King Arthur flour. I purchase a few different types of flour from them and they've never failed me. I love their storage containers which helps keep my flour fresh. They have a ton of ingredients to use in specialty baking and it is a one-stop shop for me. Their pizza flour blends are amazing.
When living in Chicago, Ceresota- unbleached AP and bread flours. In Ca., I can't get it, so King Arthur. However, I've had more success with Ceresota.
Mostly a good list. Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour reign supreme indeed, and gold medal is a great Workhorse. But I feel like ranking a couple of them low just because they focus on a specific type of flower is a bad reason. If you're going to make a cake from scratch, it's hard to beat swans down, and if you're specifically getting flour for biscuits, you're going to be hard-pressed to find something better than white lily.
King Arthur flour and if I'm making a cake that doesn't have to be too delicate I'll use King Arthur's cake flour and I find it works fine. I kind of sable bleached cake flour brands for angel or chiffon cake. Other countries have been doing fine without bleached flour.
I totally agree with you. Swan's Down is a very respectable cake flour. The rankings appear to be based more on each company's profile of offerings rather than the quality of the products offered.
This video doesn't compare the quality and performance of various flours, nor was that ever their intention. It compares BRANDS. And any brand that has only one single product will rank much lower, every time, against brands that diversify their product lines, no matter how good that one product is, especially if the company doesn't go out of their way to earn themselves extra social/environmental brownie points by being employee owned, or doing something "noble" with a chunk of their profits. The lower ranked companies on this list could move up a few slots if they took half of their profits and poured them into a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, rural African grammar school, planting trees in the Amazon, breast cancer research, saving puppies and kittens, etc. Because the writer of the script for this video would really fall hard for that kind of stuff and use it to rank them higher. But I am pretty sure none of the brands mentioned really care what the writer thinks and wouldn't consider changing the way they do business, or what they do with their profits, just to be more appealing to the small number of people that write scripts for meaningless UA-cam videos, like this one.
It's ridiculous to compare a pastry flour (like Swans Down) with an all purpose flour. I have some wonderful old pastry recipes that simply can't be made properly with anything other than pastry flour. (Well - at least the result will be VERY disappointing!). Same goes for hard flour (aka bread flour). You'd never use it for pastry. Doing this throws the logic behind this review out the window.
White Lily brand all purpose is closer to a pastry flour. Because it is a Soft winter wheat instead of a hard winter wheat. Find it mainly in the South
The video very clearly explains that one of the criteria in the ranking is versatility in the brand. Swan down doesn't lose out because of poor quality. Quite the opposite if you watch the video. Ot loses out, because the brand only puts out exactly one kind of specialized flour. Most other companies offer some degree of variety for use in products besides cake and pastry. It's all in the video.
I have been using Bob's Red Mill flour for many years. It cost a little more, but the end result in baking is worth it. Thanks for the comparison video of all the different flour brands. Shalom
In Europe niche flours are found in every shop, niche flours for specific cakes, tortes, sweet bread etc. and in small amounts ie. 1 lb packages. I'm sure folks can have on hand flour for general and specific use.
When I work on my car I use appropriate tools. I have screw drivers, wrenches, etc. When I bake I use proper flours for bread, for cakes, for pancakes. I buy bread flour, all purpose flour, coconut flour from Costco and use each differently. King Arthur flour is nice but expensive.
3 of the Flours are available where I live, the rest are only available online, mostly from Amazon. I don't buy any food products from Amazon, you really don't know where it's coming from.
Agree. Video was made by a person or persons who do not bake, make pasta or tortillas, etc. It's not made by people who know how to use flour(s) for various and specific things.
Cake flour bakes the way it does mainly because it's made from low protein wheat and is more finely ground than other flours. It makes a more tender delicate cake because it has less gluten than other flours. Pastry flour is also a low protein flour, but not as finely textured as cake flour. Bread flour has the highest protein content of all flours, all purpose has less. Understanding this fact about flour is probably more important than the brand. Self rising flour can be made with the same type of soft winter wheat as cake flour, White Lily is an example, or self rising flour can be made with all purpose flour. Freshness and proper storage are also important. But a cake baked with cake flour isn't necessarily better than one baked with all-purpose flour. It depends on the recipe. Criticizing Swans Down because it makes only cake flour is ridiculous. Its their specialty. It's not meant to be interchangeable with other flour. It doesnt need to be flexible.
Well, I have been using Gold Medal unbleached for 50+ years. Makes good cakes and biscuits. New brands,so,so. I will stay with what I know makes good cakes, biscuits, and pie crust. 🥧
During the pandemic I couldn’t get any flour except Gold Medal. I tried it in chicken and dumplings and it was a disaster. I use White Lily for buttermilk biscuits, I buy White Lily all purpose flour too. I use King Author Bread Flour for all my bread. It works good for me. We don’t buy bread. I make everything we need.
For people in the Midwest, Dakota Maid flours are worth checking out. Much of their product is sold to commercial bakeries but if you can find it in your local stores, do pick up a five pound bag of the bread flour or their AP flour. They are worthy, quality competitors to the King Arthur flours. Wheat Montana flours are also worth mentioning. Their distribution isn't on a national level but when you find it, give them a try as well.
I luckily found it several years ago and their bread flour is excellent! That is the great thing about it. But finding it in the stores is hit or miss.
Dakota Maid is made by the ND State Mill & Elevator in Grand Forks, ND, using only the finest Hard Red Spring Wheat there is anywhere. I would highly recommend this product to anyone as is very high quality flour…
It makes no sense for you to rate Bob's or King Arthur high because they offer so many choices, then rank Martha White or White Lily so low because you have to buy one or two other types to diversify your flours. The brand name on the bag is basically irrelevant. All purpose is a description based on protein content, and many of these brands could easily come from the same mill.
@@kittyconrad2865 there are those who would disagree with you. White Lily is considered A/P but is lousy for quite a few applications. And many bakers refuse to use, e.g, King Arthur after using Gold Medal for years (sometimes for generations) for their baked goods. Others would say the opposite.
My wife sometimes uses self-rising flour to make flour tortillas and when she was growing up her mom would use a brand called La Paloma. I have used it to make biscuits but most of the time we use Hill Country, the H‑E‑B store brand.
I was looking for a ranking of quality, not a criticism of companies for focusing on a particular product. I KNOW Swansdown is a cake flour. How does it compare to other cake flours? Not, it's no good because you can't use it for everything!
If you go by this video you can have ten different kinds of flours in your pantry. You didn’t even mention Italian, French, and English flours. And who has that much space to store them. Some flours are expensive. And you’ve spent a fortune. People buy what they can afford.
My grandmother always used King Arthur unbleached flour, and she baked amazing Slovak pastries. I have always used it too, always with excellent results. I have never understood why anybody would use "self rising" flour except laziness. It is very easy to put the baking powder in yourself, and gives you control over how much rise you want from it.
@@HotVoodooWitch ... Just shows that you don't know very much about baking. "Self rising flour" is just general purpose flour to which double acting baking powder has already been added. If you don't know you can just use regular general purpose flour and add a teaspoon of baking powder (or more if you like) per cup of flour yourself, then you have just learned something, and can save yourself buying two kinds of flour.
@@powellmountainmike8853 I KNOW what self-rising flour is and yes, I do bake and have been doing so for quite a few of my almost-70 years. I reiterate: some recipes call specifically for self-rising flour. I don't use it myself, mainly because none of the recipes I make call for it. But that doesn't mean that I'm not aware of it or the fact that some recipes DO call for it.
@@HotVoodooWitch Well, I have you beat, I was born in the waning days of the Truman Administration. I reiterate, just because some recipe "calls for" self rising flour does not mean you can't substitute regular all purpose flour and baking powder. That is the sort of thing that should come second nature to an experienced cook who understands the basic principles, and is not so "book bound" that they cannot adapt a recipe. One old Druid to a Houngana, Marie Laveau would be disappointed if you couldn't. As Emeril would say, "This ain't rocket science."
@@powellmountainmike8853 you have your opinions (let's see--"lazy if you use self-rising," "I must not bake much") and I have mine. I think I prefer mine--they don't usually involve insulting people. Ciao.
I’m Canadian and a lot of our seniors who go south to Arizona for the winter don’t like the bread in the stores. So they take their bread makers and a two or three large bags of Robin Hood flour so they can make their own bread. It’s because Robin Hood bread is made in Canada with wheat grown on the Prairies. Canadian Western Red Spring wheat has a higher protein content than most winter wheat, making it ideal for strong bread flour demanded by the highest caliber of bakers.
You left out my favorite brand, Hudson Cream. I’ve used it exclusively for well over 40 years, having found it originally in Kentucky, then finally in my home state of Ohio.
Yes, I have used Hudson Cream for years. After trying White Lily, just to see what all the fuss was about with these southern ladies, and I'm one from Kentucky, I stuck with HC. Next favorite is Gold Metal.
I live in Missouri and a friend gave me a bag of Hudson Cream flour that she got elsewhere. I had never heard of it but liked the bread I made with it. One day I typed the name in Duck Duck Go and it said that I could buy it online at only one Walmart in my area. I bought all 8 bags that were in stock and picked them up 5 days later and so glad I did. That product is no where to be found anymore.
I really didn't know any better when I started baking, but in New England, King Arthur Flour is the most popular brand, so I used it. It's a very good all purpose flour that seems to work in everything, and their website is a wealth of recipes for every baked good you can think of.
It all depends on what you're making. I'm in Georgia and we had homemade biscuits several times a week, sometimes daily, growing up. I don't make them as often but I make them with White Lily self rising because of the quality difference. My husband bakes bread and isn't brand loyal. Right now we are using Gold Medal because I got a good deal on it. Something isn't low ranking because you can't make everything with it.
Snavely’s Mills in Pennsylvania. Their statement: As one of the oldest continuously operated flour mills in North America, the Snavely’s Mill brand is synonymous with quality. We produce and self-distribute more than 20 varieties of high quality, fair-priced bulk and bagged flours, whole wheat, white whole wheat, rye, organic and specialty flour products from four facilities in Southeastern and Central Pennsylvania. The best flour I ever used was from Snavely Mills in Lititz, PA. I picked up there with a 53' dry van trailer as a driver for Leonard's Exp out of Farmington, NY. I was in the mill room while they loaded me, and I could smell the fresh flour as it was pouring out of the grinding mill. I wanted to buy some, but they didn't take credit cards there and I didn't have cash. So, the operator, one of the family members, grabbed a large freezer bag and proceeded to fill it directly from the mill. He hands it to me and says, "enjoy". The bag was at least 10 pounds as was still warm to the touch. Can't get any fresher than that!! So, after back home my daughter made pizza and stromboli dough with this flour. Perfect results! Best pizza and stromboli ever! This dough, even the crust, just melts in your mouth. Was so good we put pictures and description on Snavely's Facebook page with a top-notch review. The guys at Snavely replied right away and thanked us for that stating that they were glad we were so pleased with their product. I am planning another trip there in my pov just to pick up more of the freshest and best tasting flour I've ever had. Will be worth the trip!
I typically use Organic non bleached all Purpose Flour. Sometimes I switch brands like Trader Joes, King Arthur or other local brands. Not a big fan of additives or "dying" the wheat.
Nothing says you have to only use one type of flour. We have several buckets of wheat so we can grind our own whole wheat flour for bread. We have bread flour so we can make wonderful white bread. After struggling trying to make the perfect biscuit, I found the South's secret in White Lily flours. Now my biscuits are so good, I want to cry. And I mean it. For cookies I just use the cheap store brand all purpose flour. Unless it's shortbread, then I use White Lily all purpose flour and Kerrygold butter.
It's up to the person using the flour and what they prefer in my opinion. My grandmother and mother used gold medal I moved to Georgia I tried Martha white I felt it was too heavy so I switched to gold medal now I use great value it's cheaper and tastes good.
I use Red Mill Gluten Free Tapioca….then always put in a small amount (1/4-1/3 c) of “other brand gluten free” (if making a cake let’s say) to give results a bit more cake like results. I use 00 when making pasta or pizza dough.
The point of Swans Down is that it's perfected for a specific use. It's a very tiny company that literally works out of a single room, and most of the work is done by hand. So, yea, they're not trying to be a flour that has a product for everything. I take issue with Swans Down being classified as the "worst" in this scenario. They may actually be the best in what they offer.
Honestly, i would use gold medal because it was the best my store provides, and Pillsbury doesn't have wheat flour. I have used bobs red mill and I like how you can play around with the recipe.
I finally found white whole wheat King Arthur flour at the westminster Target store ( Southern California). I make our bread and use King Arthur bread flour.
I always double bag my open flour so nothing can get in. I don’t ever have a problem with pantry bugs but when I opened the Gold Medal flour it was teeming with bugs. This told me that they were in the flour when I bought it and they must have hatched. Needless to say I haven’t bought it since.
I hate to have to tell you this, but all flour has bugs in it. Most of the time the bugs are completely ground up, but every now and then.... The FDA has a book/website that lists all the "goodies" in your food. It's called the FDA food defect levels handbook. Just sift the bugs out and use the flower. You apparently have no clue what you're actually eating in your food. If you have a weak stomach, I wouldn't go look up that FDA book. 🤣🤣
I have 4 different flours in my cabinet. All purpose flour , btead flour , self rise flour & 00 flour . Make sure you know your flours and what the do and how to use them .
Did you know that mice do not see Gold Medal flour as food? I had an infestation and they didn't touch any Gold Medal flour. Wheat Montana, on the other hand, is one brand that they absolutely love! It's packaged in a plastic, resealable bag and they still ate their way through the packaging! It's a shame that it's not found on this list as their flour works great in everything, just like Gold Medal, but they do not process all of the nutrients out. Wheat Montana is definitely the superior product.
Criticizing a niche flour like Swan's Down for being a niche flour is a headscratcher for me. I use cake flour for cakes, self-rising for biscuits, etc, bread flour for bread, rolls, 00 flour for pasta and all purpose for everything else. One size doesn't fit all.
I'm 73 and m🎉ake a lot of breads and my mother and the ladies at the church bake sales swore by Robin Hood. You can tell the difference when mixing the dough. The other brands are tougher and the finished products are denser and heavier. Robin Hood breads are lighter and more tender
Unless the recipe says self rising I use all purpose. If I have no self rising I just add soda and powder. White Lily or Pillsbury according to what I’m making.
I wrote a jingle about Martha White it must be sung with a heavy southern accent. It goes like this " Is your cornbread bright and shiny does it sparkle in the light you must be using Martha White (say corn meal). Are you thoughts kind of foggy your just not thinken right its because of the Aluminum right here in Martha White (say corn meal)." Check out the ingredients there is aluminum in Martha White corn meal it taste really good I must be developing a taste for aluminum.... or is it plastic!
I currently have 8 different kinds of flour in my pantry. They all serve a different purpose and get used up quickly. IMHO, Bob's Red Mill is the best by far.
Putting Swan's low in the rankings because it is specifically a cake flour and not an all purpose flour doesn't make sense. You could just as well give low ratings to bread flours because they don't make good cakes. While many use all purpose flour for all purposes, it is rather satisfactory, yet not ideal for those many of those purposes. Why not rate the flour based on quality and not on general utility?
Oh, but they also slammed the PRODUCER for only offering cake flour. Mind you, they've been producing a winner for decades but they should enter an arena that's already packed with competitors. 🤦🏼♀
Even though Arrowhead mills ranked low with you I have had great success with it. Not mentioned here is the use of glyphosate on non organic wheat. So I will be sticking with organic only. You wont find organic gold medal!
I keep All Purpose, Self Rising, Bread and one other which I cannot recall at this moment, but I have 4 in my kitchen. I use bread flour in my chocolate chip cookies. I also have almond flour, but only incidentally.
Gold Medal is awful! It makes things taste old and stale. White Lilly is awesome for biscuits pancakes and most sweets.King Arthur is good for cookies and savory cookies. I agree Pillsbury isn't a good flour.But now i know why i never see Robin Hood products in stores anymore.The only thing i can remember is when my Mom made homemade pizza,she used Robin Hood pizza crust mix.I made a good pizza crust
This “worst to best flours” video is not exactly as advertised. It’s usedful for revealing what a particular flour might be best USED for, but hardly as a general ranking of flours. It’s as if the video were produced by bread bakers alone, and ranked that way.
I've been cooking for fifty years. I've used all brands of flour. White Lily is hands down the best flour. The first one you mentioned in this video is horrible as it has a baking power taste. Like too much was used. I use the self rising for just about all my needs. My best is making biscuits. My family and friends agree that mine or the best. Some of it has to do with technique. If the store is out, I go to another store.
I don't think that rating the quality of a product should be influenced by the company's corporate ethos. While that is important to me as a buyer, it has nothing to do with the quality of the product that is actually produced.
Stupid commentary. In Europe you have specific flour for specific baking. The flour have numbers according what they should be use for. Why would you criticize cake flour that is not versatile. That’s what is made for.
That's BS about Cake flour..more uses than that. Example, I have used it in making cornbread..using a half cup within my recipe. It comes out great... even my picky husband likes it. Just don't be afraid to experiment with flour.
When I am baking cakes, I definitely don’t use all purpose or self rising flour. I think this video is deceptive. Those of us who learned to bake with our grandmothers and mothers know which flours we like for our baking.
No, you just leave out the baking soda, baking powder and salt. Then use your self rising flour. Unless you're making bread. Then you'll need all-purpose flour.
What is your favorite brand of flour to use?
King Arthur flour. I purchase a few different types of flour from them and they've never failed me. I love their storage containers which helps keep my flour fresh. They have a ton of ingredients to use in specialty baking and it is a one-stop shop for me. Their pizza flour blends are amazing.
Bronze Chief. 2nd choice King Arthur.
Hecker's and King Arthur; no GMO
Gold Meda or King Arthur!
When living in Chicago, Ceresota- unbleached AP and bread flours. In Ca., I can't get it, so King Arthur. However, I've had more success with Ceresota.
Swans Down has one job to do, and it does it well.
Mostly a good list. Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour reign supreme indeed, and gold medal is a great Workhorse. But I feel like ranking a couple of them low just because they focus on a specific type of flower is a bad reason. If you're going to make a cake from scratch, it's hard to beat swans down, and if you're specifically getting flour for biscuits, you're going to be hard-pressed to find something better than white lily.
King Arthur flour and if I'm making a cake that doesn't have to be too delicate I'll use King Arthur's cake flour and I find it works fine. I kind of sable bleached cake flour brands for angel or chiffon cake. Other countries have been doing fine without bleached flour.
I totally agree with you. Swan's Down is a very respectable cake flour. The rankings appear to be based more on each company's profile of offerings rather than the quality of the products offered.
This video doesn't compare the quality and performance of various flours, nor was that ever their intention. It compares BRANDS.
And any brand that has only one single product will rank much lower, every time, against brands that diversify their product lines, no matter how good that one product is, especially if the company doesn't go out of their way to earn themselves extra social/environmental brownie points by being employee owned, or doing something "noble" with a chunk of their profits.
The lower ranked companies on this list could move up a few slots if they took half of their profits and poured them into a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, rural African grammar school, planting trees in the Amazon, breast cancer research, saving puppies and kittens, etc. Because the writer of the script for this video would really fall hard for that kind of stuff and use it to rank them higher.
But I am pretty sure none of the brands mentioned really care what the writer thinks and wouldn't consider changing the way they do business, or what they do with their profits, just to be more appealing to the small number of people that write scripts for meaningless UA-cam videos, like this one.
No more King Arthur since they practice systemic racism by excluding white people from baking competitions and grants.
As you said, White Lily makes awesome biscuits.
I have to admit I do use Swans Down flour for my cakes and they do come out good every time.
Swans Down ROCKS for cakes (assuming the recipe calls for cake flour). I've never tried Pillsbury but I imagine it's good, too.
Swan's Downs only basic competitor is Soft a Silk. Have used both without issue for 50 years. 😊
At 1:09, "Swans Down" is the flour specified by Colonel Harland Sanders to make Kentucky Fried Chicken.
It's ridiculous to compare a pastry flour (like Swans Down) with an all purpose flour. I have some wonderful old pastry recipes that simply can't be made properly with anything other than pastry flour. (Well - at least the result will be VERY disappointing!). Same goes for hard flour (aka bread flour). You'd never use it for pastry. Doing this throws the logic behind this review out the window.
