Flour is an ingredient in many of the bakery treats we eat every day. But when you want to try baking, there are so many types that it's hard to choose. Which flour should you use for what? Today we have the answers.
1. Rice Flour
Rice flour is made, as the name says, from rice. It is a white powder that feels slightly gritty. When cooked, it turns opaque white and crumbly, clumping together. If you want a chewier, softer dessert that isn't too crumbly or hard, add glutinous rice flour. Rice flour is the flour used most in Thai desserts and suits recipes that need to hold their shape with a firm, crumbly texture, such as khanom kluay (steamed banana cake), khanom tan (toddy palm cake), khanom chan (layered dessert) and khanom thuay (coconut custard cups).
2. Glutinous Rice Flour
Glutinous rice flour is a gritty white powder like rice flour, but less coarse. It's made from glutinous (sticky) rice, the same kind we eat with som tam (papaya salad). When cooked, it becomes thick and sticky, and desserts made with it have no sheen. For recipes that don't need too much chewiness, mix in some rice flour. It suits soft, chewy desserts such as khanom tom (coconut-coated rice balls), bua loy (rice balls in coconut milk) and khanom khiang (Chinese New Year sticky cake).
3. Tapioca Starch
Tapioca starch is made from cassava root. It is a white powder that feels fine, smooth and slippery. When cooked, it becomes runny yet still thick, and suits chewy, translucent, glossy desserts. Its drawback is that it retrogrades easily when cooled, so other flours are mixed in to make desserts softer and chewier, as in tao suan (mung bean in thick syrup), tub tim krob (water chestnut "rubies") and pla krim khai tao (rice balls in coconut cream).
4. Cake Flour
Cake flour is made from soft wheat. It is finer than other wheat flours, absorbs less water and isn't very elastic, with very little protein compared with other wheat flours. It suits all kinds of cakes, khanom puy fai (steamed cotton cakes), khanom klip lamduan (flower-shaped shortbread) and khanom sali (steamed sponge cake).
5. All-Purpose Flour
Everyone probably knows all-purpose flour, because it's used for everything under the sun. It is a blend of hard and soft wheat, slightly finer than bread flour and cheaper. It's versatile: you can use it for bread or cakes. It suits both savoury dishes and sweets, such as pancakes, cookies, pies and donuts.
