Been using King Arthur Flour for years and now judge all flours by its standards in terms of % protein and consistency. As I look at other sources, I see what would seem to be significant differences. For example, Ardent Farms' (supplies Costco) bread flour is targeted at 11% with a range of 10-12%. KA is consistently 12.7%
I am thinking an 11% bread flour (KA's all-purpose is 11.7%) is pretty weak.
What do you use?
Thanks
Pam
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Replies
Hello Pam,
It depends a bit on what sort of bread you are looking for and the techniques and recipes that you use. I have read somewhere, just can't recall the spot, that in France they use 10.5% flour to make baguettes. Also, I seem to recall that different types of wheat can give different results at the same protein content and that the same wheat can vary seasonally. So you can actually get differences in performance from different bags of the 'same' flour.
I wouldn't get too uptight about it all. If one flour consistently does what you want, there is no reason to change but there is also no harm in experimenting to see how it pans out. I can't even tell off the top of my head what the protein content of the bread flour that I use is, but it makes very fine bread.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Thanks Farinam. Will try using other flours and see what results I get. Costco's bread flour is much cheaper, but I was worried about its lower protein content.
Pam