What is the purpose of "all-purpose" flour?

[Miss_Woodhouse]

If you’re cookies are raw in the middle and burnt on the bottom your oven is too hot. If you were getting little rocks instead of chewy cookies I would suspect too much flour. The raw/burnt problem is definitely a temperature issue. Get an oven thermometer.

I find AP flour to be indispensable in baking cookies. AB may be able to get good cookies with bread flour but mine always come out like rocks when I use it. Besides, there’s a lot more to cookies than chocolate chips, so unless that’s the only kind of cookie you ever plan to make, you’re going to need AP flour. You also need AP flour for pie dough. Bread flour would be too tough, cake flour would be too hard to work with.

I do need to keep bread flour around for bread, but that’s about all I use it for.

[crazyjoe]

I’ve gone so far as to reduce the set temp by 25 degrees, from 375 to 350, with no real difference in the result other than it taking longer for them to get burnt. My oven does pretty well with baking things, typically, so I don’t think it’s reporting an inaccurate temp.

[HongKongFooey]

@crazyjoe

I’ve gone so far as to reduce the set temp by 25 degrees, from 375 to 350, with no real difference in the result other than it taking longer for them to get burnt. My oven does pretty well with baking things, typically, so I don’t think it’s reporting an inaccurate temp.

Maybe you could try a heavier baking sheet or even a stone to spread the heat out more evenly.

[Zsofia]

I love my baking stone - it isn’t just for pizza, you leave it in there permanently and it makes everything cook more evenly.

[Sehmket]

@TimeWinder

The only other thing I can think of is the usual problem with flour-bearing recipes: using volume instead of weight. If your recipe gives flour volumetrically (and despite Alton’s ranting about always using weight, I notice that the Food Network helpfully converts all his recipes to volumetric when they post them online), try replacing each cup of flour by 4.5 oz weight instead.

I’ve had good luck switching over to volumetrically measuring my flour the right* way, as opposed to just scooping it straight out of the bag (Someday I will remember to replace the battery in the scale…)

*While closed, shake up the bag, to loosen up the flour. Using a large spoon, spoon the flour into the measuring cup until overflowing. Then carefully level with the back of a knife. By just scooping straight out of the bag, you end up with a much denser product, which results in more flour than you actually need.

[silenus]

@HongKongFooey

Maybe you could try a heavier baking sheet or even a stone to spread the heat out more evenly.

Insulated baking sheets are perfect for avoiding burnt bottoms.

[Mister_Rik]

I’m still trying to figure out the difference between “all-purpose flour” and “hotel & restaurant flour”. I asked the Executive Chef at work, and he didn’t know either. Perhaps the only difference is that the H&R comes in 50-pound bags.

[MitzeKatze]

@Mister_Rik

I’m still trying to figure out the difference between “all-purpose flour” and “hotel & restaurant flour”. I asked the Executive Chef at work, and he didn’t know either. Perhaps the only difference is that the H&R comes in 50-pound bags.

I have bought “hotel and restaurant flour” before (yes, I do sometimes buy flour 50+ pounds at a time) and found no discernible difference between that and all-purpose flour.

Certain bread recipes will get very weird texture-wise if using bread flour (heavy and chewy) so I use all-purpose at least as often as bread flour.