Kate Flour

From Cake Flour to Kate Flour

Kate flour has been created as a replacement for bleached flour in countries where the bleaching of flour is prohibited. In these places, which include the countries of Australasia and the EU, bakeries and other businesses may have the opportunity to source heat-treated flour as a viable and successful alternative to bleached flour for use in high-ratio cake recipes. The home-baker is not so lucky.

Until commercial, heat-treated flour is made available to the individual consumer for personal use, kate flour is perhaps the sole means by which home-bakers in these countries can recreate and appreciate the advantageous properties of bleached flour in their own kitchen.

The Story of Kate Flour

The creation and development of kate flour can be followed in the following blog posts from Autumn, 2007:

A Question of Flour, in which the microwaving of flour was introduced;

More Questions of Flour, in which the protein content was cut;

Water, Water Everywhere, in which the moisture content was considered;

Getting Warm, in which the thermometer made its first appearance;

… with additional refinements in Spring, 2008:

Finding the X Factor, in which xanthan gum improves the viscosity;

Colour or Crumb, where self-raising flour provided the best-yet results.

Turning Unbleached Flour into Kate Flour: 10 Steps

1. Weigh out 280g/10 oz of the flour and place it onto a microwave-safe plate.
2. Spread the flour on the plate to give a bed depth of 18 to 20 mm.
3. Microwave the flour for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and use a probe thermometer to take and record a temperature reading. Break up any lumps with a fork.
4. Repeat step 3 until you obtain a temperature reading of at least 130 degrees C.
5. Allow the flour to cool to room temperature.
6. Sieve the flour and discard any residue.
7. Spoon the flour into a 250ml measuring cup and level the top. Weigh this flour and record the weight.
8. For flours with a 9% or more protein content and when cake flour is required, substitute 2 tablespoons of this cup with 2 tablespoons of cornflour/cornstarch. Do this by calculating and then removing 1/8 of the weight of the cup of flour. Replace this with 1/2 oz (14g) of cornflour.
9. Make up a second part of kate flour according to the weights of flour and cornflour obtained in steps 7 and 8.
10. Place both parts of kate flour in a large bowl and whisk to combine thoroughly.

Quick Cheats

With many grateful thanks to my enthusiastic flour testers around the world, the Quick Cheats Page is a list of shortcuts for flours whose microwaving times and part-weights are known (thereby saving you the effort of finding a thermometer, measuring cup and calculator!).