Brand Showdown: The '1-to-1' Flour Lie — I Tested 5 All-Purpose GF Blends So You Don't Have To

# Brand Showdown: The "1-to-1" Flour Lie — I Tested 5 All-Purpose GF Blends So You Don't Have To **The Verdict:** One of these flours produced a cookie with actual chew. The other four gave me somewhere between "sandy disappointment" and "structural hate crime." Here's the data. --- ## The Setup: Why This Matters Listen, I've been in the Texture Lab for eight years, and if there's one hill I'll die on, it's this: **1-to-1 gluten-free flour is a marketing fiction.** A blend that makes a passable cookie will murder your sourdough. A flour that holds together pasta will turn pancakes into rubber. Yet these brands keep selling you a bag of starch and gum with a promise that it'll work for "all your baking needs." (Spoiler: It won't.) I tested five of the most popular all-purpose GF blends using three standardized recipes: a classic chocolate chip cookie, a basic sandwich bread, and a roux-based béchamel. Each test was designed to torture-test the flour's protein structure, starch behavior, and—most importantly—**mouthfeel**. The flours: 1. **King Arthur Measure for Measure** 2. **Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour** 3. **Cup4Cup Multipurpose Flour** 4. **King Arthur All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour** (their non-1-to-1 blend) 5. **Better Batter Original Blend** --- ## Test 1: The Cookie (Where Everyone Gets a Passing Grade... Sort Of) Cookies are forgiving. They're mostly butter and sugar with some flour holding the party together. This is where 1-to-1 blends shine—because the bar is on the floor. ### King Arthur Measure for Measure **Texture:** Decent spread, slightly cakey interior. Good edge-to-center ratio. **Mouthfeel:** Pleasant, if unremarkable. Slight grit detectable when cooled. **The Verdict:** Acceptable. Not The Before Times, but edible. ### Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 **Texture:** Good spread, but the interior was... sandy. That classic rice flour grit that coats your molars. **Mouthfeel:** Dry. Needed milk. (And I don't mean that as a suggestion—I needed actual dairy to get through the second bite.) **The Verdict:** Fine for a potluck where you don't like anyone enough to try harder. ### Cup4Cup **Texture:** Excellent spread. Slightly too flat, actually—needed 10% more flour or a chill time. **Mouthfeel:** This is where Cup4Cup earns its keep. The milk powder and cornstarch create a tenderness the others can't touch. Closest to "real" cookie texture. **The Verdict:** The cookie winner. But wait until you see what happens in bread. ### King Arthur All-Purpose (Non-1-to-1) **Texture:** Minimal spread. Cakey, muffin-top situation. **Mouthfeel:** Slightly gummy interior. This blend is designed for structure, not tenderness. **The Verdict:** Wrong tool for the cookie job. Save it for the bread test. ### Better Batter **Texture:** Good spread, slightly irregular edges (xanthan gum distribution issue?) **Mouthfeel:** Slight bean-flour aftertaste. Not offensive, but present. **The Verdict:** Middle of the pack. Unremarkable. --- ## Test 2: The Sandwich Bread (Where Dreams Go to Die) This is where 1-to-1 blends reveal their lies. Bread requires protein structure, proper hydration, and a flour that can handle yeast development without turning into a brick or a sponge. I used the same base recipe for all five: 60% hydration, 2% salt, 2% instant yeast, 1% xanthan gum (added to the blends that don't include it). ### King Arthur Measure for Measure **Rise:** Moderate. Didn't collapse, didn't impress. **Crumb:** Tight, uniform cells. Slightly gummy interior—classic too-much-xanthan texture. **Crust:** Pale, soft. No Maillard reaction to speak of. **The Verdict:** Edible toast. Not sandwich-worthy unless you like your bread dense enough to use as a doorstop. ### Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 **Rise:** Poor. Significant collapse during baking. **Crumb:** Dense, wet interior. The rice flour absorbed unevenly, creating pockets of gummy and dry. **Crust:** Cracked, uneven. Looked like a topographical map of the Rockies. **The Verdict:** Fail. This went to the chickens. Even they looked disappointed. ### Cup4Cup **Rise:** Abysmal. Flat, dense loaf. **Crumb:** Dense, but weirdly tender. Like eating a slightly sweet kitchen sponge. **Crust:** Golden, at least. Good color development from the milk powder. **The Verdict:** Cookie flour. Do not use for bread. I mean it. This was the biggest disappointment because the cookie was so good. ### King Arthur All-Purpose (Non-1-to-1) **Rise:** Good! Proper dome, minimal collapse. **Crumb:** Open, irregular cell structure. Slight spring when compressed. **Crust:** Decent color. Could have used steam in the first 10 minutes. **The Verdict:** The bread winner. This blend is formulated for structure, and it shows. Still not Lazarus-level sourdough, but respectable sandwich bread. ### Better Batter **Rise:** Moderate, then collapse in the center. **Crumb:** Gummy tunnel in the