6 Types of Flours used in Baking in Kenya

Welcome to a new series: Baking in Kenya.

This series will focus on the ingredients that are used in baking and are available in Kenya.

We hope this will help you in your wonderful journey to be the best baker you can be ^_^.

This post will focus on the types of flours used while baking.

1. All-Purpose Flour

All-purpose flour is a kind of wheat flour that can be used for multiple uses, hence the name all-purpose. It’s the most common, easily available and economical wheat flour found in most shops, supermarkets and wholesale shops. All-purpose flour can be used to bake cakes, cookies, scones, doughnuts etc. A packet of 2Kg ranges from Kshs. 125-140 depending on the brand.

2. Self-Rising Flour

This is a wheat flour that has a chemical rising agent added to an all-purpose flour. It’s used for cakes where recipes have little or no rising agent required, cookies, sponges and biscuits. A packet of 2Kg costs from Kshs. 125 – 140 depending on the brand.

3. Bakers’ Flour

Bakers flour is a wheat flour that has a high gluten content. Gluten is the protein found in wheat flour that makes it sticky. This flour is used for breads, buns & other bread products. It is particularly good for those products since the dough is able to proof properly without collapsing and to it’s full capacity. Most of the bakers’ flour sold in Kenya is available in 50 Kg bags, they range from about Kshs. 3,000 to 3,900; depending on the brand.

Bakers’Flour (courtesy: http://www.21food.com)

4. Whole Wheat Flour

 Whole wheat flour is a whole meal flour that is very healthy and nutritious. It’s when the wheat is milled together with the skin for a whole meal wheat flour. This wheat flour is not easy to bake with on its own since the gluten content is very low. Therefore, you have to add a small amount of all purpose flour or bakers’ flour, depending on the product you are baking. A 2Kg packet of this flour is about Kshs. 130-150; depending on the brand.

5. Atta Flour

Atta flour is another form of whole meal wheat flour, it’s made from durum wheat from India and is mainly used for chapatis but can also be used while baking whole wheat breads. It can be one of the wheat flours you combine with a whole wheat flour and bakers flour. It is also a highly nutritional flour. You can also use it to make mandazis and doughnuts. A 2 Kg packet of this flour ranges from Kshs. 135-150 depending on the brand.
6. Cake Flour

Cake flour is a highly refined flour with a lower gluten content that is used for making perfet cakes, it is preferred by pastry chefs because the cake products baked have a very soft & fine texture. However, this is not easily available in Kenya and it sometimes has to be imported.

Cake Flour (Courtesy: finecooking.com)

There is a simple way of making your own cake flour; measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour, then remove 1 Tablespoon of it and replace it with 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch which can be bought in a supermarket like Chandarana Supermarket. This will also give you a kind of cake flour and your cakes will be wonderful, light and soft.

We hope this was helpful to you. If you have any questions or additional suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

Thank you and happy baking ^_^

To get more practice baking with some of these types of flours, sign up for our Baking Classes and learn how to bake with a charcoal oven.

Visit our Baking Classes page for more info, email us: amaribreads@gmail.com