What Is Flour and How Can I Use It?

Whole wheat flour  is a powdery substance derived by grinding or mashing the wheat's whole grain.

It is used in baking but typically added to other "white" flours to provide nutrients (especially fiber and protein), texture, and body to the finished product.

Whole wheat flour is more nutritious than refined white flour, although in a process called food fortification, some micronutrients are added back to the white flour (required by law in some jurisdictions). Fortified white wheat flour does not, however, contain the macronutrients of the wheat's bran and germ (especially fiber and protein). Whole wheat is a good source ofcalcium, iron, fiber, and other minerals like selenium.

All-purpose flour is milled from wheat to a moderate protein level, usually around 10 to 12 percent, which is why it handles so many jobs passably well.

It is the default flour in most home kitchens, the one a recipe means when it just says "flour."

Unbleached simply means it was not treated with chemical whiteners. It keeps a faint cream color and ages naturally, and it behaves the same as bleached flour in nearly every recipe. The protein content drives results, not the color.

That middle-of-the-road protein is the whole point. It builds enough gluten for a sturdy loaf or a chewy cookie, but not so much that a cake turns rubbery.

Bread flour is wheat flour milled from harder, higher-protein wheat, typically 12 to 14 percent protein. That extra protein is the entire reason it exists. It builds more gluten, the stretchy network that traps gas and gives bread its chew and lift.

Compared with all-purpose, the difference is structural. The same recipe made with bread flour holds a taller rise, a more open crumb, and that satisfying pull when you tear a piece.

It is a workhorse for yeasted doughs, not a general baking flour. Use it where you want strength, not tenderness.

Cake flour is wheat flour milled fine from soft, low-protein wheat, usually 7 to 9 percent protein. Less protein means less gluten, and less gluten means a soft, fine, tender crumb. That tenderness is its whole reason for being.

It is also milled finer than all-purpose and most often bleached, a treatment that weakens the proteins further and lets the flour carry more sugar and fat without collapsing.

The result is a cake that rises high and feels almost cottony, the texture you want in a layer cake or a sponge.

Whole wheat pastry flour is a low-protein flour milled from soft white wheat with the bran and germ left in. It gives you the nutty flavor and fiber of whole wheat without the chew that regular whole wheat flour brings to tender baked goods.

It comes down to protein. At roughly 8 to 9 percent it sits close to white pastry or cake flour and well below all-purpose, so it forms little gluten and bakes up soft.

That makes it the whole-grain flour to reach for when you want muffins, scones, and pie crust that stay delicate. See the flour hub for how it fits the wider family.

Self-rising flour is regular wheat flour that comes pre-blended with baking powder and a little salt, so the leavening is already built into the bag. Measure it and mix it, and the rise happens on its own without a separate tin of baking powder.

It is milled from soft, lower-protein wheat, which is why it behaves differently from all-purpose flour. Less gluten means a tender, fluffy, slightly crumbly result, exactly what you want in a Southern biscuit or a light cake.

The trade-off is structure. It will not build the strong, chewy crumb that a good yeast loaf needs, so it stays in the quick-bread lane.

This is a staple of Southern and British home baking. It turns up in everything from morning biscuits to afternoon scones and quick weeknight breads.

Rye flour is milled from rye grain, and it behaves nothing like the wheat flour next to it on the shelf. It carries a deep, faintly sour, earthy flavor that defines pumpernickel and the dark loaves of Northern and Eastern Europe.

The thing to understand is gluten. Rye has protein, but it lacks the glutenin that lets wheat build a strong, stretchy network, so a pure rye dough turns sticky and barely rises. That is why most rye breads here are not pure rye at all.

For the basics of measuring and storing flour, see the main flour page. This page is about what makes rye its own thing.

Gluten flour, sold today mostly as wheat gluten, is not really a flour for baking on its own. It is wheat flour with the starch washed away, leaving an almost pure concentrate of the protein that builds structure in bread.

That makes it a booster, not a base.

