It’s easy to see why King Arthur all-purpose flour has such a loyal following among bakers. The higher protein content and consistent milling help bake up everything from beautifully structured breads to soft, fluffy cakes. Add in their strict quality standards, support of American farmers and employee-owned model, and it’s no surprise it’s one of the most-grabbed bags on the shelf.
But in baking, as in life, it’s always good to have a backup plan. Whether your store is out of stock, you need to stretch your grocery dollars a bit further or you’re just curious about some of the other flours out there, it’s good to know which flours will actually work in your favorite recipes.
I turned my home kitchen into a bakery for a few days in order to find the Best King Arthur Flour Alternatives. I tested three all-purpose flours alongside King Arthur in chocolate chip cookies, biscuits and confetti cupcakes to see how they compared side by side.
The Flours I Tested
I tested everything using King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour as a baseline, so it would be easy to see how the other flours stack up.
Protein content: 11.7%
Price: Premium
Availability: Widely available in grocery stores and online
Then, to find the best alternatives to King Arthur flour, I chose three popular brands of all-purpose flour based on similarity in quality, everyday availability and a range of price points.
Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached White All Purpose Flour felt like the closest match to King Arthur overall, with nearly the same protein levels, consistent milling standards, comparable pricing, sustainability efforts and employee ownership.
Protein content: 10-12 %
Price: Premium, similar to King Arthur
Availability: Widely available in grocery stores and online
Gold Medal All Purpose Flour is a pantry staple for many. It’s easy to find in most grocery stores and costs about half as much as premium brands. It has a lower protein content, which can be a pro and a con—it may cause cookies to spread a bit more, but it also helps create softer, more delicate cakes.
Protein content: about 10–10.5%
Price: About half the price of premium brands
Availability: Easy to find nationwide
Many bakers rely on Great Value Unbleached All-Purpose Flour for everyday baking, claiming it performs similarly to premium brands in everything from cookies and pie crusts to breads and pasta. The price is hard to beat, at about one-third the cost of King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill.
Protein content: about 10–10.5%
Price: About one-third the price of premium brands
Availability: Available in Walmart stores and at walmart.com
Overall At a Glance
Best overall alternative to King Arthur: Bob’s Red Mill
Best for cookies: Bob’s Red Mill
Best for biscuits: Bob’s Red Mill
Best for cupcakes: Great Value
Best budget pick: Great Value
The Results
I baked four batches each of chocolate chip cookies, biscuits, and confetti cupcakes using the exact same recipes and ingredients, changing only the flour. These bakes were chosen because each highlights a different quality of all-purpose flour, such as ease of handling the dough, spread, rise, tenderness and structure.
By knowing exactly how the other flours on the shelf will perform in common baking recipes, you can then choose based on factors like price, availability or the sustainability and ownership practices that matter most to you.
I assumed the differences would be glaringly obvious. I assumed wrong.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies are a great test of all-purpose flour for dough consistency, spread, texture and chewiness. But with rich chocolate chips and brown sugar in the mix, flavor differences are harder to detect.
As expected, all four batches tasted similarly delicious with minimal, if any, flavor differences. The biggest distinctions I noticed were in how easy the dough was to handle and roll and how the cookies spread.
At a Glance:
Most similar to King Arthur: Bob’s Red Mill
Least spread: Bob’s Red Mill
Best budget pick: Great Value
Bottom line: They all make delicious chocolate chip cookies
King Arthur
The King Arthur dough was soft, smooth and easy to roll out without it sticking to my hands. The cookies baked up slightly thicker with moderate spread and a chewy center.
So, let’s see how the other flours compared.
Bob’s Red Mill
It was hard to tell the difference between the Bob’s Red Mill cookies and the King Arthur cookies. The dough mixed up smoothly and was easy to roll, and once baked, the cookies spread the least of the group, and the texture was soft and chewy.
Gold Medal
The Gold Medal cookie dough was sticky, but once chilled was easier to handle. The cookies spread a little more and baked slightly thinner, but the flavor and texture were still very close to the premium flours.
Great Value
The Great Value cookies were surprisingly similar to the others. Although the dough was stickier, and the cookies spread a bit more than the premium flours, the differences in the cookies themselves were minimal enough that most people wouldn’t notice without a side-by-side comparison. If price was my main concern, this is the bag I’d grab.
