- In the UK
- plain flour
- In the US
- all-purpose flour
- Also written
- plain white flour
Plain flour is ordinary white wheat flour with nothing added to make it rise. In the US the nearest equivalent is all-purpose flour, sometimes written AP flour, and the two can be swapped in most recipes.
It is the general kitchen flour: for thickening sauces and gravy, coating fish or meat before frying, making pastry, pancakes, Yorkshire puddings and batters, and baking anything that gets its lift from eggs, yeast or a separate raising agent such as baking powder.
It differs from two other common UK flours. Self-raising flour has baking powder already mixed in. Strong flour, called bread flour in the US, has more protein, which builds the stretchy gluten that bread needs; plain flour makes a softer, more tender crumb.
If a recipe asks for flour without saying which, and it isn't bread, plain is usually what it means.
Store flour in a sealed container somewhere cool and dry, and check the best-before date. Old flour can taste stale.
By The Scullery team · Updated
