In just a few years, and thanks to the boom in homemade bread (accentuated during the Covid lockdown), we have gone from finding practically a single variety of flour in shops to having a wide range in which we may feel lost. However, as you will see after reading this article, it is only necessary to consult the information on the package to know if a flour is suitable for making bread and, therefore, suitable for baking. Let’s get to it.
What is bread flour?
A baking flour is obviously a flour that is suitable for making bread because it has the necessary characteristics for this. However, this name can cause some confusion since, in ordinary supermarkets, we do not usually find a type of flour that responds to this name as such, although we can find flours that are suitable for making bread and that, therefore, are suitable for baking.
With this article, we want to go into this concept in depth enough to give you the tools that will allow you to move with ease among the multitude of flours that we now find in stores, and that can drive us a little crazy, in order to know how to recognize which ones are the most appropriate for making homemade bread.
Wheat flour, its strength, and bread dough
Many of you will wonder why a specific flour is needed to make bread if it is really essential and, if so, what makes it so special. To do this, we need to explain and understand what gluten is how it works, and why a flour with a minimum amount of gluten is needed to make bread or, at least, to get a minimally spongy bread (traditional white breads are also breads, but that is a different story, never better said), understanding bread as that which is made only with flour, water, yeast and salt (without any other additives).
Gluten is the combination of proteins present in the flour of some cereals (for baking, the one we are most interested in is wheat flour) that, in the presence of water, adhere to each other and form long chains linked together. The quantity of gluten precursor proteins in wheat flour depends on the variety of wheat and the season, in general terms, and is directly related to the strength of the flour: the higher the protein content, the greater the capacity to form gluten and the greater the strength.
What is special about bread compared to a product made with ordinary flour, such as a biscuit? The answer is that we want our bread to have a spongy, elastic, and airy crumb, very airy in some cases, such as ciabatta, and much more airy than a sponge cake, for example. The gas that swells the bread dough considerably during fermentation and baking is retained in the dough thanks to a network that forms the famous gluten (when kneading and when the dough rests); I always visualize the gluten network as a steel wool, an intricate network of filaments that can be stretched, spacing each other out while remaining connected.
In short, gluten :
- It retains the gas that makes the dough swell (makes it increase a lot in volume) during fermentation.
- During baking, this airy structure coagulates and sets without the bread sinking.
- It is responsible for the final crumb being light, spongy, and elastic, full of holes.
And what is the protein content of bread-making wheat flour? Generally speaking, we can loosely agree that to make bread we need flour with at least 9% protein. If the flour does not have a sufficient quantity and quality of gluten, a reticulated structure that is sufficiently dense and resistant to support a suitable crumb during baking is not formed.
Differences between strong flour and bread flour
Among the different flour options that we can find in a supermarket, the most common are usually regular or multipurpose flour and strong flour. The first, in many cases, is used for baking while the second, in many others, is not usually the most suitable, as we clarify in the following lines:
- Strong flour, with a protein content of over 12%, would be suitable for pastries, that is, for sweet and fatty fermented doughs.
- Bread flour would have between 9-10% and 12% protein.
- Flour with less than 9% protein would be soft or pastry flour (note that pastry is not the same as cakes), perfect for doughs that are not going to ferment, such as cakes, muffins, and cookies, among others.
- Traditionally, regular flour or all-purpose flour, which is not labeled in any way other than flour on the packaging, is at the low end of the baking spectrum, which is why many brands of commercial all-purpose flour are suitable for baking, even if this is not explicitly stated.
Fortunately, nowadays, in addition to finding flour identified as bakery flour in stores, many manufacturers have the detail of indicating on the packaging either the percentage of protein or the parameter W, which is a measure of the strength of the flour and gluten content, which is carried out under controlled conditions by deforming a dough made with the flour in question and water. To calculate this parameter W, the resistance that the dough offers to being stretched (P) is measured, compared to the capacity of the dough to be stretched without breaking (L). The relationship of these two parameters is known as tenacity versus extensibility and is expressed as P/L. Typical values of this relationship are the following:
- 1.5 – 2 High-strength flours (W>250)
- 0.8 – 1.5 High-strength flours (W 200-250)
- 0.6 – 0.8 Strong flours (W 150-250)
- 0.4 – 0.6 Medium strength flours (W 90-150)
- 0.3 – 0.4 Soft flours (W <90)
In summary, if you are looking for a flour for making bread, look at the following:
- If the package says bread flour, it is usually suitable for making bread.
- In all-purpose flours, the protein percentage must be at least 9%. This percentage can be deduced by consulting the nutritional information on the packaging, which indicates the amount of protein per 100 g of flour.
- If the package says strong flour, the ideal value for bread making would be in the medium strength range (W 90-150). You can use a stronger flour for bread making, although it is not ideal.
- Is it possible to use a stronger flour mixed with some regular flour to reduce its strength? Yes, in fact, this is a suitable option when we have these two types of flour, but not an optimal one for making bread.
Where to buy flour to make bread
I still remember when, in order to get strong flour, you had to go to a bakery that wanted to sell you some. However, today, bread flour can be found in many shops, especially in large stores and supermarkets of a certain size (remember that we are always referring to wheat flour).
As I mentioned earlier, ordinary flour, which does not contain any special information, is often used for baking, depending on the brand. Many brands indicate the percentage of protein, which is usually not less than 9%; this flour is suitable for baking, although it is a matter of testing it. Be careful with some brands of all-purpose flour with a very low percentage of protein (there are some with as little as 4.6%, clearly a weak flour). Therefore, it is always better to check the composition on the package to be sure. If it is at least 9%, use it to make bread.
Can you make bread with strong flour? Yes, you can, although it is not necessary and the dough will probably be difficult to handle, because it is too strong, and the resulting bread will be rather tasteless. But if you can’t find anything else, go ahead.
Attention should also be paid to brands whose name is baking flour but which have a W value greater than 200. This flour is clearly strong and it would perhaps be more correct to indicate it for baking.
In addition to supermarket flours, there are a few online stores that sell flours strictly for home bakers and small-scale bakeries. These stores know their product very well, which is generally of excellent quality, and so this is an option that we also recommend.