Bread Basics - Flour

I really appreciate the comments and questions about bread baking that I've received. I plan to address them through out the coming weeks. One commenter said to be sure to use a good quality flour! I would give a hearty "Amen"! I buy generic store brand on almost any grocery item but not my bread flour (or toilet paper)! Cheap flour can be successfully used for cakes and cookies but will greatly affect the quality of your bread baking.

I'm not an expert, but here is a little bit of what I understand about flour. When we talk of flour, we are usually referring to wheat flour. Of course there is other flours such as rice flour, rye flour, etc but wheat flour is what we commonly use for baking in America. There is two types of wheat, hard winter wheat and soft spring wheat. Soft wheat is ground for use as pastry flour. It is sometimes also called cake flour. It is good for any baking EXCEPT for yeast breads. Hard wheat flour is necessary for successful bread baking. Most of the flour sold is "all-purpose". This is a mixture of hard and soft wheats and can be used for all baking, including bread. Some flour is specified "bread flour" and is specifically for bread baking. For making white bread, I use "unbleached" all purpose flour since it has a few less added chemicals. Usually I use Pillsbury brand or something similar. Whole wheat flour is where I really get picky. Wheat comes in red wheat and white wheat. Red wheat is darker in color and has a stronger flavor and is what you will find in grocery store whole wheat flour. I buy Prairie Gold wheat, a high protein white wheat grown in Montana. I grind my own wheat berries but I know that bulk food stores sometimes also sell Prairie Gold flour. It is far more expensive then generic flour, but I think it is worth it!

If you are new at baking bread, I recommend making white bread first. Learn to work with yeast, knead dough and form your loaves with white bread. If your goal is to make whole wheat bread, after you successfully make white bread, you can slowly replace a few cups of white flour with whole wheat. Give yourself time to adjust to using new flours. Some people also need to allow their bodies time to adjust to eating more fiber.

For some reason, it seems that whole wheat flour is a little more challenging to work with. The area where the wheat is grown, the protein level of the wheat, and other factors will all affect the outcome of your bread. I don't want to scare anyone from making whole wheat bread because we love the 100% whole wheat bread that I make. It just may take a little more practice to perfect. I plan to share some special tips on making whole wheat bread some other day.

You'll probably notice that bread recipes usually don't give a specific amount of flour. The recipe will usually say something like 5-6 cups of flour, or add flour until it makes a soft dough, or add flour until the dough cleans the side of the bowl. What does this mean? Unlike making cakes or cookies, bread dough's need of flour will vary depending on the humidity of your home. You will use more flour on a rainy humid summer day then on a cold winter day with the heat on. Adding too much flour will make your dough more dry and crumbly. Start by adding the smallest amount of flour listed in your recipe. Then slowly add flour, a half cup at a time. The goal is a dough which is soft and workable but not sticky and unmanageable. If you are mixing your dough by hand, add flour slowly and work it into the dough before adding more. Use the least amount possible while still being able to handle the dough. You will soon know by feel when you have added enough flour. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, add flour slowly until the dough pulls from the sides of the bowl. It is important to add all your flour before you begin kneading the dough. Stop your mixer and feel the dough. It should not be excessively sticky. When you determine that you've added enough flour, then begin your kneading. The advantage of using a machine to knead, besides being faster, is that slightly less flour can be used resulting in a lighter loaf. If you knead by hand, oil your counter instead of flouring it.