Our Culinary Crew Explains the (Very Vital!) Distinction

I’ve by no means recognized my mother and father’ pantry to be with out massive (very massive) baggage of all-purpose flour and bread flour. After I was rising up, my mother would usually use AP flour to make a easy dough for manaeesh, a Center Jap spherical flatbread sometimes topped with cheese or za’atar. She normally used bread flour at any time when we determined to make a selfmade pizza, and I all the time seen that we went by means of it at a a lot slower tempo than all-purpose flour, however I did not totally grasp the distinction between the 2 varieties of flour till I turned an editor at Critical Eats. 

Each bread flour and all-purpose flour have particular makes use of within the kitchen, and it’s necessary to understand how their variations can have an effect on your baking and cooking—as a result of they will have an effect on it very a lot. “The rule of thumb is rarely change one type of flour with one other in a recipe—it might actually mess issues up,” says Editorial Director Daniel, who by no means misses an opportunity to nerd out in regards to the science of proteins in flour. I additionally spoke with Culinary Editor Genevieve, who has educated and labored as a baker, to be taught extra about these variations and the best way to use every in recipes. 

The Key Distinction Between All-Function and Bread Flour and All-Function Flour: It is All About Protein

The largest distinction between all-purpose and bread flours is their protein content material. The protein content material in bread flour ranges from 12 to 14%, the best amongst refined wheat flours. All-purpose flour, alternatively, incorporates a reasonable protein content material of 9 to 12%, making it a way more versatile flour possibility. These protein ranges instantly relate to how a lot gluten the flours can produce, which determines the construction and chewiness of the completed baked items.

Gluten is fashioned when two proteins, glutenin and gliadin, are combined with water or one other water-based liquid. The upper the protein content material, the extra gluten growth there will be. Decrease-protein flours are preferable for tender baked items like muffins, biscuits, cookies, and truffles, for instance, since an excessive amount of gluten would make them harder and chewier. Increased-protein flours, alternatively, can produce stronger, extra elastic doughs which might be vital for a greater crumb and rise in crusty breads, pizza doughs, and bagels—it is the energy and elasticity of a high-gluten dough that improves its means to entice gasoline bubbles and kind puffy air pockets throughout baking. 

The tough factor about bread and AP flours is that there aren’t any strict guidelines, which means the precise protein share will depend on the model. That is why our recipes generally name out sure manufacturers of flour. For instance, King Arthur sells an all-purpose flour that has an unusually excessive protein content material verging on bread flour ranges. As a lot as we love King Arthur merchandise, we are inclined to keep away from their AP flour for that reason—it is simply an excessive amount of of an outlier. (Our baguette recipe is only one exception to this, because it requires a high-protein AP flour for a correct crisp and tender texture, and King Arthur, with its higher-than-normal 11.7% protein quantity, matches the invoice.)

A safer guess for AP flour is a model like Gold Medal, which is 10.5% protein, a pleasant candy spot so far as all-purpose flours go (and no, they don’t seem to be paying us to say this!). For breads the place you desire a extra tender texture, go for AP flour with a decrease protein content material, like White Lily.

Widespread Makes use of for Bread Flour and All-Function Flour

There aren’t any hard-and-fast guidelines about whether or not you must use bread or AP flour in any given recipe—within the fingers of a educated baker, many recipes will be made to work both means, and AP flour particularly is a flexible flour that may seem in recipes starting from delicate pastries to hearty sourdough loaves (it’s all-purpose, in spite of everything). That mentioned, the 2 flours have completely different benefits that may make them kind of applicable for varied recipes.

Bread flour, because the title suggests, is used to make sturdier doughs for breads, bagels, and pizza; bread flour might also seem in recipes for extra tender, fat-rich doughs like challah as a result of their fats content material inhibits gluten formation, one thing of a balancing act that helps to reach at a loaf that is each tender but in addition substantive. Nevertheless, not all bread recipes require bread flour. Fluffier breads (each candy and savory) like focaccia and cinnamon rolls lean on AP flour, however should you’re thinking about making challah or sure flatbreads repeatedly, then you definitely’ll need to hold a bag of bread flour available. 

All-purpose flour is a extra versatile flour, and is usually a most popular alternative for recipe builders, together with our personal, because it’s secure to imagine most individuals have already got it of their pantry. “There is a purpose it is known as all-purpose,” says Genevieve. “I take advantage of it for many baking” A lot of our bread recipes, together with white bread, sourdough, and Parker Home rolls, name for AP flour because it’s doable to formulate nice recipes utilizing it with out requiring one thing like bread flour, which house cooks are much less more likely to have at house.

Can You Substitute All-Function for Bread Flour, and Vice Versa?

It’s all the time greatest to observe recipe pointers, and we don’t advocate swapping one flour for the opposite except you’re a talented baker and know the best way to alter accordingly—the protein distinction between bread and all-purpose flour means they usually require completely different ranges of hydration and strategies of dealing with. It’s regularly not so simple as a 1:1 swap. Nevertheless, we’ve beforehand examined mixing AP flour with important wheat gluten as an alternative choice to bread flour, and it really works in a pinch (this was particularly useful throughout the pandemic, when everybody was making sourdough and bread flour was regularly out of inventory). 

“Recipes with flour are formulated rigorously for a particular sort of flour and swapping one for an additional is by no means a given,” says Daniel. “Should you do swap, be ready to not be joyful along with your outcomes, and blame nobody however your self.” Genevieve provides that should you swap bread flour rather than AP flour, “count on no matter you’re making to be fairly bready. Which is likely to be tremendous for a bran muffin or banana muffin however in all probability not best if that is not what you are going for.”

The Takeaway

Bread and all-purpose flour differ of their protein contents. Bread flour incorporates a spread of 12 to 14% protein, whereas all-purpose flour is barely decrease at 9 to 12%. This distinction in protein could appear small, however it might produce remarkably completely different outcomes. This implies it’s necessary to make use of the best sort of flour known as for in a recipe to make sure one of the best outcomes. So whereas I do know I’ll undergo a bag of AP flour a lot faster than bread flour—particularly with all of the manaeesh my mother makes—I all the time hold bread flour available for at any time when it is time for a pizza evening.