What’s The Difference Between Bread Flour And All-Purpose Flour For Making Bread?
Surely seeing the title of this article you asked yourself the question” and really what is the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour?”
Perhaps you also read the recipe and saw in the composition of the ingredients not all-purpose flour but bread flour. And you immediately had a lot of questions.
Such as what their differences are, and whether it is possible to replace one flour with another. We have found the answers to all these questions. And if you want to know them too, keep reading our article.
What is Bread Flour?
Initially, bread flour was developed for better bread baking. It was paired with yeast, which allowed us to achieve the desired result.
What is The Rise of Bread?
Bread flour contains a good amount of protein. This allows producing a high content of gluten. Due to this, a desired rise of the bread happens. The protein content is about 14-16 percent. In general, this is your yeast bread flour, which uses yeast as baking powder.
What are the properties of gluten?
- Insoluble in water, – swelling properties;
- When they grow, they are connected to each other;
- When they swell, they become elastic;
- When they’re swollen, they can hold the gas;
- They change structure when heated.
Where Can You Use Bread Flour?
As you understand from the name, bread flour is used mainly for baking bread. But, of course, you can use it for baking bagels, different buns such as cinnamon buns, for wheat bread, sourdough bread, and so on.
What is All-purpose Flour?
It is a flour that everyone knows and uses. This flour is great for all the dishes that we used to cook with flour. For example, cookies, pancakes, cakes, pies, etc. Protein content about 11%. As you can see, this flour has a lower protein content, which means that there is less gluten.
What Is The Difference Between Bread Flour and All-purpose Flour?
So, the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour is two things. The first is protein content. We have already mentioned above that bread flour contains from 14 to 16 percent protein.
While all-purpose flour contains less protein, namely 8-10 percent. Why is it so important?
Since all-purpose flour has a lower protein content, it is not able to create the amount of gluten that is needed to create a good dough for bread. But bread flour is able to give the dough a light and airy structure. Therefore, it is best to use bread flour for baking bread. And the second thing is using flour. All-purpose flour can be used for different baking recipes. But bread flour can be only used for baking bread.
Substitute For Bread Flour
In fact, it is quite difficult to find a replacement for bread flour. Baking bread needs an elastic structure that most flours can’t provide. You may ask why. It’s very simple: in other types of flour is not enough protein, and therefore not enough gluten. Then what if the bread flour was not at home, but you need to bake bread?
You can take all-purpose flour and add vital wheat gluten to it. This will provide additional protein. And because of this, the structure of your dough will be perfect. But be attentive now. You can’t use other types of flour. For example, instant, or pastry flour. You will not get the desired result. Your dough won’t rise. And as a result, you get bread with a dense, not airy structure.
How to Make Bread Flour?
If you are a supporter of healthy and homemade food, then most likely it is interesting for you how to make bread flour at home. Of course for its preparation, you will need all-purpose flour. To increase the protein content, you need to add vital wheat gluten to the all-purpose flour. The vital wheat gluten you can buy in the baking department in grocery stores.
What do You Need to do Next?
So, you need to measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour (4 1/2 ounces or 129 grams). Then remove 1/2 teaspoons (1/8 ounce or 4 grams). And after that, add the same amount of vital gluten to the all-purpose flour. (1/8 ounce or 4 grams). All you have to do is whisk and sift the flour. It is simple to make bread flour in your own kitchen.
Finally, we have found out what is the bread and all-purpose flour. And what else flour can be used for baking bread? We want to tell you about almond bread flour which is gluten-free. Bread made from almond flour has a nutty and slightly sweet taste. The recipe which we will tell you is perfect for soft keto sandwich bread.
Recipe of almond bread is:
- Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and then add 2 additional egg whites. Whisk the eggs and egg whites
- After that add salt and warm water, melted butter, xanthan gum, the psyllium husks, almond flour, baking powder.
- And then you have to blend these ingredients. You should blend until you get a smooth dough.
- All you have to do is pour the dough into a loaf tin. Don’t forget to layout the baking paper. Smooth the top, but do not press too hard. Bread should be baked for 45 minutes at 180 Celsius.
And that’s all. You will get a delicious fresh bread made from almond flour. We are sure that you will love this recipe very much.
There are Still Many Different Types of Flour
This allows you to cook different dishes for every taste. In our article, we have told you the difference between all-purpose flour and bread. As you have seen, it is not necessary to run around the shops in search of bread flour. You can do it yourself at home in your kitchen. It is important to understand the varieties of flour for a good housewife. Because as you know flour is one of the main ingredients in almost every recipe that is associated with baking and not only. We hope our article was useful to you.
