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Homemade Bread Flour – When you’re out of bread flour you can make your own substitute with just 2 ingredients and following a no-fail formula!
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-a-night has been dinner for me.
Ingredients needed to make homemade bread flour
It’s just 2 ingredients:
- American All-Purpose Flour
- Vital Wheat Gluten
That’s it! Nowadays most grocery stores carry the vital wheat gluten but if not, Amazon sells it.
As I mentioned this is for American All-Purpose flour as Canadian all-purpose flour is already had a high protein percentage similar to our bread flour.
What is Vital Wheat Gluten?
It’s the natural protein found in wheat. It’s found in the endosperm of the wheat berry. This, alone, contains 75-80% of the protein. What protein does in the dough helps with the elasticity of it, the rise (it’ll help it retain gas), and gives it more volume. Plus it helps give that ‘chew’ we love in say a crusty bread.
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.
Not all American All-Purpose Flour is the same
Depending on what brand of AP flour you buy, the protein in it can vary from brand to brand. The percentage can range from 9-12%. Bread flour is anywhere from 11-14/15%
You REALLY need to check the bag of flour you buy as you’ll need to know the protein percentage of your flour in order to know how much vital wheat gluten to add!
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.
Protein Percentage – what it is and what it is not
As I just mentioned, not all flour protein percentages are the same.
What it is NOT
The Protein Percentage is NOT the nutritional protein on the back of the flour bag (where you see calories and so forth). That is completely different.
What it IS
Normally the flour bag itself will say what protein percentage it is. For example, King Arthur All-Purpose Flour says on the bag that it is 11.7% protein content. THAT is the number you need for your formula.
If your brand of flour does not list it on the bag then contact the manufacturer or look on Google. Since there are hundreds of brands out there I cannot tell you your %. Keep in mind though, the average protein content is 9% for 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.
- 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%)
- AP Flour average is 9% protein
- 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) *4.48 = 13.44 grams of Vital Wheat Gluten or 1 tablespoon plus 2.75 teaspoon
Making Bread Flour in Bulk
Many of you have asked if you can use this formula to transform a 5 pound or larger back of all-purpose flour into bread flour.
I do not recommend it and here’s why.
This formula is to use in a single recipe where it’s to make 1-2 loaves of bread, not for bulk processing or batch making. Scaling a recipe is not as simple as doubling the ingredients or timesing them by 10. It doesn’t that work that way. There are other calculations and factors that come into play.
Some know it as “Bakers Percentages”. That is not something I or this formula addresses.
PrintHow to make Bread Flour
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: What your recipe calls for
- Category: Baking
- Method: mixing
- Cuisine: baking
Homemade Bread Flour – When you’re out of bread flour you can make your own substitute with just 2 ingredients and following a no-fail formula!
Ingredients
- Your bread recipe
- American All Purpose Flour – you must know the protein percentage amount of it (look at your bag of flour)
- