How many of you use plain old all purpose flour to cook and bake with?

[lareynadenada]

All I use is bread flour, I am basically lazy and can't be bothered to keep different flours.Ii use my bread flour for gravy cakes cookies whatever. I bake all my own bread . I get my flour at costco 50# for $13.00 I only go to costco once a month it is 40 miles from me.

 

[CarolJ]

I use King Arthur AP flour.

 

[GAHillbillies]

Well being a country bumpkin too and having only been taught by my grandmother's and mom to use AP, that is what I have always used. I am 60 and bake breads, cakes, pies and other goods all using AP flour. I buy mine from Save-A-Lot, it is not a name brand and I have been using it for 30 years or more.

My Grandmothers came from the old country, Germany and Poland, they didn't know anything about all these fancy flours that they have out now, they just used AP flour for everything. They made some of the best baked goods and bread that was to die for.

I have tried bread flour and found that I didn't care for the texture of the bread.

We each have our favorites, for me, its what works best!!!

 

[SeeMeShiny]

I'm a baker, and I baked for a living for years. I buy a big sack of AP flour and a 5lb bag of bread flour and use a combination when I make bread, heavy on the cheaper AP flour. You can make bread (obviously) with just AP, but it does actually work a little bit better with some bread flour or high gluten flour included, especially if you are using any wheat flour. Sure, it's nice to have a variety of specialty flours handy... I do miss working in a kitchen with pastry flours and a variety of textures of wheat flour and cornmeal- but in the real world you should use what you (and your budget) are comfortable with.

 

[canesisters]

It always cracks me up when I watch those cooking shows and they are singing the praises of some ingredient that I've never heard of and can't pronounce and then they say 'You can get this at your local Asian foods store" - at your local Greek whole food market - or your local fresh fish market.... The closest food store of any kind to my tiny little community is the Food Lion 30 mins away. Unless you count the Dollar General - and the most exotic thing in there is green tea. LOL
Where do these people live that they can run down to the Greek marked to pick up 1 ingredient? And why don't they ever say "and if you don't have access to that, just use plain old flour and add an extra dash of salt."?

 

[wyoDreamer]

I'm a baker, and I baked for a living for years. I buy a big sack of AP flour and a 5lb bag of bread flour and use a combination when I make bread, heavy on the cheaper AP flour. You can make bread (obviously) with just AP, but it does actually work a little bit better with some bread flour or high gluten flour included, especially if you are using any wheat flour. Sure, it's nice to have a variety of specialty flours handy... I do miss working in a kitchen with pastry flours and a variety of textures of wheat flour and cornmeal- but in the real world you should use what you (and your budget) are comfortable with.

I found that the little brown box of Wheat Gluten that I find on the top shelf of the flour aisle will last a long time in the fridge and you only need a tablespoon or two to make AP into bread flour. That way I don't need to keep two bins of white flour anymore. It works wonderfully in the home ground wheat bread that I make, extra honey in my recipe.

Makes the most wonderful pizza dough that stretches almost paper thin. If I had any coordination ability, I would be able to spin the pizza dough so it was thin and perfectly round, show stopper stuff for when you have company over. lol