What is the Difference between Pastry Flour, Cake Flour and All Purpose Flour
Flour is a basic requirement in our kitchens. We use it for different purposes, like making bread, cakes, pastries and much more. Different kinds of flour are used for different purposes; a common person cannot differentiate between them. If we talk about pastry flour, cake flour and all purpose flour, they are all come from wheat flour, however they vary in protein content and method of mulling is different for all of them. Here we are describing few basic differences between them.
Pastry Flour
Pastry flour, as the name indicates, used in making pastries. It is similar to cake flour, but it has slightly higher content of protein, which is around 9 %. This high protein helps in binding layers of cream, which are used in making pastries. Other than traditional pastries, it is used in making Puff pastry, pie crusts and croissants.
Cake flour
Cake flour is made from soft and low protein wheat. Strong bleaches are used in cake flour and cakes made from this flour are very light and less dense in texture. Generally, in cake flour protein content is 7 to 8 %. After baking, the product is really soft and light and air pocket can be seen, clearly.
All purpose Flour
As the name indicates, all purpose flour is used for making many products, like cookies, quick breads, biscuits and cakes. It has higher protein content, 10 to 12%. This flour is made from high gluten hard wheat. It can also used for making cakes and pastries if cake flour is not available.
Pastry Flour vs Cake Flour vs All Purpose Flour
All these are wheat flours but their protein content make them different. For a common person they all are same; however they are different and made for different purposes. Protein content is high is All purpose flour and less in cake flour. Pastry flour has slightly higher content of protein, which helps is binding layers of cream. All purpose flour is obtained from hard wheat, while cake and pastry flour made from soft wheat. All purpose flour is hard in texture while cake flour is soft and fin in texture. All purpose flour is not white, while in cake flour bleaches are used to give it white appearance. All purpose flour can be used instead of cake flour but cake flour cannot replace all purpose flour. One should stick to the flour type described in method, otherwise result can vary.
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