bread flour, baker's flour, plain flour

[natalia]

Hi everyone, I have noticed in the bread section that 3 different flours are used: plain, baker's and bread flour.  I was just wondering what the difference between these flours are?  Could I just substitute plain flour in these recipes or is the type of flour very important in breads and doughs? Thanks, Natalia

[gertbysea]

Natalie I would peruse the thread . There is a lot of expertise there.

Gert

[JuliaBalbilla]

Natalia, I don't know which part of the world you live in and I agree all these different flours are rather confusing.  Plain flour is what you would use for pastry, cakes, biscuits etc.  Bread flour is what you would use for bread - often called strong (plain) bread flour.  Although I live in the UK, I buy Canadian bread flour which is harder and contains more gluten than the UK variety.  Not sure what Baker's flour is (possibly pastry flour), so you may need to contact the member who uses baker's flour to find out what it is, although I have heard of it.  For pizza bases I use a soft (tenero) Italian 00 flour, but there is also a 00 Italian 'semola dura' hard flour which I use for pasta and sometimes use in bread dough combined with the Canadian flour.

Also remember that different flours react differently in different climates as well.  It is a bit of a nightmare really 

JB

[stacelee]

I take the simple way out here and use plain flour for everything.  I have never really noticed any major differences ( when I say everything, I mean cakes, biscuits, bread....I do still have oo flour for pasta and atta, rye, spelt and maize for other stuff).  I have gluten flour that I add a couple of teaspoons to a recipe if it needs an extra oomph, and bulk baking powder, both of which I get from a fantastic Greek deli (also get my rye flour there).  It got too confusing remembering to buy the different flours and labeling them.

[fundj&e]

stacelee i know somtimes its hard to describe what do you mean by, if it needs an extra oomph, i what extra oomph 

[achookwoman]

Natalia, I don't know which part of the world you live in and I agree all these different flours are rather confusing.  Plain flour is what you would use for pastry, cakes, biscuits etc.  Bread flour is what you would use for bread - often called strong (plain) bread flour.  Although I live in the UK, I buy Canadian bread flour which is harder and contains more gluten than the UK variety.  Not sure what Baker's flour is (possibly pastry flour), so you may need to contact the member who uses baker's flour to find out what it is, although I have heard of it.  For pizza bases I use a soft (tenero) Italian 00 flour, but there is also a 00 Italian 'semola dura' hard flour which I use for pasta and sometimes use in bread dough combined with the Canadian flour.

Also remember that different flours react differently in different climates as well.  It is a bit of a nightmare really 

JB

Agree,  I am in Australia where we are blessed with a wide variety of wheat flours.  It is also important to have fresh flour for baking bread.

[natalia]

Thanks ladies, I am in Australia.  I must confess, I am quite a minimalist (which is why I like the tmx),  so hopefully stacelee, if I follow your approach if using plain flour (which is also significantly cheaper) all will go well.  I think if u had several flours and had to remember which flour to use when it would become to overwhelming.
Has anyone had any trouble with just using plain flour for everything?  Thanks again, Natalia

[achookwoman]

natalia,  i do a lot of baking and there is no way i would use just one flour for everything.  i don't find it at all confusing and buy a 10k bag of bread flour from Laucke which is a 'mix'.  No need to add sug. salt or gluten or improver.  When making biscuits,  I use half bread flour and half ordinary flour.  What you use depends a lot on how much you bake.  It is all so much cheaper than buying baked goods,  and the TMX makes it so easy. 

[JuliaBalbilla]

natalia,  i do a lot of baking and there is no way i would use just one flour for everything. 

I agree and I certainly would never use plain flour for bread, it just doesn't have the gluten that you need.  A general guidline is to look at the protein content which should be listed on the packaging.  In the UK, our bread flour ranges from 11% (a little low IMHO) to 13.9%.  Flour made from wheat grown in warmer, dryer climates such as Australia and some parts of Canada will contain more gluten than that made from British wheat, which is why I tend to buy Canadian (15% protein).

I did try making bread with plain flour a couple of times in my youth, but it was a disaster ...

JB

[stacelee]

Touch wood, I've never had any problems using plain flour to make bread.  I have a recipe that I use pretty much every day for olive oil bread that works well with plain flour.  I also have a rye bread recipe that works a little to well.....it overrose and broke my milk bread tin!  Maybe it depends on the recipe.

[cookie1]

I am a flour tragic. At the moment I have bakers' flour, rye flour, spelt flour, plain flour, SR flour, and kamut flour in the cupboard. I'm going away for a while so it is a bit reduced. I love using all the different ones for breads.

[Amanda]

Like Chookie, I've been baking and breadmaking for years & wouldn't dream of using just plain flour for everything.  In particular, ordinary, plain cake flour  does not have enough gluten in it for bread baking.  Nothing will go wrong with the bread, but you will not have the proper texture, hydration and density, nor a decent crumb.
I'd really urge you to try some strong bread flour.

[JuliaBalbilla]

Ditto Cookie.  We can also get a special flour for making ciabatta, which works beautifully and I am sure you would be able to get it in Australia.

JB

[jkmt]

I tried adding gluten flour to plain flour a couple of times when I was visiting elsewhere and didn't have bakers' flour with me. While the resulting pizza/bread was acceptable, it was definitely not as good as what I produce at home with bakers' flour. I don't know if I got the ratio of gluten to plain flour wrong, or if the oven was different to mine in temperature, etc.

[fundj&e]

is the gluten flour available at coles  or woolies 

so far i have been more than happy using plain flour .