6 Types of Flours used in Baking in Kenya

Welcome to a new series: Baking in Kenya.

This series will focus on the ingredients that are used in baking and are available in Kenya.

We hope this will help you in your wonderful journey to be the best baker you can be ^_^.

This post will focus on the types of flours used while baking.

1. All-Purpose Flour

All-purpose flour is a kind of wheat flour that can be used for multiple uses, hence the name all-purpose. It’s the most common, easily available and economical wheat flour found in most shops, supermarkets and wholesale shops. All-purpose flour can be used to bake cakes, cookies, scones, doughnuts etc. A packet of 2Kg ranges from Kshs. 125-140 depending on the brand.

Exe allpurpose flour

2. Self-Rising Flour

This is a wheat flour that has a chemical rising agent added to an all-purpose flour. It’s used for cakes where recipes have little or no rising agent required, cookies, sponges and biscuits. A packet of 2Kg costs from Kshs. 125 – 140 depending on the brand.

3. Bakers’ Flour

Bakers flour is a wheat flour that has a high gluten content. Gluten is the protein found in wheat flour that makes it sticky. This flour is used for breads, buns & other bread products. It is particularly good for those products since the dough is able to proof properly without collapsing and to it’s full capacity. Most of the bakers’ flour sold in Kenya is available in 50 Kg bags, they range from about Kshs. 3,000 to 3,900; depending on the brand.

Bakers’Flour (courtesy: http://www.21food.com)

4. Whole Wheat Flour

 Whole wheat flour is a whole meal flour that is very healthy and nutritious. It’s when the wheat is milled together with the skin for a whole meal wheat flour. This wheat flour is not easy to bake with on its own since the gluten content is very low. Therefore, you have to add a small amount of all purpose flour or bakers’ flour, depending on the product you are baking. A 2Kg packet of this flour is about Kshs. 130-150; depending on the brand.

5. Atta Flour

Atta flour is another form of whole meal wheat flour, it’s made from durum wheat from India and is mainly used for chapatis but can also be used while baking whole wheat breads. It can be one of the wheat flours you combine with a whole wheat flour and bakers flour. It is also a highly nutritional flour. You can also use it to make mandazis and doughnuts. A 2 Kg packet of this flour ranges from Kshs. 135-150 depending on the brand.
6. Cake Flour

Cake flour is a highly refined flour with a lower gluten content that is used for making perfet cakes, it is preferred by pastry chefs because the cake products baked have a very soft & fine texture. However, this is not easily available in Kenya and it sometimes has to be imported.

Cake Flour (Courtesy: finecooking.com)

There is a simple way of making your own cake flour; measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour, then remove 1 Tablespoon of it and replace it with 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch which can be bought in a supermarket like Chandarana Supermarket. This will also give you a kind of cake flour and your cakes will be wonderful, light and soft.

We hope this was helpful to you. If you have any questions or additional suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

Thank you and happy baking ^_^

To get more practice baking with some of these types of flours, sign up for our Baking Classes and learn how to bake with a charcoal oven.

Visit our Baking Classes page for more info, email us: amaribreads@gmail.com

11 thoughts on “6 Types of Flours used in Baking in Kenya

  1. Hello Felix, other brands are; Maisha, United millers, Premier millers are the ones I know of. As for contacts, I do not have them, however, I would advice you to check the nearest depot in your area (you can always search online for locations). Depots will assist you if you want to purchase in bulk. However, if its small scale, you can visit your local wholesale distributor and they would know how to order from the main factory. I hope that is helpful


  2. Any guide on where I can get the cake flour you mention above. I have looked in the 2 major supermarket chains and not found it. Are there any specialty bakers supply shops that I might find it at?


  3. Hi AP, unfortunately I'm not sure where you can get cake flour, have never really found any in Nairobi, but haven't looked in a while. Maybe check Chandarana supermarket. It's very rare to find it in Kenya.


  4. How about the actual wheat grains? We mill our own here in the US, and are probably moving to Kenya next year. I'm trying to decide what kitchen tools to bring with us. Can we find wheat grains and oat (Groat) grains – specifically in Nairobi?


  5. Hello, yes you can find wheat grains in different parts of Kenya. There are different parts of Kenya that grow wheat in a large scale setting. As for Oat grains, I have seen oats sold in the supermarket and I think there are farmers who do grow them, but I'm not 100% sure. Will share when I find out for sure. Hope that's helpfule


  6. Hi Mimi, you can always use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour for bread products. The difference will just always be in the quality and production of your products; especially if you're doing it commercially. However; all-purpose is alright since it's supposed to be used more many “purposes”. Hope that was helpful. Thanks for reading! ^_^


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