A spoonful stirred into a recipe adds the chew and elasticity that low-protein flours cannot reach by themselves. It runs around 75 to 80 percent protein, where bread flour is only 12 to 14 percent.

For the basics of flour protein and measuring, see the main flour page.

Rice flour is simply raw rice ground to a powder, and it behaves nothing like wheat flour.

White rice flour comes from polished white rice, so it is naturally gluten-free and pale, with a clean, almost neutral taste that disappears into a dish.

Because there is no gluten, it brings no stretch or structure of its own. It cannot trap gas the way wheat does, so on its own it makes baked goods that crumble. That same lack of gluten is what makes it a top thickener and a base for gluten-free blends.

For more on wheat and other grain flours, see the flour hub.

Semolina  is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, and also used for breakfast cereals and puddings.

Semolina made from durum wheat is yellow in color. It is usually the basis for dried products such as couscous, which is made by mixing roughly 2 parts semolina with 1 part durum flour.

When flour comes from softer types of wheats it is white in color. In this case the correct name is flour, not semolina which comes only from durum wheat.

When boiled, it turns into a soft, mushy porridge. This flour is popular in northwestern Europe and North America as a dessert, boiled with milk and sweetened, called semolina pudding. It is often flavored with vanilla and served with jam.

In Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Russia, it is eaten as breakfast porridge, sometimes mixed with raisins and served with milk. In Swedish it is known as mannagrynsgröt, or boiled together with bilberries, as blåbärsgröt. In the Middle East, it is used to make desserts called Harisa or so called Basbosa or Nammora.

Soy flour is dried soybeans ground to a fine powder. It is naturally gluten-free and unusually rich, running roughly 35 to 50 percent protein by weight depending on type, along with a fair amount of fat, which gives it a soft, slightly beany aroma raw.

Unlike the wheat flours on the flour hub, it brings no gluten and no real starch. That shapes how it is used: a little goes in as a protein and moisture booster, not as the main flour.

It comes full-fat or defatted. Defatted keeps far longer and is more concentrated in protein; full-fat is richer and more common on grocery shelves.

Buckwheat flour is ground from the seeds of a plant that is not wheat at all, and despite the name it contains no gluten. Buckwheat is a fruit seed related to rhubarb and sorrel, so people avoiding wheat can use it freely.

The flour is gray-brown and flecked, with a bold, earthy, almost malty flavor that comes through clearly. That strong taste is the whole point in dishes like soba and blini, but it also means buckwheat is rarely used alone in lighter bakes.

Because there is no gluten, it gives no stretch or rise on its own. See the flour hub for how it sits among other flours.

Barley flour is ground from barley, one of the oldest cultivated grains. It has a mild, faintly sweet, slightly nutty flavor and a soft, fine texture that makes baked goods tender and a little cakey.

Barley does contain some gluten, but far less than wheat, and the gluten it has is weak. On its own it cannot build the stretchy network a yeast loaf needs to rise tall, so barley flour is almost always a partner to wheat rather than the whole show.

Think of it as a tenderizer and a flavor note. For the basics of measuring and storing flour, see the main flour page.

Oat flour is simply oats ground to a powder. It has the warm, mild, slightly sweet flavor of oatmeal and a soft texture that gives baked goods a tender, moist crumb.

Oats are naturally free of wheat gluten, which makes oat flour a favorite in gluten-free baking. There is a catch worth knowing: oats are often processed alongside wheat, so if you are baking for someone with celiac disease, buy oat flour specifically labeled certified gluten-free.

Without wheat gluten, oat flour cannot stretch and trap gas the way bread flour does, so it leans toward tender bakes rather than tall, chewy loaves. For general flour basics, see the main flour page.

Amaranth flour is milled from the tiny seeds of the amaranth plant, an ancient grain that fed the Aztecs long before wheat reached the Americas. It is naturally gluten-free and notably high in protein and the amino acid lysine, which most grains lack.

