Bleached Vs Unbleached Flour: What's The Difference When Baking Cake?
Flour is flour, right? Not so fast. The flour you use can make the difference between a delectable cake and an utter disaster. Not every recipe requires using cake flour. Many times, all-purpose flour can be used. Still, the right type needs to be selected. Even something as innocuous as whether the flour is bleached or unbleached can affect the outcome.
Why does it matter? It all comes down to how refined wheat flour is treated after the milling process. According to Sandy Folsom, School Director at the Wilton Sweet Studio, "Bleached flour is treated all-purpose flour that uses chemicals to speed up the aging process — it's whiter, brighter, and finer than its unbleached counterpart and good for creating cakes as it has a softer texture."
All store-bought flour undergoes aging — a period of time which allows the product to rest and oxidize. Oxidation whitens the flour. Bleaching changes the absorbency, pH, and flavor of the refined flour.
How does bleaching (or not bleaching) flour affect cakes?
In a nutshell, bleaching the flour improves baking results. The chemicals give the flour a finer grain and make cakes fluffier. Bleached flour is perfect for cakes with a delicate structure — such as angel food, a sponge cake with berries, or this light and airy Chantilly cake.
With consumers looking for natural or organic products, why is flour still bleached? Because selling products is the ultimate goal of commercial millers. Bleached flour is ready for shipping to store shelves faster than waiting for the flour to age naturally. It can take a few weeks to a month for aging. Because of the length of time, unbleached flour costs more.
Why would a baker choose a more expensive ingredient? If they are creating a cheesecake — like this ricotta dessert — unbleached flour would be a wise choice. Folsom says, "Unbleached flour has been naturally aged and features an off-white color, a denser texture, and tends to be good for breads and pastries, though both flours can be used interchangeably without a very discernible difference."