Testing expert Jack Bishop breaks down everything you need to know about the different types of flour.
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Never going to weigh ingredients. Not flour, not coffee, not water, nothing…never…ever. Millions upon millions (billions even) of cooks have been cooking and baking without weighing their ingredients – for literally centuries! Absolutely no reason to start now. Any recipe that says it's required or leans toward weighing and has weird measures (e.g. 1 cup + 2 1/2 teaspoons), just find a different recipe – there's lots of great ones to choose from. For a home cook, weighing is just another impediment to cooking; dead batteries, storage space, another thing to buy, and a scale is just something else that gets in the way. Sure, a bakery or other professional or restaurant scenario, it's would probably be a good idea. Doesn't apply to home cooks. No apologies…not gonna weigh ingredients.
Nothing about 00 or even semolina?
I weigh everything except Tbsp. and tsp. But I have a problem with opposing weight charts. King Arthur's weight chart says 1 cup of AP flour weighs 4 1/4 oz. or 120 grams. ATK's Bread Illustrated says 1 cup of AP flour weighs 5 oz. or 142 grams. That is a huge difference and I have to change things up when ever I make an ATK recipe. Bread flour is worse, 4 1/4 oz. to 5 1/2 oz. When I use a measuring cup it is closer to the King Arthur weight.
The dip and sweep method of measuring flour is wrong. According to King Arthur Flour, Gold Medal Flour, Betty Crocker, Martha Stewart, Food Network, and others, the spoon in and sweep method is the most accurate, when not using a scale.
😱 You don't use cups?! 🤯
I like using cups instead of my scale when I am lectured on why I shouldn't.
Find it funny how they covered the branding on 2 of the 3 king Arthur flours. Then the specifically mentioned the brand. The cake flour in the video is swans down. I personally use king Arthur. Their unbleached and unenriched cake flour is absolutely amazing. I keep all 3 types of flour in my kitchen. I always use a scale too.
Ok 🥖⚖️
Great video as always but would have loved to here the difference between those flours and 00 pizza flour and what makes it special.
To me, a scale is a fundamental piece of kitchen equipment. My nanna had one, and she was born in the 19th century. I blows my mind that ATK thinks everyone has an instant read thermometer, but not a simple scale.
Why is king arthur bread blanked twice but the all purpose stayed? Same with the Swanns?
In the American South, we also have low-protein flour for biscuits and soft rolls. Cake flour is close but not quite right. "My brand" is White Lily, and I even have a little round aluminum biscuit pan with their lily logo on it. It was my Grandmother's and though I don't use it near as much as she or my mother did it still gets used!
You forgot the best flour, MARTHA WHITE !!!
I agree, when I do pancakes, I weigh out my flour part and I get consistent fluffy pancakes all the time.
If I am going to get out my scale, put everything by weight in the recipe. Not just the flour. Saves me from washing all these measuring cups and spoons.
Love, love, love learning from you. I will use the scale from now on when measuring flour.
Another tip: always store your flour in the freezer or in an airtight container. Trust me, you don't want to open the flour bag in your cabinet up only to find little weird mites in there having a field day. (Has happened to me even in a spotless, 35th floor apt in NYC.)
You tell us to measure five different kinds of flour by weight instead of volume and you don't give the weight measurements WTF
Can you give more details about whole wheat flour ? When to use and when not to use. How does it change the texture of the end product [say bread] to use 1/4 or 1/2 whole wheat ? Thanks
Does the measurement error from using volumes rather than weights affect the final baked good more than the variation in protein percentages in flours? Like, if I had to choose just one change to make: measuring weight vs using cake flour in a bread, which would make more of a difference?
I really wish in the videos you guys would mention the metric measurements, or put them up on the screen (The measurements aren't even in the written recipes on the site). If you are going to tell us not to use Imperial, and that ATK doesn't use them, please mention the gram amounts. It would be super helpful
Please make a recommendation for a scale. Or maybe even test different scales and let us know the best one
Why block out the King Arthur logo on 2 bags of flour but not the other?
Cmon….all these years an you want us to weigh it now? Too technical. Just use a cup an go
Now I want home made fresh bread
The man is serious about his flour
Jack Bishop is just about the most annoying person on test kitchen.
Are we supposed to not know that the whole wheat and bread flour aren't also King Arthur products?
Grams are FAR more accurate than using ounces and gives more reliable results
I received some farina in a food relief box; where does this fall in the lineup? I know it is meant for a hot cereal, but CAN it be used in baking as a portion of the flour called for (I suppose like wheat flour)?
Thanks so much for these educational videos! Personally, I too would love for recipes to include measurement quantities available in grams whenever possible. However, I AM grateful for any weight specifications provided.
ATK needs to publish recipe ingredients by weight. Only "Americans" use cups. We need to catch up with the rest of the world and use metric weights in recipes
I have coeliac disease, so this whole video triggered me. 😂
What about 00?
Oh man, I thought for sure I'd finally get to learn about the protein content of pastry flour
I’d like to understand better the difference between bleached and unbleached flour.
I started weighing flour about 4 years ago. Definitely changed the outcome of my baking items. Love you Jack!
Jack, you call that a dip and sweep?! 😂
ATK please include weights in your baking recipes 🙂
Please use weight measurements in all of you recipes — not just baking. Ottolenghi includes weights in Plenty More and Flavour and they are incredibly helpful. 2 medium eggplant? Who knows! 600g of eggplant? That I have.
I do wonder why they blanked out the logos of King Arthur's Whole Wheat flour, King Arthur's Bread flour, and Swan's Down cake flour???
The MOST important message from this video is to go metric. Flour types are definitely important, but, more important than that is actual volume/weight.
Ludo for your comment on cups !! Always cooked in weight and always frustrated with the approximation of cup especially with some more rough ingredient. So many thanks to voice your professional opinion on cup, cups are gone , weight it is
Great advice Jack, you’re singing to the choir as I live in Northern Europe where everything is measured in grams and millilitres.
I used measuring cups for the longest time until when I started using a scale. It simply makes baking easier and consistent, plus less dishes.
I have been experimenting with flour for several years. There are so many great flours besides these.