All-Purpose vs Bread Flour?

[Michael_in_TX]

(Quick aside, I wrote 'flour' and not 'flower,' please clap.)

I don't bake a lot, but I do try to do pizza twice a month and do homemade hamburger or hotdog buns now and then. I've noticed that due to 80% of my baking being pizza dough, I go through a lot more bread flour than I do all purpose flour.

In fact, my remaining all-purpose flour (standard 5 lb bag) has a best-by date of early 2024.

I've begun to wonder if I could just dispense with the all-purpose flour entirely and just use bread flour exclusively. Yet, I've never really gotten a good handle on the exact differences. Sure, I can say stuff like the bread flour with its higher protein content promotes stronger and more gluten development, but I really don't fully grasp what I am saying. I might as well be reading something out of an economics textbook lol.

Does anyone use bread flour exclusively? Are there specific things that all-purpose really should be used for instead?

(As I am not big of sweet things, I never do cakes or pastries. I tend to buy King Arthur for both types of flour, which might make them more similar than other brands.)

[captainlee]

According to Mastering Pizza by Marc Vetri, podcast last month with Meathead, he uses King Arthur bread flour. I have started seeing other recipes using that too. I've used 00 in the past and never saw a difference in what I was doing. By the way, it's a great book.

[captainlee]

I should also mention that he likes whole grain flour.

[WI Bubba]

I'm no expert, but if all you are doing is making doughs, and maybe using it to thicken a sauce or some such thing, then you don't need AP flour in the house. I do a fair amount of cookies and such, so I keep both on hand.

As for the science of why, I'll be waiting just like you for an intelligent answer.

[Ace]

I'm just starting to get in to Pizza making so I don't have any actual experience yet, however, here is an article that may help.

Bread flour vs. all-purpose flour: Does it really make a difference? King Arthur Baking Co.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blo...-purpose-flour

[Michael_in_TX]

That is a really good article.....you can really see the difference the bread flour makes in the photos!

[Alan Brice]

Great article. Thanks.

[jfmorris]

Good article! I try to keep a bag of both in the pantry, along with semolina and 000, both of which I use for pizza dough. I think I also have a bag of 100% whole wheat in the pantry.

[Steve B]

I haven’t used AP in years. Been using a high protein bread flour. But for the most part I only use it for pizza, bagels and some sauces for thickening.
But Richard Chrz would probably have a better answer.

[Richard Chrz]

If I’m making pizza or bread, I’m keeping bread flour around, and not worrying about the occasional times I may benefit from a lower protein percentage.

I have begun to keep some AP around, but just a 5 lb bag here and there for occasional cookies, etc..

depending on what you are doing .. like say bread flour for pie crust, you can make changes in various formulas with things like a bit of vodka, or some fat source to lower gluten structure capabilities,

If I only had one flour in the house, it would be bread flour.

[Richard Chrz]

Steve B using Ghee instead of butter for?

[Steve B]

Haaaa, I thought I asked this question in the SUWYB thread.
Cookies.

[Richard Chrz]

Steve B after I commented I realized what you were asking.

[SheilaAnn]

Michael_in_TX

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[texastweeter]

I use AP for breading on deep frying, gravy, thickening, pie crusts, cake, and biscuits, bread flour for pizza, bread, buns, pretty much everything else. I keep a small amount of cake flour around during the holidays for thin crispy cookies, but the rest of the time I use bread flour and use a chewy cookie recipe.

[Mosca]

This actually came up in our pizza class. John uses AP flour, and used AP flour at his restaurants. But he also said that either works, and it depends on how you want your crust. There was more, but I don’t recall it completely because I was concentrating on the work in front of me. He spoke a little about 00 flour, too. Again, I had work in front of me that I was learning, so I didn’t want to get distracted.

Most basic bread recipes I’ve used have been written for AP flour. I’ve made exclusively pan loaves and hamburger rolls.

My take as a beginner is to learn to get it right with AP flour, then experiment with other flours.

[texastweeter]

Yep basic bread is salt flour and water

[Mosca]

And yeast.