I absolutely agree! The best cake I ever tasted was made with Swans Down… this video is not comparing apples with apples.
All-purpose flour works but is not that good. I would use all-purpose flour if it was all I had
White Lily brand all purpose is closer to a pastry flour. Because it is a Soft winter wheat instead of a hard winter wheat. Find it mainly in the South
Amen Mamie…Red Mill probably paid for this bias video!
The video very clearly explains that one of the criteria in the ranking is versatility in the brand.
Swan down doesn't lose out because of poor quality. Quite the opposite if you watch the video.
Ot loses out, because the brand only puts out exactly one kind of specialized flour. Most other companies offer some degree of variety for use in products besides cake and pastry. It's all in the video.
I've been using gold medal for over 50years !! Love it!!
I have been using Bob's Red Mill flour for many years. It cost a little more, but the end result in baking is worth it. Thanks for the comparison video of all the different flour brands. Shalom
In Europe niche flours are found in every shop, niche flours for specific cakes, tortes, sweet bread etc. and in small amounts ie. 1 lb packages. I'm sure folks can have on hand flour for general and specific use.
My favorite go to is White Lilly all purpose.
I NEVER use self-rising flour or cornmeal. Gold Medal has ALWAYS been my #1 flour.
When I work on my car I use appropriate tools. I have screw drivers, wrenches, etc. When I bake I use proper flours for bread, for cakes, for pancakes. I buy bread flour, all purpose flour, coconut flour from Costco and use each differently. King Arthur flour is nice but expensive.
Gold medal. Hands down. I make tons of cookies never have a problem tasting like flour. Like some others do.
3 of the Flours are available where I live, the rest are only available online, mostly from Amazon. I don't buy any food products from Amazon, you really don't know where it's coming from.
Disappointed in this review. Thought they were going to compare brands of all purpose flour. Not jump all over the place.
Agree. Video was made by a person or persons who do not bake, make pasta or tortillas, etc. It's not made by people who know how to use flour(s) for various and specific things.
Just spent the day baking with Red Mill All Purpose and it is my new favorite. A good recipe helps too.
Cake flour bakes the way it does mainly because it's made from low protein wheat and is more finely ground than other flours. It makes a more tender delicate cake because it has less gluten than other flours. Pastry flour is also a low protein flour, but not as finely textured as cake flour. Bread flour has the highest protein content of all flours, all purpose has less. Understanding this fact about flour is probably more important than the brand. Self rising flour can be made with the same type of soft winter wheat as cake flour, White Lily is an example, or self rising flour can be made with all purpose flour. Freshness and proper storage are also important. But a cake baked with cake flour isn't necessarily better than one baked with all-purpose flour. It depends on the recipe.
Criticizing Swans Down because it makes only cake flour is ridiculous. Its their specialty. It's not meant to be interchangeable with other flour. It doesnt need to be flexible.
Swans Down is also bleached, which is why it performs as brilliantly as it does for cakes.
Well, I have been using Gold Medal unbleached for 50+ years. Makes good cakes and biscuits. New brands,so,so. I will stay with what I know makes good cakes, biscuits, and pie crust. 🥧
During the pandemic I couldn’t get any flour except Gold Medal. I tried it in chicken and dumplings and it was a disaster. I use White Lily for buttermilk biscuits, I buy White Lily all purpose flour too. I use King Author Bread Flour for all my bread.
It works good for me.
We don’t buy bread. I make everything we need.
Dont use King Arthur for white bread. They hate white people and have excluded tbem for entering competitions.
For people in the Midwest, Dakota Maid flours are worth checking out. Much of their product is sold to commercial bakeries but if you can find it in your local stores, do pick up a five pound bag of the bread flour or their AP flour. They are worthy, quality competitors to the King Arthur flours. Wheat Montana flours are also worth mentioning. Their distribution isn't on a national level but when you find it, give them a try as well.
I luckily found it several years ago and their bread flour is excellent! That is the great thing about it. But finding it in the stores is hit or miss.
Dakota Maid is made by the ND State Mill & Elevator in Grand Forks, ND, using only the finest Hard Red Spring Wheat there is anywhere. I would highly recommend this product to anyone as is very high quality flour…
We are at a point where wr won't have a choice of flour anyway.
Walmart is what I have at present. I haven't tried it, yet.
You can find certain flour you just have to search. Local stores do not carry High Gluten flour. But I found it.
King Arthur never fails to disappoint.
thanks. i thought it was me.
Except since they went "woke", like conducting baking contests where whites aren't allowed. I quit them, for that reason.
Plus it's one of the few that's nonGMO
I will never use King Arthur again, they are bigots.
Did you mean to say, King Arthur never disappoints? Or does it always disappoint?
Gold medal flour is the best for me
It makes no sense for you to rate Bob's or King Arthur high because they offer so many choices, then rank Martha White or White Lily so low because you have to buy one or two other types to diversify your flours. The brand name on the bag is basically irrelevant. All purpose is a description based on protein content, and many of these brands could easily come from the same mill.
A/P flours from different brands have different levels of protein.
@@HotVoodooWitch Yes they do...within a range whose baking characteristics rarely are detectable.
