Dear Baker:
When baking cookies, which flour is the best -- all-purpose, bleached or unbleached. Which is better for cakes? --iVillager basr2000
Dear basr2000:
All-purpose flour is the same whether bleached or unbleached -- the bleached kind is simply whiter. I prefer unbleached because I don't like the thought of a baked good with a bleaching agent in it -- even if it's just a small amount. Additionally, you don't need the white color of bleached flour for a cookie recipe, unless you're baking something like sugar cookies, for example. In the case of baking cakes, cake flour is bleached, which produces a whiter cake. So if a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, feel free to use either bleached or unbleached. It's really a personal preference.
Sarah Phillips is the author of Healthy Oven Baking Book.
