are branded flours better??

[Bathsheba]

Ah interesting question! I've always used White Wings. I also always check the used by date... freshness is important... I know that much.

[Nelle]

I use some fancy flour for my cupcakes, because that's what my cupcake book said to do, and it gave me some reasons (which I can't remember right now) and given my cooking failure rate, I'll do whatever I can to tip the odds in my favour.

[Netix]

I use supermarket brand flours (and the cheapest brands at that) for all my baking (cakes, muffins, cupcakes, puddings, biscuits, etc), but I don't make bread or pizza dough. If I did, I would use the 'proper' flour, forget what its called... to make sure that it works, as they are different flours.

A question I do have on flours, since we're already talking about it, if you have a bag of flour, would it keep fresher/free of bugs if you get them if you put the flour in the freezer/fridge? Something I was wondering, as I have plain flour always, but don't use it a lot, so want to keep it fresh.

PS, Nelle, I think confidence is sexy...

[Trillian]

Apparently keeping flour in the freezer will keep out weevils (the bugs you were talking about - they leave tell-tale cobweb looking things in your flour and oats if you have them) but so will keeping your flour in an airtight container.

Personally, I have done a lot of baking over the years and used branded and non-branded flours as they all produce the same results. You do need a specific flour for bread as different wheat varieties produce different dough quality and it's all about the dough when it comes to bread baking. Subway for example use a particular variety of wheat for all their rolls as they need a dough that can be made and then frozen for use in their shops. Then there is different types of flour for making pasta - Durham wheat flour is best for that. If you keep self raising flour for too long it does give a bitter taste to your cakes as the raising agent becomes bitter over time - same as if you put too much bi-carb soda in something.

[Asparagus and Lemons]

Hey Aimz,
I am a pastry chef by trade and at all the 8 different places I have worked at, we have used the cheapest plain flour possible.
However if you are going to make bread, yes you use bakers flour, and for light cakes and sponge cakes you would use high ratio flour. But you cannot seem to get this at the supermarket. But when comparing brands.. plain flour is plain flour. It does the same thing. Self-raising on the other hand, they are all made slightly different and some have more raising agents than others, but that has nothing to do with brands, just batch's. So it's safe to use plain flour and add 1tsp baking powder to every cup of flour that way it is always consistant.

As to freezing flour, yes it can be done if you want it to last over a year, but it must be in an air tight container. If it's kept in an airtight container in the pantry it will also last a while.
This can also be done with nuts, almond and hazelnut meals, when they are put in an airtight container and into the freezer, they can last for years!

HTH

[Rouge]

I have had cupcakes made with expensive flours and cupcakes made with inexpensive flours and TBH its more about how you USE the flour than they type.

Some cake recipes (like sponge) and some cupcake recipes call for cake flour and plain flour due to the fact that plain flour has less gluten (as Nelle said) and as a result you get a lighter fluffier sponge.

I have different types of flour as in bread flour, cake flour, pizza flour, pasta flour, plain flour and self raising flour (although I avoid using SR at all costs as the raising agents can go bad quickly when combined with flour) as for branded flour no.

So basically the same as what everyone else says.

It doesn't matter in most cases it matters more what YOU do with it... and if you can bake well you can use aldi or anchor and get the same results

[Netix]

Thanks for that info. I don't think my self raising flour has the chance to go 'bad', and I think I have actually had dumplings turn out better using plain flour + raising agent.

[Pandora]

I use some fancy flour for my cupcakes, because that's what my cupcake book said to do, and it gave me some reasons (which I can't remember right now) and given my cooking failure rate, I'll do whatever I can to tip the odds in my favour.

If its for a special occasion I use cake flour for cupcakes, birthday cakes etc.
But for everyday stuff I use regular cheap flour.
I dont bake bread though.