When Out of All-Purpose Flour, What's the Best Substitute? (2024)

FAQs

When Out of All-Purpose Flour, What's the Best Substitute? ›

Either cake flour or pastry flour can be used as a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour in most baking recipes. Steer away from cake flour for chewy bread baking, though, and opt instead for bread or whole-wheat flour for your no-knead and sourdough loaves.

Bread flour produces baked goods with more structure and chew than all-purpose flour, as all-purpose only has a protein content of 10 to 12 percent, versus the 12 to 14 percent of bread. All-purpose flour produces tender baked goods (as opposed to chewy ones) and is ideal for cakes, muffins, biscuits, piecrust, etc.

As long as the recipe you're making calls for leavening agents (as banana bread does), you can substitute self-rising for all-purpose flour. According to the baking pros at King Arthur Flour, look for recipes that use about ½-teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour.

Since all-purpose flour is a combination of soft and hard flours, a good substitution is a mixture of a soft flour, like cake flour, with a hard flour such as bread flour. To calculate how much you need of each, start with 1 cup of all-purpose flour, which weighs 130 grams.

Cornstarch has twice the thickening power of all-purpose flour, which means you'll want to use twice as much: For every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, you'll want to use 2 tablespoons of flour.

For every 1 cup/130 grams of all-purpose flour, substitute 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons/145 grams cake flour. To make your own cake flour substitute, sift together 3/4 cup/95 grams all-purpose flour with 3 tablespoons cornstarch. This is equivalent to 1 cup/115 grams cake flour.

Rice, quinoa, almond and pulse flours are great alternatives when you're running low on your usual supplies.

Using Pancake Mix as Flour: Pancake mix can be used as a substitute for flour in recipes that call for flour, baking soda, and baking powder [3]. It is not suitable for recipes that require yeast. Cakes, cookies, frying batters, and pastries are more ideal for using pancake mix instead of flour.

What is the healthiest substitute for flour? ›

In addition to a lack of nutrients, a diet based on refined white flour can lead to health complications. Weight gain and obesity. In the U.S., two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. Refined flour promotes fat and prevents the body from burning fat for fuel.

For example, if you are making 1 cup of all purpose flour, you would mix together 1/3 cup of white flour, 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour, and 1/3 cup of corn flour. Once you have mixed together the ingredients, you can use the flour in any recipe that calls for all purpose flour.

Either cake flour or pastry flour can be used as a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour in most baking recipes. Steer away from cake flour for chewy bread baking, though, and opt instead for bread or whole-wheat flour for your no-knead and sourdough loaves.

Remember that self-rising flour is a softer flour, so baked goods made with it will not be the same as when you use all-purpose flour—for example, cookies may spread more and be thinner and crisper than if made with all-purpose flour.

If you have a baking recipe that calls for baking soda, and you only have baking powder, you may be able to substitute, but you will need 2 or 3 times as much baking powder for the same amount of baking soda to get the same amount of leavening power, and you may end up with something that's a little bitter tasting, ...

Just add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for each 150g/6oz/1 cup plain flour. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl before using, to make sure the baking powder is thoroughly distributed (or you can put both ingredients into a bowl and whisk them together).

Substituting Plain Flour in Your Recipes

For each cup of all-purpose flour, simply use one cup of plain flour. Keep in mind that plain flour in the UK has a slightly lower protein content, which may affect the texture of your final baked goods.

For best results, we recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital scale. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces or 120 grams. This chart is a quick reference for volume, ounces, and grams equivalencies for common ingredients.

You can use all-purpose flour as a 1:1 substitute for bread flour and vice-versa. For example, for 1 cup of bread flour, you can use 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Bread and pizza crust made with all-purpose flour may have a little less chew than those made with bread flour, but the results will still be good.