Make Bread Flour & Self Rising Flour from All-Purpose Flour

Have you been to the supermarkets lately? A lot of stores are sold out of most flour products due to pandemic panic shopping. I was at my local store this morning and all I could find was All-Purpose Flour and Self Rising Flour. This was not exactly what I was looking for. I am going to teach you how to make Bread Flour and Self Rising flour from All-Purpose Flour/ But before I get into how to make Bread Flour from All-Purpose flour let me just go through what these flours are and what makes it different.

Flours are different mixtures of Hard and Soft wheat. Hard wheat is high protein and high gluten resulting in elastic and coarse texture. More gluten does give the baked good the ability to hold its form more. Meanwhile a soft wheat is lower in protein and higher in starch. The amount of protein in the flour influences how the flour absorbs water and the structure of what you are making.

All-Purpose Flour

All-purpose flour is a mixture of hard and soft wheat, which results in having a protein level of around 10%. Each brand is different so it could be as low as 8% or higher. This is perfect for just about everything you can ba

Self Rising Flour

Self Rising Flour is All-Purpose flour with leavening added. Be careful when using self-rising flour if the recipe does not call for it. Since it has the leavening agent adding additional baking powder or baking soda will cause a baked good to Flour up This good for quick breads and pancakes. To make this whisk together:

• 4 cups AP Flour
• 2 Tablespoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Store in airtight container.

Bread Flour

Bread flour is made entirely of hard wheat, which has a higher protein. On average, bread flour has about a 12% to 15% protein level. Higher protein levels allow the bread to hold its shape as it rises. To make bread flour from AP Flour, you need to add gluten.

Pandemic Note: Vital Wheat Gluten can be found in a supermarket. I’ve used Bobs Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten which is currently out of stock on Amazon. I am currently ordering out Medley Hills Farm Vital Wheat Gluten 71% Protein because it is currently in stock.

Making Bread Flour from AP flour

Unlike making self-rising flour, making bread flour takes a little more work. Read the ba

find out the gluten content. Because all flours are not made equal, you need to do the math to make a decent bread flour. For example, King Arthur All-Purpose Flour says on the bag that it is 11.7% protein content, we will use that for the example. The average bread flour

(Average Bread Flour Protein – AP Flour protein) * 1% (recipe flour amount in grams) = Amount of Vital Wheat Gluten to add

(15% – 11.7%) * 1%(500) =

(3.3)*5 =

16.5 grams of Vital Wheat Gluten to be added.

16.5 grams is about 1 heaping tablespoon.

It is important to use grams with flour to be as exact as possible and to be consistent in your baking. Food scales are cheap, and useful. I suggest picking one up for making bread.

I hope you are feeling more comfortable with Make Bread Flour and Self Rising flour from All Purpose Flour. For more recipes, make sure to check out my recipe index.

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