Bread flour vs ordinary plain flour?

sarahpenny

Had a sudden urge to try that no-knead bread, but don't have any bread flour, would it be a disaster to use normal> Shall I try it?!

becs

I wouldn't bother. Pretty sure I'd used ordinary flour before in error and it was a disaster.

Winchelsea

It can be done Sarah. Strong bread flour is best, but ordinary cheap plain flour will make bread which is edible.

However, to make it better (really good) - replace some or all of the plain water in the recipe with water that you've previously cooked rice or potatoes in. As these starchy foods cook, they leak gluten into the water. This is what ordinary plain flour lacks - gluten. I don't know the chemistry of it, but the gluten in the rice or potato water combines with the flour to make a stronger dough that somehow retains the "bubbles" that the yeast produces to make the bread rise.

I've done it many times. Good luck!

sarahpenny

Brilliant! The urge has passed for now (glass of wine, Blackadder, you know) but I will definitely remember the potato water advice for another time. Thanks a lot.

zippychick

we have an older thread which explains the difference in the flours which may be useful

Zip

BitterAndTwisted

Plain flours can vary wildly in gluten content, even in batches of the same brand according to my experience. When using a new bag in my bread-maker I generally use 50% new plain flour and 50% strong, just to check on the rise. I'm another fan of L!dl's strong bread flour. Knowing their price just shows how much the other retailers are trying to rip us off by.

Justamum

Winchelsea wrote: »

However, to make it better (really good) - replace some or all of the plain water in the recipe with water that you've previously cooked rice or potatoes in. As these starchy foods cook, they leak gluten into the water. This is what ordinary plain flour lacks - gluten.

There is no gluten in potatoes or rice. It's the starch in the water which helps, but it's not gluten.

theblackrose

After reading a few posts on here about plain flour working fine for bread I tried it and sadly didn't have great results. It was Co-ops Plain Flour. Didn't rise as much as the bread flour but still tasted fine. Wondering if it's worth me trying Tesco Plain next. Maybe there will be a difference?

Stephen_Leak

Strong bread flour has more gluten. Plain flour is OK for Focaccia bread for pizza and calzone, though.

theblackrose

I did see someone mention that the higher the protein the better. I went to check & noticed that the Co-op flour has less than the Tesco value! Might try buying some & testing it today.