Tonight, I was preparing to make my Mother-In-Law’s most coveted rolls, when I realized I was out of bread flour. I have tons of all purpose flour though. Could I substitute that for the bread flour?, I wondered. I had to look it up and see what I could find out.
Without going into all of the properties of the different flours (’cause that’s kinda boring to me), I’ll just say that Bread flour is higher in gluten, and when used will yield a loftier, chewier loaf. If you substitute All Purpose flour when a recipe calls specifically for Bread flour, your loaf will be more dense, and flatter than it would have been.
Bread flour is a little more expensive to buy than All Purpose. But I found out something exciting tonight (well, exciting in my little world, that is!). You can make your own Bread flour by simply mixing one cup of All Purpose flour with 2 Tablespoons of something called Gluten Flour
I’ve never noticed Gluten Flour in the grocery stores, but I’m wondering if it’s there. You can get it many places online, including on Amazon
Just thought I’d share this with you guys. I thought that was a pretty cool discovery!
Have you used Gluten Flour when baking your bread? Do you have a favorite place to get it from, or any advice to share?
So why the strike throughs? Does this not really work?
Ashlee,
Oh, thanks for pointing those out! I fixed all of the links with strike throughs- WordPress automatically does that sometimes.
I use Bob’s Red Mill Vital wheat gluten all the time. I find it at Fry’s (Kroger chain) in the natural food section. It really improves the texture of whole grain bread. I grind my own wheat and rye to bake. A tablespoon of VWG for each 4.5 ounce ‘cup’ of flour keeps the bread from being too crumbly and dry. It is also virtually pure protein, so gives you a little nutrition bump. For food storage, it is available in #10 cans from several sources including Honeyville Grains.
OH WOW! Bread flour and Gluten.*fainting*…Let me send you a a couple links! LOL <:o)~~
Interesting! You can find at Sams and really good price some bread flour (25lb bag) for $8. Thank you for sharing with us : )
I find it as “Vital Wheat Gluten” in the health food section of our grocery store. Bob’s Mill is one brand. We buy it in bulk now from our co-op. That’s a lot of Vital Wheat Gluten under the house! 🙂
And to think I have been doing making my own bread flour and didn’t even know it! lol
I have been using gluton in my bread for a couple of years. I can get it very cheap at a place called Sharp Shopper here in VA.
Thank you for sharing this!
Blessings~
Laura
Is that the same thing as Vital Wheat Gluten?
Yes, Katie, that’s the same stuff.
Very interesting. I never knew.
Thanks for the info…good to know!
you can get it at Walmart. It is called vital wheat gluten, it’ll be near the yeast/flour.
Pretty cool find.:) I have never heard that either.
Sharon:)