How to make Bread Flour

I live and die by Bread Flour.  I easily have 100lbs of it on hand at any given moment.  I know it sounds like a lot but I do a TON of baking for home and commercial use so it makes sense.

I love bread.  No, really.  I LOVE bread.  I swear there is nothing better than a warm slice of freshly baked bread with butter and homemade preserves on it. This, many nights has been dinner for me.

Now I know carbs are bad.  So… Seriously, so what!  I live a very healthy lifestyle, work out like it’s my job so if I wanna have a dinner of butter bread, I am damn it.

QUIT JUDGING ME!  LOL

No seriously, I do love my bread but just like everything else in life, it has to be in moderation.

As you can tell on here I have a bunch of bread recipes that call for bread flour.  Well, not every home cook has bread flour on hand.  Just like cake flour and self rising flour, you buy it specifically for a single recipe and then it sits.  Why?  To me that’s wasting money ESPECIALLY when you can make it yourself using All-Purpose flour.

So I want to make a few remarks about this. Not all All-Purpose Flour is the same. Even though they are labeled as AP flour, the amount of gluten it has in it can vary from brand to brand. That being the case, the amount of vital wheat gluten can vary from 1 tsp per cup of flour to 3 Tbl per cup of flour.

The only consistent advice about converting all-purpose flour to bread flour is that you have to add some wheat gluten. The problem is that no one agrees on an amount. One Yeast company states to use 1 tsp of vital wheat gluten to 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Cook’s Thesaurus recommends 2 tsp per 1 cup of flour. Better Homes and Gardens suggests 1 to 3 tablespoons of gluten per recipe. Why does it vary like this?  NOT ALL AP FLOUR IS THE SAME. My advice, start off with 1 tsp, make a test recipe and if that still doesn’t turn out, add more vital wheat gluten.

For me and the AP Flour I use, my ratio is 1 cup to 1 Tbl.

I need to give a HUGE thanks to Robin who gave me one of the BEST formulas to help calculate how must Vital Wheat Gluten to add to your all-purpose flour.

Bread Flour Formula

You have to use math but this will ensure you’re adding the right amount of vital wheat gluten to make your own bread flour.

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

Bread flour can vary in protein however a good one is 12% protein.

1. Look at your bread recipe and, calculate in grams how much flour your recipe calls for.
   • My Hoagie Roll recipe calls for 448 grams of bread flour and the protein count (per the bag is 12%)
2. AP Flour average is 9% protein
3. Using the above formula, if I only had AP flour on hand I would use the following vital wheat gluten to add to my recipe
   • (12-9) *4.5 = 13.5 grams of Vital Wheat Gluten or 1 Tbl plus 2.75 tsp

How to make Bread Flour

• Yield: 1 cup

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Ingredients

• Your bread recipe
• All Purpose Flour – you must know the protein amount of it (look at your bag of flour)
• Vital Wheat Gluten

Instructions

1. Calculate the flour needed in your bread recipe to grams.
2. Look at the bag of AP flour and see what the protein % is.
3. Use THIS formula to calculate how much vital wheat gluten you need:
   1. (Average Bread Flour Protein – AP Flour protein) * 1% (recipe flour amount in grams) = Amount of Vital Wheat Gluten to add

Notes

If you are making a big batch of this to store, I’d recommend after you whisk it together to sift the ingredients together this way you will get even distribution.

Store in your container then.

So I want to make a few remarks about this. Not all All Purpose Flour is the same. Even though they are labeled as AP flour, the amount of gluten it has in it can vary from brand to brand. That being the case, the amount of vital wheat gluten can vary from 1 tsp per cup of flour to 3 Tbl per cup of flour.

The only consistent advice about converting all-purpose flour to bread flour is that you have to add some wheat gluten. The problem is that no one agrees on an amount. One Yeast company states to use 1 tsp of vital wheat gluten to 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Cook’s Thesaurus recommends 2 tsp per 1 cup of flour. Better Homes and Gardens suggests 1 to 3 tablespoons of gluten per recipe. Why does it vary like this?  NOT ALL AP FLOUR IS THE SAME. My advice, start off with 1 tsp, make a test recipe and if that still doesn’t turn out, add more vital wheat gluten.

For me and the AP Flour I use, my ratio is 1 cup to 1 Tbl.

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Tough, huh? *wink*