@@kittyconrad2865 there are those who would disagree with you. White Lily is considered A/P but is lousy for quite a few applications. And many bakers refuse to use, e.g, King Arthur after using Gold Medal for years (sometimes for generations) for their baked goods. Others would say the opposite.
Question? Who made viedo
My wife sometimes uses self-rising flour to make flour tortillas and when she was growing up her mom would use a brand called La Paloma. I have used it to make biscuits but most of the time we use Hill Country, the H‑E‑B store brand.
My grandma used la Pina flour for her tortillas
I was looking for a ranking of quality, not a criticism of companies for focusing on a particular product. I KNOW Swansdown is a cake flour. How does it compare to other cake flours? Not, it's no good because you can't use it for everything!
If you go by this video you can have ten different kinds of flours in your pantry. You didn’t even mention Italian, French, and English flours. And who has that much space to store them. Some flours are expensive. And you’ve spent a fortune. People buy what they can afford.
My favorite King Arthur. What happened to their white whole wheat. I can't find it inany stores in our area
I even found it in Walmart!
My grandmother always used King Arthur unbleached flour, and she baked amazing Slovak pastries. I have always used it too, always with excellent results. I have never understood why anybody would use "self rising" flour except laziness. It is very easy to put the baking powder in yourself, and gives you control over how much rise you want from it.
Some recipes call for self-rising flour. It has nothing to do with laziness.
@@HotVoodooWitch ... Just shows that you don't know very much about baking. "Self rising flour" is just general purpose flour to which double acting baking powder has already been added. If you don't know you can just use regular general purpose flour and add a teaspoon of baking powder (or more if you like) per cup of flour yourself, then you have just learned something, and can save yourself buying two kinds of flour.
@@powellmountainmike8853 I KNOW what self-rising flour is and yes, I do bake and have been doing so for quite a few of my almost-70 years. I reiterate: some recipes call specifically for self-rising flour. I don't use it myself, mainly because none of the recipes I make call for it. But that doesn't mean that I'm not aware of it or the fact that some recipes DO call for it.
@@HotVoodooWitch Well, I have you beat, I was born in the waning days of the Truman Administration. I reiterate, just because some recipe "calls for" self rising flour does not mean you can't substitute regular all purpose flour and baking powder. That is the sort of thing that should come second nature to an experienced cook who understands the basic principles, and is not so "book bound" that they cannot adapt a recipe. One old Druid to a Houngana, Marie Laveau would be disappointed if you couldn't. As Emeril would say, "This ain't rocket science."
@@powellmountainmike8853 you have your opinions (let's see--"lazy if you use self-rising," "I must not bake much") and I have mine. I think I prefer mine--they don't usually involve insulting people. Ciao.
I’m Canadian and a lot of our seniors who go south to Arizona for the winter don’t like the bread in the stores. So they take their bread makers and a two or three large bags of Robin Hood flour so they can make their own bread. It’s because Robin Hood bread is made in Canada with wheat grown on the Prairies.
Canadian Western Red Spring wheat has a higher protein content than most winter wheat, making it ideal for strong bread flour demanded by the highest caliber of bakers.
Always bring back a bag of Robin Hood flour.
You left out my favorite brand, Hudson Cream. I’ve used it exclusively for well over 40 years, having found it originally in Kentucky, then finally in my home state of Ohio.
Yes, I have used Hudson Cream for years. After trying White Lily, just to see what all the fuss was about with these southern ladies, and I'm one from Kentucky, I stuck with HC. Next favorite is Gold Metal.
I live in Missouri and a friend gave me a bag of Hudson Cream flour that she got elsewhere. I had never heard of it but liked the bread I made with it. One day I typed the name in Duck Duck Go and it said that I could buy it online at only one Walmart in my area. I bought all 8 bags that were in stock and picked them up 5 days later and so glad I did. That product is no where to be found anymore.
Very helpful but in this time we have to settle for whatever our stores are able to get in.
I really didn't know any better when I started baking, but in New England, King Arthur Flour is the most popular brand, so I used it. It's a very good all purpose flour that seems to work in everything, and their website is a wealth of recipes for every baked good you can think of.
It all depends on what you're making. I'm in Georgia and we had homemade biscuits several times a week, sometimes daily, growing up. I don't make them as often but I make them with White Lily self rising because of the quality difference. My husband bakes bread and isn't brand loyal. Right now we are using Gold Medal because I got a good deal on it. Something isn't low ranking because you can't make everything with it.
Snavely’s Mills in Pennsylvania.
Their statement:
As one of the oldest continuously operated flour mills in North America, the Snavely’s Mill brand is synonymous with quality. We produce and self-distribute more than 20 varieties of high quality, fair-priced bulk and bagged flours, whole wheat, white whole wheat, rye, organic and specialty flour products from four facilities in Southeastern and Central Pennsylvania.
The best flour I ever used was from Snavely Mills in Lititz, PA. I picked up there with a 53' dry van trailer as a driver for Leonard's Exp out of Farmington, NY. I was in the mill room while they loaded me, and I could smell the fresh flour as it was pouring out of the grinding mill. I wanted to buy some, but they didn't take credit cards there and I didn't have cash. So, the operator, one of the family members, grabbed a large freezer bag and proceeded to fill it directly from the mill. He hands it to me and says, "enjoy". The bag was at least 10 pounds as was still warm to the touch. Can't get any fresher than that!!
