The Flour Mistake You Need To Avoid When Baking Scones

When making homemade scones, you're probably expecting them to be light and fluffy, but this may not happen if you make this one vital flour mistake: not using cake flour. It may seem like cake flour and all-purpose flour are similar enough that they're interchangeable — so that even if a recipe calls for cake flour and you only have all-purpose, you can still make the dish — but there are actually a couple of key differences that can make a big impact. 

Essentially, all flours have a protein content, which reflects the gluten content — and gluten is ultimately responsible for the structure of baked goods. So, the higher the protein content in a baked good, the sturdier the structure is. All-purpose flour has a protein content of around 10% to 13%, which is considered a moderate amount since "all-purpose" is supposed to be able to be used in most recipes. However, cake flour has a lower protein content, usually between 7% and 9%, so any baked good made with it will have a fluffy, light texture.

Because of this, many scone recipes use cake flour or a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour. To make things easier, instead of using all-purpose flour in place of cake flour, be sure to stick to the exact measurements of each type of flour in the recipe to ensure that those scones are as light and fluffy as you want them to be.

If a recipe calls for cake flour and you don't have any in your house — and don't have time to run out to the market — then there's an easy fix. All you need is all-purpose flour and cornstarch to build your own cake flour substitute. Start by adding one cup of all-purpose flour to a mixing bowl, then take out two tablespoons and replace with two tablespoons of cornstarch; sift the mixture. This will give you one cup of cake flour, so repeat if the recipe calls for more than one cup.

While all-purpose flour can be used in place of cake flour (with the addition of cornstarch), it unfortunately doesn't work the other way around. If you try to use cake flour for a recipe that calls for all-purpose flour, you will likely end up with a baked good that is too delicate and crumbly because there wasn't enough protein content for what the baked good needed.

Further, you definitely don't want to try substituting cake flour with bread flour, as bread flour has an even higher protein content than all-purpose flour does. However, if you find yourself in need of bread flour, then, once again, all-purpose flour can be used to substitute for bread flour with one other ingredient.