middle, dry edges. Uneven bake. **Crust:** Thick, tough. Required a serrated knife and commitment. **The Verdict:** Fail. The bean flour didn't play nice with the yeast fermentation. --- ## Test 3: The Béchamel (The Dark Horse Test) Roux behavior reveals how a flour's starches gelatinize. This matters for gravies, sauces, and understanding how your blend will behave in moist applications. ### The Procedure Equal parts butter and flour (25g each), cooked 2 minutes, then whisked into 250ml warm milk until thickened. ### King Arthur Measure for Measure **Behavior:** Smooth thickening, no lumps. Held well. **Mouthfeel:** Slight starchiness on the tongue. **The Verdict:** Solid. Good all-rounder for sauces. ### Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 **Behavior:** Lumpy initially, required aggressive whisking. **Mouthfeel:** Grainy. Rice flour doesn't fully hydrate in fat. **The Verdict:** Acceptable with enough elbow grease. Not ideal. ### Cup4Cup **Behavior:** Beautifully smooth. Cornstarch gelatinized perfectly. **Mouthfeel:** Silky. The milk powder adds richness. **The Verdict:** Sauce winner. This is what Cup4Cup was born to do. ### King Arthur All-Purpose (Non-1-to-1) **Behavior:** Thickened almost too well—needed extra milk to reach proper consistency. **Mouthfeel:** Hearty, slightly gummy. **The Verdict:** Good for thick gravies, overkill for delicate sauces. ### Better Batter **Behavior:** Smooth thickening, good control. **Mouthfeel:** Slight bean undertone carried through. Fine for savory, weird for a dessert sauce. **The Verdict:** Decent for savory applications. --- ## The Final Rankings ### Overall Winner: **King Arthur Measure for Measure** It didn't win any single category outright, but it placed second in everything. If you can only have one flour in your pantry and you bake a variety of things, this is your workhorse. Just don't expect miracles. It's competent, not exceptional. ### Best for Cookies & Pastry: **Cup4Cup** If you only make cookies, pie crusts, and delicate cakes, Cup4Cup is worth the premium price. But keep another flour for bread. Seriously. I can't stress this enough—do not make sandwich bread with Cup4Cup unless you enjoy disappointment. ### Best for Bread: **King Arthur All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour** The non-1-to-1 blend. Formulated with higher protein content and without the "one flour for everything" lie. This is what you want for yeast breads, pizza dough, and anything requiring structure. ### Honest Fails: **Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1** and **Better Batter** Bob's produces inconsistent results across applications. The rice flour grit is persistent and the xanthan gum ratio seems off for anything beyond cookies. Better Batter has potential but the bean flour aftertaste limits its versatility, and the structure fails under yeast stress. --- ## The Real Talk: Why This Matters Here's what the flour companies don't want you to understand: **gluten does different jobs in different applications.** It provides elasticity in bread, tenderness in cake, and structure in pasta. No single blend of starches and gums can replicate all of those functions. When you see "1-to-1" on a bag, what they mean is "this will physically occupy the same volume as wheat flour in a recipe." They are NOT promising the same texture, structure, or mouthfeel. They're promising convenience, not quality. My recommendation? Stock two flours minimum: - **Cup4Cup** (or similar cornstarch-heavy blend) for cookies, pastry, and sauces - **King Arthur All-Purpose** (or another high-protein blend) for yeast breads and anything requiring structure And stop expecting one bag to do everything. That's how you end up with weaponized crackers and sandy cake. --- ## The James Test I made James taste all five cookies blind. His rankings matched mine exactly, which either means my palate is calibrated correctly or we've been married too long. When he bit into the Cup4Cup cookie, he said, "This is the one, right? This doesn't taste gluten-free." That's the standard. That's what I'm looking for. The bread? He could tell they were all GF. Some were "acceptable" (King Arthur All-Purpose), some were "sad" (Cup4Cup), and one made him make a face (Bob's Red Mill—that one went in the trash). --- ## Your Turn What's your go-to flour? Have you found a blend that actually works across applications, or have you also resigned yourself to a multi-flour pantry? Drop your experiences in the comments—especially if you've found a blend that proves me wrong. (I'm always looking for an excuse to be wrong about flour. It gives me something new to test.) Stay safe, eat well. --- *Full disclosure: All flours were purchased at retail price. No brand partnerships, no sponsored content, no free samples. Just a chef, a kitchen scale, and a lot of opinions.* **Tags:** gluten-free flour review, 1-to-1 flour comparison, GF baking science, King Arthur Measure for Measure, Cup4Cup review, Bob's Red Mill gluten free, Better Batter flour, texture lab, mouthfeel analysis