So, after back home my daughter made pizza and stromboli dough with this flour. Perfect results! Best pizza and stromboli ever! This dough, even the crust, just melts in your mouth. Was so good we put pictures and description on Snavely's Facebook page with a top-notch review. The guys at Snavely replied right away and thanked us for that stating that they were glad we were so pleased with their product.
I am planning another trip there in my pov just to pick up more of the freshest and best tasting flour I've ever had. Will be worth the trip!
I typically use Organic non bleached all Purpose Flour. Sometimes I switch brands like Trader Joes, King Arthur or other local brands. Not a big fan of additives or "dying" the wheat.
Nothing says you have to only use one type of flour. We have several buckets of wheat so we can grind our own whole wheat flour for bread. We have bread flour so we can make wonderful white bread. After struggling trying to make the perfect biscuit, I found the South's secret in White Lily flours. Now my biscuits are so good, I want to cry. And I mean it. For cookies I just use the cheap store brand all purpose flour. Unless it's shortbread, then I use White Lily all purpose flour and Kerrygold butter.
The best flour on the market is Hudson Cream! It’s a little more expensive but well worth it!
A comparison chart made on this information would be very helpful.
I use Bob's Red Mill flour for everything, and I make everything from scratch. So many selections for all my baking needs!
I use several flours. My go to is Bob's Red Mill All-purpose Gluten Free.
It's up to the person using the flour and what they prefer in my opinion. My grandmother and mother used gold medal I moved to Georgia I tried Martha white I felt it was too heavy so I switched to gold medal now I use great value it's cheaper and tastes good.
I use Red Mill Gluten Free Tapioca….then always put in a small amount (1/4-1/3 c) of “other brand gluten free” (if making a cake let’s say) to give results a bit more cake like results.
I use 00 when making pasta or pizza dough.
My mom used white flour for everything and coild make the best rolls ,bread or pie crust one could put in their mouth. Cakes too!
Like my mother and grandmother, I have always used Credits Unbleached Flour and here it wasn't even mentioned.😢
Ardent Mills Kyrol is an amazing bread flour. Super high gluten content and can build amazing dough strength for holding shape.
Montana Wheat Company Bread Flour, and AP Flour,..are my #1...and, they're non-bromated.
I buy Italian flours and they are excellent.
I use King Arthur for all my baking.
The point of Swans Down is that it's perfected for a specific use. It's a very tiny company that literally works out of a single room, and most of the work is done by hand. So, yea, they're not trying to be a flour that has a product for everything. I take issue with Swans Down being classified as the "worst" in this scenario. They may actually be the best in what they offer.
Honestly, i would use gold medal because it was the best my store provides, and Pillsbury doesn't have wheat flour. I have used bobs red mill and I like how you can play around with the recipe.
Almost all Pillsbury flours are made from wheat.
@@man0sticks whole wheat I meant
I finally found white whole wheat King Arthur flour at the westminster Target store ( Southern California). I make our bread and use King Arthur bread flour.
I always double bag my open flour so nothing can get in. I don’t ever have a problem with pantry bugs but when I opened the Gold Medal flour it was teeming with bugs. This told me that they were in the flour when I bought it and they must have hatched. Needless to say I haven’t bought it since.
I hate to have to tell you this, but all flour has bugs in it.
Most of the time the bugs are completely ground up, but every now and then....
The FDA has a book/website that lists all the "goodies" in your food.
It's called the FDA food defect levels handbook.
Just sift the bugs out and use the flower.
You apparently have no clue what you're actually eating in your food.
If you have a weak stomach, I wouldn't go look up that FDA book. 🤣🤣
I have 4 different flours in my cabinet. All purpose flour , btead flour , self rise flour & 00 flour . Make sure you know your flours and what the do and how to use them .
I always have consistent results with Gold Medal.
My procrastination has hit rock bottom
Did you know that mice do not see Gold Medal flour as food? I had an infestation and they didn't touch any Gold Medal flour. Wheat Montana, on the other hand, is one brand that they absolutely love! It's packaged in a plastic, resealable bag and they still ate their way through the packaging! It's a shame that it's not found on this list as their flour works great in everything, just like Gold Medal, but they do not process all of the nutrients out. Wheat Montana is definitely the superior product.
You have picky mice
If they only have one product and are still in business, doesn't that mean they're doing something right?
Criticizing a niche flour like Swan's Down for being a niche flour is a headscratcher for me. I use cake flour for cakes, self-rising for biscuits, etc, bread flour for bread, rolls, 00 flour for pasta and all purpose for everything else. One size doesn't fit all.
I’ll stick to milling the kind I need for each project and it does vary depending on what I want the end product to be. Much more healthy too
Red Mill
Is all hype! This video is a great example of subjective judging
I'm 73 and m🎉ake a lot of breads and my mother and the ladies at the church bake sales swore by Robin Hood. You can tell the difference when mixing the dough. The other brands are tougher and the finished products are denser and heavier. Robin Hood breads are lighter and more tender
Good grief. Real bakers use soft wheat flours. Having that option is good. This review was created by people who don’t bake.
