What is the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour?

Question

Can I just use the bleached all-purpose flour to make homemade bread? I have a mad craving for homemade rosemary bread... I MUST HAVE IT NOW! :)

Answer 1

Bread Flour is a flour that contains significantly more Wheat Glutin in it. You can make your Bread with the all purpose flour but it will not have the chewy consistency nor will it crust as well.

All Purpose is just that it is the "Jack of all trades--Master of none" in the flour arena.

there are 4 basic types of flour available

Cake (High ash low Gluten) Finer grain crumb
Pastry (High Ash Medium Gluten) Great for cookies and Pie Crusts .

You can make pastry flour with 1/3 cake flour and 2/3 All Purpose

All Purpose (Medium Ash and Medium Gluten) Just as the name implies good for all things but quality will suffer a bit if you are looking for specific results such as chewy bread or flaky pie crusts and cookies

Bread Flour (Low Ash High Gluten) As the proteins break down in the kneading process the gluten develops and glues together the dough and creates a more elastic dough to hold the yeast fermentation in shape and not break down in the proofing and baking process.

Probably more info than you wanted but the short answer is yes you can use both flours but you will like it better if you use bread flour.

Answer 2

The person who said knead it a little longer is mistaken, that will get you hard dense bread.

The All-Purpose flour does have lower gluten, so you must 'develop the gluten' by working it more, but not at the end...

To develop gluten in a low gluten flour:

Start will all the liquid, sugar, salt and yeast for your recipe at the proper temp,

Add only 1/3 of the flour for the recipe (don't add the rosemary yet)

Beat with a whisk until it runs trough it in long strings of goo.

At this point the gluten is developed, and you can rest it 5 minutes and proceed with the rest of the recipe as though you had bread flour.

Answer 3

The amount of gluten in the flour determines what type of flour it is. Bread flour has much more gluten than cake flour. All purpose flour has a moderate amount of gluten so it does work for breads; it will also work for cakes but you will a better cake texture and consistancy with a cake flour which is considerably lower in gluten.

Gluten is the protein that allows the dough to stretch during the proofing process. Over working the dough can cause to much gluten to form and the dough can be very difficult to work with.

Answer 4

Bread flour is a high-protein flour, specially formulated for making yeast breads. The combination of extra protein, a tiny bit of malted barley to help the yeast, and vitamin C or potassium bromate to help the formation of the gluten, helps the dough rise and retain gasses as it bakes, resulting in greater volume and better texture.

You can certainly substitute all-purpose flour in a recipe, but the results will be less spectacular. If you have a box of wheat gluten handy, you can add a tablespoon or so to your bread recipe to get essentially the same results as if you had used the bread flour.

Answer 5

Yes, you can use it. Bread flour has more gluten (protein) than a/p flour, which is necessary for bread tohold it's shape after rising. Just knead your dough a bit longer using a/p.

PS: I'd LOVE to have your T&T Rosemary Bread recipe! TIA

Answer 6

Yes, you can use all purpose flour. Bread flour has a higher gluten content, but plain flour will work just fine.

Answer 7

bread flour has more gluten
i guess you could use all purpose though

Answer 8

All purpose flour doesn't rise and bread flour does.d

Answer 9

two dollars!