We don’t recommend substituting flours unless the recipe has been tested by the author with the substitution. This will ensure the correct outcome. If you’re looking to substitute flour, I’d recommend looking for a recipe that specifically calls for that flour or enjoying a day in the kitchen experimenting 🙂

Hi Cynthia! Great question! It definitely depends on what you’re making and the desired result:
– Bread flour contains a higher percentage of protein. This is needed in bread and yeast-raised baked goods because we’re trying to build gluten strands to create structure, helping it rise. In cookies, bread flour yields thicker and chewier cookies compared to all-purpose flour. This is why Tessa recommends half bread flour and half all-purpose flour in her Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

– All-purpose flour falls right in the middle of the protein content chart, and as you noted, it depends on the brand as to the exact percentage of protein. King Arthur Baking’s AP flour generally has the highest level of protein of commonly-available all-purpose flours. This is great when you’re looking for structure and chew in cookies – but this can be problematic in delicate bakes like cakes and cupcakes, where we don’t really want a ton of chew or build-up of gluten. Tessa’s go-to all-purpose flour is Gold Medal Bleached, and this brand is generally what our team uses to test HTH’s recipes.

– Cake flour comes in at the lowest level of protein content. Cake flour has a very fine texture. Using cake flour in cookies results in a much softer, lighter, often cakier cookie, but using it in cakes can yield a beautifully soft, light sponge (like in Tessa’s Funfetti Sheet Cake here). Learn more about cake flour and how it compares to other flours in cakes, as well as DIY substitutions, here.

I hope that helps, Cynthia! Let us know if you have any questions 🙂

Hi Zara! Your kitchen scale should have a ‘tare’ button. Just place your bowl on the scale, hit the ‘tare’ button, and that will zero out the scale. Then you can weigh your ingredients. Press the ‘tare’ to zero it out every time you weigh out a new ingredient, or every time you place a new bowl on the scale, to ensure accuracy. I hope that helps! Happy baking 🙂

Hi Lori! Tessa uses any standard brand for sugar and Challenge unsalted butter. She has a few favorite brands of vanilla but McCormick is a great option. For the flour, it really depends on the type of flour. We’d love to invite you to join our Membership Waitlist, we share a full breakdown of Tessa’s favorite ingredients and baking equipment exclusively with HTH Members!