[texastweeter]

I dont count yeast as its free and is captured wild in starter.

[Missin44]

You can make an excellent pizza with either. However different styles tend to work better with different flours. For NY Style, bread is the best, unless you can get your hands on some high gluten flour. If not bread flour with some vital wheat gluten gives an equal result. Vital wheat gluten can be found on Amazon. Do yourself a favor and learn bakers percentage, then use a kitchen scale. It'll cut your learning curve drastically. Regardless, don't expect perfection right away, but pizza dough is pretty forgiving. Even a not so good dough is better than 80% of what you'll find in a local pizza joint. For Neapolitan AP is the best choice if you don't want to spring for the imported "00" flours, you lose a little, but it's still an excellent crust. Most issues come with lack of gluten development. Hell, I experimented with cake flour and it was a pretty good pie.

Best advice:
1. Forget volume measurements, at least for flour and liquid. Go by weight in grams.
2. Reference above, learn Bakers Percentage.
3. Get a $15 kitchen scale.
4. To start off, once you have a basic understanding of bakers percentage, stay around 65% hydration. All that is, total liquid/total flour. Example: 650 grams water÷1000 grams flour = .65 or 65% hydration. Getting higher than that makes the dough harder to work with. Wait until you master lower hydration before going higher.
5. 1 cup flour = 120 grams is generally the accepted weight. 1 fluid cup water = 237 grams

[RonB]

I believe you got the water/flour backwards. Since it's water divided by the flour, (everything is measured against the flour), you have the ratio well over 100% above.

[Missin44]

You can make an excellent pizza with either. However different styles tend to work better with different flours. For NY Style, bread is the best, unless you can get your hands on some high gluten flour. If not bread flour with some vital wheat gluten gives an equal result. Vital wheat gluten can be found on Amazon. Do yourself a favor and learn bakers percentage, then use a kitchen scale. It'll cut your learning curve drastically. Regardless, don't expect perfection right away, but pizza dough is pretty forgiving. Even a not so good dough is better than 80% of what you'll find in a local pizza joint. For Neapolitan AP is the best choice if you don't want to spring for the imported "00" flours, you lose a little, but it's still an excellent crust. Most issues come with lack of gluten development. Hell, I experimented with cake flour and it was a pretty good pie.

Best advice:
1. Forget volume measurements, at least for flour and liquid. Go by weight in grams.
2. Reference above, learn Bakers Percentage.
3. Get a $15 kitchen scale.
4. To start off, once you have a basic understanding of bakers percentage, stay around 65% hydration. All that is, total liquid/total flour. Example: 650 grams water/1000 grams flour = .65 or 65% hydration. Getting higher than that makes the dough harder to work with. Wait until you master lower hydration before going higher.
5. 1 cup flour = 120 grams is generally the accepted weight. 1 fluid cup water = 237 grams

Thanks RobB, you're right. I fixed it. Thanks for the proof read.

[Mister C]

I think AP is the go-to for sweet things like cakes and cookies, mainly because the added protein in bread flour would make the batter set up stiff or produce too chewy/crispy a finished product.

I haven't used bread flour exclusively, but one thing I noticed when I started adding KA bread in pizza is that it absorbed a lot more water and made the dough drier and less sticky. This was helpful when handling but also made it a little tougher to stretch and gave it a crunchier crust. I began adding water to the recipe slowly to get back a little of the softness. Nowadays I tend to use a blend as I found one type of flour would taste better while another would puff up better.

From what I've read and experienced, higher protein content can allow you to stretch thinner without tearing and can get puffier when cooked at higher heat. Also generally results in a chewier end product. There should be no reason whatsoever that you can't use all bread flour, but depending on that and a whole bunch of other factors like how much water goes into the dough, the humidity level where you live (especially if you use a poolish or similar), the altitude (crazy right but it made a huge difference when I moved), and the temp you cook the pizza at, the same recipe will produce significantly varied results. Be prepared to go through a bit of trial and error to get back to the place you were, assuming that's where you wanted to be.

Good luck!