Unless the recipe says self rising I use all purpose. If I have no self rising I just add soda and powder. White Lily or Pillsbury according to what I’m making.
White Lily is my go to flour. Never self rising, always all purpose.
I wrote a jingle about Martha White it must be sung with a heavy southern accent. It goes like this " Is your cornbread bright and shiny does it sparkle in the light you must be using Martha White (say corn meal). Are you thoughts kind of foggy your just not thinken right its because of the Aluminum right here in Martha White (say corn meal)." Check out the ingredients there is aluminum in Martha White corn meal it taste really good I must be developing a taste for aluminum.... or is it plastic!
I currently have 8 different kinds of flour in my pantry. They all serve a different purpose and get used up quickly. IMHO, Bob's Red Mill is the best by far.
I bake a lot. I use different flours for different products, usually King Arthur. We rarely buy bread, cakes or cookies.
King Arthur have revealed their DEI rot by excluding white people from competitions.
Whatever Aldi sells for $2. Flour snobs are ridiculous.
I used King Arthur until they started attacking white people. I switched to Bob’s.
Putting Swan's low in the rankings because it is specifically a cake flour and not an all purpose flour doesn't make sense. You could just as well give low ratings to bread flours because they don't make good cakes. While many use all purpose flour for all purposes, it is rather satisfactory, yet not ideal for those many of those purposes. Why not rate the flour based on quality and not on general utility?
Oh, but they also slammed the PRODUCER for only offering cake flour. Mind you, they've been producing a winner for decades but they should enter an arena that's already packed with competitors. 🤦🏼♀
Even though Arrowhead mills ranked low with you I have had great success with it. Not mentioned here is the use of glyphosate on non organic wheat. So I will be sticking with organic only. You wont find organic gold medal!
What brand of flour that doesn't have weavles in it😢
I keep All Purpose, Self Rising, Bread and one other which I cannot recall at this moment, but I have 4 in my kitchen. I use bread flour in my chocolate chip cookies. I also have almond flour, but only incidentally.
I know your cookies taste good.
Gold Medal is awful! It makes things taste old and stale.
White Lilly is awesome for biscuits pancakes and most sweets.King Arthur is good for cookies and savory cookies.
I agree Pillsbury isn't a good flour.But now i know why i never see Robin Hood products in stores anymore.The only thing i can remember is when my Mom made homemade pizza,she used Robin Hood pizza crust mix.I made a good pizza crust
I've used Gold Medal off and on for years and never had a problem with it making things taste old and stale.
Maybe it's old.
Swansdown, king A, Lilly, are the best for what they do. I keep a collection on hand
Of course the highest-rated ones are the most expensive
Me @9:14 when I try to mix a double batch of cookies in my stand mixer.😊
This “worst to best flours” video is not exactly as advertised. It’s usedful for revealing what a particular flour might be best USED for, but hardly as a general ranking of flours. It’s as if the video were produced by bread bakers alone, and ranked that way.
I've been cooking for fifty years. I've used all brands of flour. White Lily is hands down the best flour. The first one you mentioned in this video is horrible as it has a baking power taste. Like too much was used.
I use the self rising for just about all my needs. My best is making biscuits. My family and friends agree that mine or the best. Some of it has to do with technique. If the store is out, I go to another store.
Hudson Cream tops it all. I tried White Lily and it’s awful compared to Hudson Cream
Adluh is good. White Lily hasn't been the same since they were bought out by Smucker's.
White Lily flour is the best-I would never use any other brand…
However, I don’t do a lot of baking,except biscuits.
I don't think that rating the quality of a product should be influenced by the company's corporate ethos. While that is important to me as a buyer, it has nothing to do with the quality of the product that is actually produced.
You want a good southern biscuit, you use white Lily. Unbleached all purpose. It’s not hard.
How on Earth this video doesn't even mention Heckers flour that boldly states Unbleached Forever. My favorite flour.
What brand of flour that doesn't have worms in it? Or whatever they are called😢
When I heard the word "climate", I understood what this is all about.
Nailed it
Followed quickly by "gluten free" and "non GMO.""
Stupid commentary. In Europe you have specific flour for specific baking.
The flour have numbers according what they should be use for.
Why would you criticize cake flour that is not versatile. That’s what is made for.
Janie's Mill stone ground organic. beats circles around all the rest.
I’ve had some ugly outcomes with Gold Medal. Will never use it again for baking bread
Where or what group did this ranking come from ?
What about Caputo flour?
Quick.
Someone make
an Angel Food cake.
Anyone try Hudson cream flour?
That's BS about Cake flour..more uses than that.
Example, I have used it in making cornbread..using a half cup within my recipe. It comes out great... even my picky husband likes it. Just don't be afraid to experiment with flour.
When I am baking cakes, I definitely don’t use all purpose or self rising flour. I think this video is deceptive. Those of us who learned to bake with our grandmothers and mothers know which flours we like for our baking.
No mention of Heckers Ceresota?
No, you just leave out the baking soda, baking powder and salt. Then use your self rising flour. Unless you're making bread. Then you'll need all-purpose flour.
Helpful for those with serous allergies
You guys are running out of video ideas huh?