Pastry Flour
Lower protein than all-purpose, higher than cake flour: pastry flour lands in the sweet spot that gives biscuits their flake and pie crusts their snap without turning tough.
What It Is
Pastry flour is milled from soft white wheat, which has less protein than the hard wheat used for bread. Less protein means less gluten, and less gluten means baked goods that are tender instead of chewy. It is the flour old Southern biscuit recipes were quietly assuming you had.
The organic soft white wheat here is milled to a fine, pale texture. It is not a whole-grain flour, so it behaves much like the all-purpose you know, just gentler. That gentleness is the whole point.
What To Do
Use it anywhere you want tenderness over chew: pie crust, biscuits, scones, muffins, pancakes, shortbread, and quick breads. Swap it one-for-one with all-purpose in most of those recipes. For bread or pizza dough, stick with bread flour; pastry flour does not have the muscle for a good rise under a heavy crust.
Store it in a sealed container away from light and heat. It keeps well at room temperature for a few months, or freeze it for up to a year if you bake infrequently.
