/ck/ redpill me on bread flour.
What is it? What makes it different than all-purpose flour?
Is it a necessity for bread baking? Or is it a meme-tier ingredient?
Are there other items (not bread/doughs) that benefit from bread flour?
>>7400540
It's higher in protein than all-purpose flour, which in turn has more protein than cake flour.
flour
gluten
yes
no
not really
>>7400567
'the fuck are you talking about
Bread flour has more gluten, which is a protein, resulting in a stiffer, chewier, more glutenous dough.
>What is it? What makes it different than all-purpose flour?
It's flour with higher gluten content, typically around 14%. AP is around 11%. Cake flour is around 8%.
>Is it a necessity for bread baking? Or is it a meme-tier ingredient?
Not necessary, no, but it does bake a better bread than AP.
>Are there other items (not bread/doughs) that benefit from bread flour?
If you like your choco chip bicky wickies to be chewy, bread flour's the way to go.
Also, not all breads use bread flour.
>>7400567
>shitposting this hard
I think I've had enough 4chan for now, see you guys in the evening when I get bored doing productive things
This thread has made me wonder. Would a higher protein dough like bread flour be better for noodles like lamian?
>>7400591
Probably, since they're made from a dough that has to be stretched and manipulated.
>>7400540
The best all-purpose alternative is to grind oatmeal into a flour.
Works for everything and is much healthier.
>>7400602
Works for everything? But they don't have gluten - you can't make any classic bread with just oatmeal.
![Cricket-flour[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/aCUAqf3.jpg "Cricket-flour[1].jpg")
>they don't use cricket flour
>>7401863
Cricket flour is expensive and lacks the gluten needed for baking. All non wheat flour are shit.
Cake flour: 8% Protein -- very soft for dainty cakes
All-Purpose flour: 10% Protein -- a soft flour for general use, biscuits, cookies, pancakes
Bread flour: 12% Protein -- medium chewiness for breads, rolls
High-gluten (pizza/bagel) flour: 14% Protein -- maximum chewiness/gluten development
2% doesn't sound like much, but it's a big difference.
Catchpa: select all with pancakes
When I'm slicing up a loaf made with bread flour, I can make the slices thinner than if the loaf was made of AP flour. So if you cut your loaves with a bread knife, bread flour is nice, but not essential.
Made bread today, when I mixed it up this morning I didn't know what it was going to end up being, so I did 50/50 ap and bread flour.
Like he said, 2% does not sound like much, but even 1% difference and you can really feel it while hand kneading. Even with it only being half bread flour it was much tighter than pure AP would be when I got home to knead it after the first rise.
I don't understand. How does the flower have protein if bread isn't an animal?
>>7402311
>>7402311
Insects get attracted to the mill and end up being ground up along with the wheat.
>>7402344
Really? That's actually pretty neat. How do you control that? Why is it never talked about?
>>7400540
Just use regular flour and add some vital wheat gluten to it, same thing. Add more if you're making pizza crust.
I buy wheat gluten in bulk to make seitan.
Bread Flour makes better fried chicken then All Purpose Flour.
Its one of the secrets of fried chicken.
>>7402659
Lol wat
>>7400540
literally could have googled it
its higher protein. more gluten, stronger gluten strands and development.
its not meme-tier. its like asking is butter meme tier. makes no damn sense.
>>7400576
No flour has gluten, it has gliadin and glutenen. Kneading weaves these proteins together to make gluen.
>>7400591
I don't know about lamian but better pastas are made from stronger flour and, by law, all industrial pastas in the EU and US (as well as possibly elsewhere) must be made from durum wheat flour, which is the same thing as bread flour. Furthermore, IINM, all pasta manufactured in Italy, even egg dough pastas, must be made with semolina flour, which has an even higher protein content than bread flour does.
As far as Asian wheat noodles go, however, I've no idea. The only Asian noodles I've ever made are Sinhalese ones (hoppers) and skin noodles. Those are made from rice and cornflour/cornstarch, respectively.
>and both are super easy to make
>>7403122
Thanks, that's really helpful. When you say durum wheat flour is the same thing as bread flour, do you mean exactly the same? I ask because when I buy pastas with durum wheat and water as the sole ingredients, it definitely tastes different to noodles that I buy with just wheat and water as ingredients. Could that just be down to hydration and gluten levels?
>>7402661
Bread flour would make crunchier fried chicken.
I made cookies with bread flour recently and regretted it. Too chewy.
>>7402607
I made pizzas last night with KABF and VWG. It's similar but not really the same. VWG also imparts a maybe unwanted nutty flavor. A true high-gluten flour is in a league of its own. It just handles and performs so beautifully. It's sad that you can't really buy it anywhere except eBay or from Tony Gemignanis site for like $3/lb with shipping unless you have access to foodservice wholesale.
So much truth in this thread, but missing key facts. Gluten is a complex organic protein that does not occur naturally. Gluten is formed when you have gliadin, glutenin, protease and water together in a mixture. The chemical process is called the protease reaction. You can either let mole ular motion do the work for you over time, or accelerate the process with mechanical agitation, IE kneading. Kneading, while accelerating the process actually can negatively effect the flavor profile of the finished product due to the bleaching action of oxygen in the air being kneaded into the dough. When you see a gram/protein label on a bag of flour it refers to glutenin and gliaden content, and yes, higher protein flours make it easier to build longer gluten chains, and therefore more texture in your finished product, but by adjusting your mixing and resting times you can get whatever texture you want. More important than choosing between AP and bread flour is buying unbleached and unbromated flour, or organically processed flour because your finished product will have better flavor with the flour being naturally aged instead of chemically aged.
>>7405058
That's interesting. That helps explain no-knead doughs and the stretch and fold technique too, if I'm understanding the effect of molecular motion correctly.
my inevitably unhelpful contribution TTT. is: whole wheat flour has the highest protein content of all at 16g.
>>7405405
Ever made a meringue? That's beating egg whites to stiff peaks. Ever noticed that every recipe for meringue tells you to very, very carefully make sure that no yolk is present at all and that all traces of fat and oil are removed from the bowl in which you intend to make it? Know why? It's because the fat gets in the way of the proteins in the egg white forming a matrix that traps air bubbles. This air-trapping matrix is called a foam.
Similarly, despite wholemeal being high protein, it also has lots of fibre and that fibre gets in the way of creating the long protein chains required for a good, chewy, airy and well-risen bread.
And now you know.
I don't use bread flour or vital wheat gluten anymore. My bread, bagels, cookies, etc turn out great with all purpose. There's a wide range of quality though. Some all purpose would be better labeled as pastry flour, while others would be better as labeled bread flour.
>>7407415
I knew that, thanks. Anyway, it tastes better and is healthier for you by far. I will take my soft and springy whole wheat bread over white bread any day. I rarely eat the stuff these days at all
