My mother is very particular about flour. I'm told that when I was about four years old, she switched loyalties to a different brand because the one she'd grown up with suddenly "didn't taste the same." Somewhere along the line, she even began to mix brands together—she found that the best all-purpose flour for her own cookie baking was a chance combination that, to her, yielded the ultimate marriage of flavor and texture.
I'm not going to suggest you do the same. I think that my mother's flour journey is a very personal one: call it Eat, Pray, Sift, if you will. I did, however, ask team Epi if they'd ever given the flour they use much consideration. Turns out, most of us hadn't.
All-purpose flour is a workhorse ingredient so we knew we wanted to test brands to determine the best—but the best at what, exactly? It can be used in everything from pasta dough and cakes to pie crust to quick breads. Since all-purpose flour can have a protein content anywhere between nine and 13 percent—which affects the flour absorption and gluten formation—we decided it was impossible to name one all-purpose flour the best for every kitchen task you'll ever undertake.
We ultimately decided to find the best all-purpose flour for simple baking. That means you can reliably use our winner for cookies, quick breads, and pound cakes—as long as the recipe actually calls for all-purpose flour, not cake flour (though you can substitute one for the other if you know how). It should work for any pan sauce or gravy, too—and I happen to know it performs exceptionally well in my very own biscuit recipe.
How We Tested
We picked up eight leading flour brands from across the grocery spectrum. We prefer unbleached flour and chose that whenever options allowed. (Check here for the differences between bleached and unbleached.) We did not discriminate between organic and non-organic brands, but instead picked the most widely available flours on American supermarket shelves.
Our tasting process required two rounds of testing. First we baked simple scones with all eight contenders. The top four flours from that round were then baked into sugar cookies. All baked goods were prepared by a single test cook and then tasted blindly by several members of the Epicurious staff.
What We Were Looking For
Simply: a good bake. The scones should be delicate, with good flavor. The sugar cookies shouldn't spread too much, and again, have good flavor with a tender crumb. Despite the same proportion of leavening in each batch, not all scones and cookies rose or spread at the same rate. Additionally, since different flours can be made from varied strains of wheat, they do have subtle differences in flavor as well as texture. We wanted the flour that tasted the absolute best of the bunch.
Our Top-Rated Flour: Arrowhead Mills
The scones made from the Arrowhead Mills flour had a crisp exterior and a fluffy interior. The flavor was good with a subtle nuttiness, which Becky Hughes described as "pancake-y." In the sugar cookie round, these cookies were light and crisp. They showed a minimal amount of spreading and had a delicate, sweet flavor that complemented the simple vanilla batter.
