High Grade flour for Xmas cake!

agave1, Dec 19, 10:28pm
Hi.I heard somewhere it's a good idea to use strong flour for fruit cakes because it helps stop the fruit from sinking.Is that true!

sarahb5, Dec 19, 10:45pm
I do all my baking with high grade flour - it's the only one I buy in fact and even when a recipe calls for self raising I just add baking powder

cookessentials, Dec 19, 11:35pm
I only ever use high grade or self raising for all my baking.

agave1, Dec 20, 4:06am
Wow, I'm really surprised.Do you guys even use high brade flour for biscuits and muffins and other cakes!

tjman, Dec 20, 4:58am
High grade is just ground more finer I think. So it should be fine in any cooking.

cookessentials, Dec 20, 4:58am
sure do and even bread.

lilyfield, Dec 20, 5:01am
only high grade-- for everything

buzzy110, Dec 20, 5:03am
Lol. I'd like to see anyone trying to make bread without high grade flour. Surely it is a given for a product that relies upon gluten to make it light and fluffy.

davidt4, Dec 20, 5:04am
That's not correct.High grade flour is made from hard wheat and has a slightly higher gluten content than flour made from soft wheat.High grade is best for bread and is also best for heavy fruit cakes.

tjman, Dec 20, 5:06am
Ta for that

sarahb5, Dec 20, 5:16am
Same - only other flour I buy is cornflour .

deus701, Dec 20, 11:37am
high grade means more proteins in the flour = stronger dough. Some biscuits use high grade flour as it makes it chewy. Stay away from Pams brand, its totally shit.

kokopuff, Dec 21, 1:10am
I use pams pure plain flour and i don't have any problems with it, I even use it for my Christmas fruitcake and its always a winner.

lodgelocum, Dec 21, 4:21am
Same here, I don't have problems with baking anything using it, as well as my Christmas Cake.

tailz, Dec 21, 6:30am
hate to say it but not all flours are created equal.the reason bakeries etc seem to have success with difficult breads etc is that they can order flour to different specifications from the millers.when you buy normal supermarket flour there are many factors that make the flours actually quite different.so flour that you bought 3 months ago will be quite different to the flour you bought today even though it is the same brand and from the same mill.