives a tender texture to cakes. In the Betty Crocker Kitchens, high-quality Gold Medal All Purpose flour is almost always used in place of cake flour to terrific results – no sifting necessary! See for yourself by giving a few of our best cake recipes a try.

Bread Flour

Gold Medal Bread Flour gives more structure to bread because it’s higher in gluten. It’s ideal any time you want a chewy texture, such as when making pizza crust, French bread , rolls or other breads calling for yeast. This type of flour should not be substituted in place of all-purpose flour.

Quick-Mixing Flour

Quick-mixing flour, like Wondra, is an overlooked but incredibly useful type of flour. It is processed to blend easily, which makes it ideal for thickening creamy sauces and gravies – it’s our secret weapon for lump-free gravy on Thanksgiving . Wondra is also wonderful when you want to give a light and crispy coating to a delicate piece of meat. Just dredge both sides of your fish or chicken in Wondra before frying, and you’ll end up with a perfectly flaky end result. Give Wondra a try in this recipe for Corn and Shrimp Chowder.

Self-Rising Flour

Gold Medal Self-Rising Flour is all-purpose flour combined with baking powder and salt for convenience. These additional ingredients make it even quicker to prep quick breads – like loaves, muffins, scones and biscuits – which use baking powder or baking soda as leavener instead of yeast. Be aware that self-rising flour is not interchangeable with other flours. It is best used in recipes developed specifically for this type of flour, like our Self-Rising Biscuits.

Whole Wheat Flour

Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour is made from milling the whole grain, as the name implies. Using flour that has undergone less processing, means your baked goods will have additional color, texture and flavor, plus improved nutrition – including fiber, vitamins and minerals. Whole wheat flour looks like it has brown flecks in it, so you’ll never confuse it with all-purpose or other bleached flours. Its nutty taste is particularly good in hearty breads, cookies and muffins, like the Golden Harvest Muffins.

One note, whole wheat flour should be stored in the freezer. As a result of the lighter processing, whole wheat flour contains more oil, which can go rancid.

White Whole Wheat Flour

White Whole Wheat Flour has a lighter taste and color but the same nutritional benefits of whole wheat flour – due to the fact that it’s made with an albino variety of wheat. We love White Whole Wheat Flour in Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies.

Now that you’re a flour expert, we’ll leave you with these rules of thumb: Use all-purpose flour as your go-to flour, bread flour for yeast breads, self-rising flour for quick breads, quick-mixing flour for sauces and gravies and whole wheat for hearty breads and cookies. With these rules of thumb in mind, the baking world is now yours to conquer! Get started with cake baking, cookie mastery or pie perfecting.