FLOUR TYPE & APPLICATION
Which Flour To Use
A practical guide to choosing the right flour for every recipe and understanding the difference between various flour types
When it comes to cooking and baking, one thing is of paramount importance: the choice of flour. The flour used is the foundation of any recipe, and directly influences texture, structure, flavour, and overall performance. Understanding how wheat flour works and why different wheat flours exist is the first step towards ensuring consistent outcomes across a wide range of dishes.
In Europe, flour production is guided by centuries of milling traditions, combined with expert technical precision. This results in a wide range of flours, each intended for a particular purpose, to have the dough rise steadily, stretch easily, remain tender, or retain moisture. It is these distinctions that form the basis of the many types of wheat flour used both in home and professional kitchens.
Knowing that many home and professional chefs often get confused when it comes to choosing the right flour, this guide is designed to help navigate flour selection with clarity and confidence. By exploring flour choices by their use, bread flour, pasta flour, pizza flour, and flour for cakes & pastries, it aims to explain how different flour types support different outcomes. These flours may have different characteristics, but they all have a specific value for the different uses envisaged.
Flour For Bread
Flour choice is closely linked to the type of product being prepared, the method used to make it, and the baking techniques involved. Doughs that undergo long fermentation processes require flours with stronger gluten networks, while softer preparations benefit from flours that limit gluten development.
Bread flour is specifically designed to support both structure and volume, allowing dough to trap the gases released during fermentation and rise evenly in the oven. With its higher protein content, doughs made from bread flour are more elastic, meaning they stretch further, and more extensible, meaning they hold their shape more effectively. This plays a crucial role in creating a uniform crumb and a consistent loaf shape.
Flour For Pasta
Pasta-making is built on simplicity, and the choice of flour plays a central role in achieving the right texture and structure. Pasta flour must form a smooth, cohesive dough that can be rolled thin and still maintain its structure during cooking.
The balance between smoothness, protein content, and refinement directly affects how dough behaves during mixing and rolling, and how it holds together once cooked. Choosing the right flour ensures pasta dough is easy to work with and consistently tender in every bite. Understanding these technical characteristics allows both professionals and home cooks to achieve reliable and desired results.
Flour For Pizza
The choice of wheat flour for pizza determines how the dough stretches, ferments, and performs in the oven. To achieve the right texture, the flour must provide a careful balance between elasticity and strength, allowing the dough to be shaped by hand while maintaining stability during baking.
Different types of wheat flour respond differently to long fermentation and high temperatures. Selecting the appropriate flour for pizza supports proper hydration, controlled gas retention, and consistent oven spring. Understanding how pizza flour functions helps ensure a crust that is crisp on the outside, soft inside, and structurally sound.
Flour For Cakes and Pastries
When it comes to flour, refinement plays an important role in determining performance. More refined flours are lighter in colour and softer in texture, while less refined flours retain more of the wheat grain’s outer layers, contributing additional flavour and minerals. This distinction is especially important in delicate preparations, where cake flour is preferred for its low protein content and ability to produce tender, airy textures without toughness.
In cakes and pastries, gluten development must remain limited to ensure softness and fine crumb structure. Choosing the right flour helps control structure, moisture, and lightness, allowing batters and doughs to rise evenly while maintaining a delicate texture. There are numerous types of cakes and pastries, each of which requires the use of a specific flour.
While refinement is the key determining factor for which flour to use, protein content and flour strength are equally significant.
Flour strength is measured by a W-value
In baking, the gluten level in flour is referred to as its “strength.” Flours with more gluten are considered “stronger,” while flours with less gluten are considered “weaker.” Knowing both the composition and gluten content of the flour allows cooks and bakers in Europe to be more precise in their baking.
A weak flour usually has only 8 to 9% protein, corresponding to a W-value between 90 and 180. Super strong flour can have up to 15 to 16% protein, corresponding to a W-value between W 350–380. This is the case with some wheat grown in Campania, which is destined for the beautiful pasta di Gragnano. So, for example, for making pasta, weak flour is used because the dough must stay flat and retain its moisture (not absorb all the water and dry out).
Two flours, with similar refinement levels, may behave very differently depending on their protein quality and the process used for milling. This is why choosing the best wheat flour depends not only on the recipe, but also on understanding how all flour characteristics interact with the preparation techniques.