The flour is pale tan with a distinct flavor: grassy, nutty, a little peppery and malty. That assertive taste is the reason amaranth is almost always used in small proportion, not as the main flour in a recipe.

With no gluten, it gives no structure on its own. See the flour hub for how it compares to other flours.

Graham flour is a coarsely ground whole wheat flour. It is milled the way Sylvester Graham promoted in the 1800s: the wheat berry separated, the starchy white part ground fine, and the bran and germ ground coarse, then recombined.

The result is a whole wheat flour with a rougher, flakier texture and a nuttier, slightly sweet flavor. It is the wheat behind the graham cracker, and it carries that same toasty, honey-friendly character into breads.

For the most part it behaves like whole-wheat flour; the difference is the coarse grind. This page covers what that grind changes.

Millet flour is a soft, pale flour milled from whole millet, the same small round grain used for porridge and birdseed. It tastes mild and faintly sweet, almost corn-like, with none of the bitterness some whole-grain flours carry.

It is naturally gluten-free. On its own it cannot build the stretchy structure that holds a loaf together, and that single fact shapes everything about how you use it. For more on the wider flour family, see the flour hub.

Spelt flour is milled from spelt, an ancient cousin of modern wheat grown in Europe for thousands of years. It tastes nuttier and slightly sweeter than ordinary wheat flour, with a mellow, almost buttery character that bakers prize in rustic breads.

Spelt is a true wheat, so it does contain gluten. It is not safe for anyone with celiac disease.

What makes it bake differently is the kind of gluten it has. Spelt's gluten is more delicate and water-soluble than the gluten in bread wheat, so it builds a weaker, more fragile dough. For general flour basics, see the main flour page.

Seasoned flour is plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper, often with a few spices added, ready for dredging. It is less an ingredient than a quick kitchen prep, the first coat that goes on meat and fish before they hit the pan.

The point is to season and coat in one move.

Rather than salting the food and flouring it separately, you mix the seasoning right into the flour so every piece picks up flavor and a thin, even crust as it goes through.

A basic version is nothing but flour seasoned with salt and pepper. From there cooks reach for paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, or herbs to match the dish. See the flour hub for more on flour itself.

Coconut flour is made from dried coconut meat after most of its oil has been pressed out, then ground to a soft powder. It is gluten-free and naturally high in fiber while staying very low in carbohydrates, which is why it turns up so often in keto and grain-free baking.

The defining trait is thirst. Coconut flour absorbs far more liquid than any wheat or nut flour, so a small amount goes a very long way. It also brings a mild, sweet coconut flavor and no gluten at all.

See the flour hub for how it compares with other flours.

Italian flour usually means Italian "00" flour, the fine, soft, powdery flour at the heart of Neapolitan pizza and fresh pasta. The "00" (doppio zero) refers to how finely the wheat is milled, not to its protein, so 00 is the grind, not a strength rating.

That talcum-fine texture is the point. It hydrates evenly and makes a smooth, extensible dough that stretches thin without tearing, which is exactly what a pizzaiolo wants.

For the basics of flour protein and measuring, see the main flour page. This page is about what 00 brings to Italian doughs.

Filbert flour is simply hazelnuts ground to a fine meal, and filbert is just another name for the hazelnut. Because it is a nut flour rather than a grain, it is naturally gluten-free and rich in oil, with a warm, sweet, toasty flavor.

That high fat content is both its strength and its catch. It bakes up moist and tender with a real hazelnut taste, but it brings no gluten and no starch, so it cannot build structure the way wheat flour does.

See the flour hub for how nut flours fit alongside grain flours.

Whole bean flour is simply dried beans milled to a fine powder, with nothing removed. Depending on the bean it might be made from garbanzos (chickpeas), favas, or a blend of beans, and that choice drives the flavor.

It is gluten-free and high in protein and fiber, which is why it shows up in gluten-free baking and as a protein boost. The taste is distinctly beany and earthy, sometimes a little bitter raw, so it is almost always used in a supporting role rather than on its own.

See the flour hub for how it sits among other flours.