Biscuits
Because biscuits contain so few ingredients, they’re one of the best ways to evaluate flour flavor, structure, tenderness and overall texture.
All four doughs mixed together similarly easily. The recipe called for adding milk as needed until the dough became shaggy, and each flour required about the same amount. The doughs were all soft and slightly sticky, but still easy to scoop. Based on appearance alone, it was difficult to tell them apart before cutting them open and tasting them.
At a Glance:
Most similar to King Arthur: Bob’s Red Mill
Best flavor: Bob’s Red Mill
Most tender interior: Bob’s Red Mill
Best budget pick: Great Value
Bottom line: Any of these flours will make excellent biscuits
King Arthur
The King Arthur biscuits had a tall rise, a nice golden-brown exterior and a light, fluffy interior with a subtle wheaty flavor.
Bob’s Red Mill
The Bob’s Red Mill biscuits browned more evenly than the King Arthur biscuits, but were otherwise very similar in rise and fluffiness. The insides were soft and tender with a slightly more pronounced butter flavor.
Gold Medal
The Gold Medal biscuits rose as well as the premium flours but with a slightly tighter crumb structure. While still soft and tender inside, the texture leaned a little drier, and the flour flavor stood out more.
Great Value
The Great Value biscuits looked just as tall and fluffy as the others, though the interior structure felt a bit firmer. They were still soft inside with a mild wheaty flavor and a nicely golden color.
Confetti Cupcakes
Cupcakes are an excellent test for moisture, structure and rise. Because the flavors are fairly simple, these cupcakes can also reveal subtle differences in flavor among the flours. As for the rainbow sprinkles? Well, they’re just fun!
I expected the budget flours to bake up with a softer, more delicate crumb because of their lower protein content, and I was right. Still, as with the cookie and biscuit tests, there were no losers.
At a Glance
Most similar to King Arthur: Bob’s Red Mill
Best rise: Great Value
Most tender interior: Great Value
Best budget pick: Great Value
Bottom line: The lower-protein budget flours produced the softest, fluffiest cupcakes
King Arthur
Just as I expected, the King Arthur cupcakes rose nicely and baked up soft and moist. Compared to the lower-protein flours, the crumb structure was slightly tighter and more uniform, giving them a sturdier texture.
Bob’s Red Mill
These cupcakes were remarkably similar to the King Arthur version. The rise, crumb structure and moisture level were nearly identical, making them difficult to distinguish in a side-by-side comparison.
Gold Medal
The Gold Medal cupcakes had the lowest rise of the group, which I hoped wouldn’t make them dense or heavy. And it didn’t. They were soft and fluffy inside with a moist, tender crumb. If I hadn’t lined all four batches up side by side, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about their height.
Great Value
The best rise and fluffiest texture of all the cupcakes came from the least expensive flour in the lineup. The Great Value cupcakes baked up light, soft and moist with a delicate crumb. This is the one we kept reaching for even after the taste testing was done.
And the Best Alternative to King Arthur Flour Is…
Bob’s Red Mill Organic All Purpose Flour. If you’re looking for a flour that behaves most similarly to King Arthur All-Purpose Flour across a variety of baked goods, this is it. In my tests, it consistently came the closest to matching King Arthur’s performance in cookies, biscuits and cupcakes, making it the best overall alternative.
But, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best flour choice across the board. The higher protein content of the premium flours gave the cookies a bit more structure and made the doughs easier to handle. When it came to the cupcakes, the lower-protein flours had a slight edge. Both the Gold Medal and Great Value cupcakes baked up lighter and softer.
If budget is your biggest consideration, Great Value is an easy recommendation. It consistently performed well in all three tests, and in the cupcake test it actually outperformed the premium flours with the highest rise and fluffiest texture.
But there really weren’t any losers in this lineup. All four flours baked delicious cookies, tall, fluffy biscuits and moist cupcakes. The differences were subtle, and in most cases, dough consistency, spread/rise and texture varied more than flavor. So while Bob’s Red Mill earns the title of best overall alternative to King Arthur, the differences weren’t dramatic enough to justify a special trip to the store. Whether you choose based on price, availability or personal preference, any of these flours can help you bake delicious cookies, biscuits and cupcakes.
