Bread flour vs All Purpose flour for Bread
 

Does it make that much difference?

Going to find out. Will report back later.


I could just ask my sister, but NFW I risk calling and waking her up

I'll be honest I can't figure out the difference. Then toss is 00 for making pizza dough. I can't tell any difference.

It can but since there is a range of protein contents for each type there might not be a huge difference, depending upon which exact two flours you're comparing.

And, there's the other factor. My experience has been that bread making is too much work and seldom turns out as good as that which you can buy for not a lot of money from a good bakery. I've quit trying to make the stuff.

Were I to do it again, I'd seek out imported flour from Europe that is made from whet grown over there, as opposed to European flour made from the crap wheat we produce and ship across to pond to them.

Flour for pasta would come from Italy, no exceptions.

You can make bread with all-purpose flour. I like bread flour because its higher protein content produces a texture that I like. I have even been adding gluten via vital gluten to bring the texture around to what I like. The extra gluten produces bread that toasts with a crunchy crust on the outside and full bodied texture inside that your teeth sink into. Bread is so versatile- you can make it to suit your tastes (as long as you like bread at all).

Bread Flour makes a big difference for bread baking as stated in the above posts. I use Organic Bread Flour and it does produce a stronger rise and more consistent results. I was skeptical at first.

Agree, even though the difference is 1-2% protein. One thing you don't want to do is make a cake with bread flour, unless you like really dense cake.

As far as the 00 pizza flour goes, I don't think it makes much difference until you get a true Neapolitan oven and can get temps up around 900 degrees. 00 can take higher hydrations and still be shapeable but at my oven temps (700 or so at the steel) it doesn't matter much. My pizza guru Joe Varasano seems to agree.

The difference is the gluten content.

Ok I guess I’m the counter example.

Everything was 10x better to eat after we bought our first 50lb bag of shepards grain high gluten flour. It’s 14% gluten.

Sourdough, flatbreads, croissants, muffins, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, pizza dough, everything became awesome.

This is probably just personal taste. I know ‘people’ that like Spanish style bread and dusty biscuits, crumbly muffins.

In my opinion this high gluten is a huge improvement for not a lot of money. 50lb bag of high gluten flour is $28. Make a batch with each flour and see for yourself.

Don’t notice a difference with focaccia. Do with sourdough.

I find a far bigger difference in cake flour vs regular, but I have a weakness for lemon poppyseed pound cake.

Not directly, but sorta. Higher protein in the flour leads to higher gluten development when you knead.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2022/09/22/does-bread-flour-really-make-a-difference-in-your-bread-the-answer-is-yes

You could ask my sister instead, but don't tell her you are vaccinated and please say you are vegan to avoid a lecture.

GF said to always use high grade flour for breads. And use it in general unless the recipe for something says to use standard grade flour. There are flour improvers for making bread, but it's probably just adding extra glutens.

I have always use regular AP flour for everything I make (loaf bread and pizza), but I tried King Arthur AP flour 11.7% protein and my bread was much better.

Thanks, I think I've been using too much water for my bread and particularly for my pizza bases. The pizza have been too floppy and sticky to handle easily and I think if they were a little drier they would keep their shaper better too.

Yeah, I like hydrations of around 70% for bread, but 60-65% probably is better for pizza. I've learned to deal with slightly higher hydrations as I generally make one batch of dough at a time, 1100 g of flour, which yields roughly 2000g of dough, half for a loaf, and the other half for 3 pizzas.

Don't forget that you need to account for your starter in figuring your hydration, most online calcs will allow you to do this.

Ah ha, that's where I've been going wrong. A bit too much water.

I’ve worked with bread vs cake flour as a Child laborer in a Swiss bakery and it made a difference. Like jd said, it’s a protein difference. I also used fresh yeast back then. I wish i could find fresh yeast in the US.

Yeast is everywhere. A good bakery will give you some. I’m using my friends stuff that he grew out of the air on his back porch.

Red Star fresh yeast cakes are available in many supermarkets, and larger quantities from Fleichman and others are available thru various web sources.
Starter is really easy to grow if you want that. Use one of the recipes that includes some pineapple juice as it prevents off flavors. Its not hard to maintain, I keep mine in the fridge and only feed it prior to baking. It literally will keep for months without feeding if in the fridge. And if you use it to make a poolish, there's not a strong flavor.

To prevent the off flavors, I use a 5:1:1 first feed three days prior to baking. 5 grams of starter and then build to a final feeding of 1:1:1 and during the summer I use a 2:1:1. That keeps the smell and flavor right where I like it.

Consider not buying flour but instead buying wheat and getting a grinder.

A fine powder has a lot more surface area to easily break down than the whole grains will.

If you're going the homemade bread route take the extra step.