The Easy Flour Trick You Can Perform At Home For Bakery-Level Dough

Whether you use it to roast cuts of meat or bake loaves of bread, your oven has likely been a dependable companion on your kitchen journey. But you may not know that the oven can also upgrade your ingredients at almost every stage of the cooking process. You can enhance your oatmeal by toasting your oats for a richer, nuttier flavor; you can toast spices on the stovetop for bolder seasoning profiles; and, according to Chuck Hayworth, private chef at The Resort Chef, toasting your flour is a great way to upgrade your baking.

"It adds a slight nutty flavor to baked goods of all types," said Hayworth. Just as browning butter results in a deeper, more complex flavor, so too does browning your flour. It may even give you a leg up over your local bakery. As Hayworth said, "Because of bulk bakery production schedules, most do not toast the flour they use, from my experience." Toasting your flour can be a great idea for dishes that require a roux — or a mix of fat and flour used as a thickening agent for sauces and stews — as well as baked goods like bread and cookies. Hayworth also suggested toasting your flour for savory Southern stews like jambalaya, and adding a bit to brown bread recipes, where he uses rye flour for a deliciously chewy texture.

So now that you know the virtues of toasting your flour, how do you do it? According to Chuck Hayworth, you'll want to break out some trusty kitchen hardware for the job. "I like to toast my flour on sheet pans," he said. "Simply set the oven at the temperature you plan to bake and pour flour onto several sheet pans. Stir flour until desired color is reached." Generally speaking, you'll want to toast it until it darkens a few shades deeper than its natural raw color.

But how dark is too dark for toasted flour? Hayworth told us, "You will definitely know if it burns. It's too dark and smells like coals." It may take a couple of tries to toast your flour just right, but once you nail it, you can start making your ideal chocolate chip cookie, or perhaps some of the old-school breads you won't find at every bakery, in no time flat.