1. Bread flour
Bread flour is made entirely from hard wheat. The larger amount of gluten generated by this higher-protein flour helps bread rise higher. That’s because the gluten traps and holds air bubbles as you mix and knead the dough. You would use this flour primarily for making bread or another yeasted food, you would not use this flour to make anything soft like cake.
2. Pastry flour
Pastry flour is made from soft wheat, which makes it finer than all-purpose flour. Its protein content places it between all-purpose and cake flours. This variety is ideal for tart crusts, pie dough, muffins, and some cookie batters. You wouldn’t be able to bake hard foods like bread with this flour.
3. Oat flour
Oat flour is made from ground oats. Oat flour has a superfine, even fluffy texture. Oat flour is gluten-free and therefore perfect for people on a gluten-free diet. This variety can leave your baked goods heavy or crumbly. You should be able to substitute oat flour with wheat flour to make recipes like muffins, pancakes, or cookies. You wouldn’t use this recipe if you don’t want your baked good to be crumbly.
4. Semolina flour
Semolina is made from the coarsely ground endosperm of durum wheat. Durum wheat is the hardest type of wheat. Interestingly enough, semolina has the highest gluten content of all flours. It is mainly used for pasta and Italian puddings. You wouldn’t use this for soft foods.
5. Cake flour
Cake flour is very finely milled from soft wheat. This gives it an almost silky feel. This variety has a low protein content. It’s also bleached. (Flours that bleach naturally as they age get the label “unbleached.” But chemically treated flours are “bleached.”) This flour is specifically for cakes, you wouldn’t bake anything else than a type of cake with this.
Excellent work, Alan!