Bleached vs unbleached flour

Freshly milled flour is yellowish and makes doughs that are usually sticky and do not handle well. Flour used to be left to age naturally, which whitened it and improved its baking behavior.

Bleaching aims to give freshly milled flour the handling characteristics of naturally aged flour. One treatment, chlorine dioxide, neutralizes the yellow pigment and improves gluten quality, though it destroys the vitamin E complex. Unbleached flour skips these treatments and gets its whiteness and strength from time.

Bakers often choose bleached flour for tender cakes and unbleached for breads and pastries, but both work for most recipes. Unbleached flour usually looks slightly creamier in color.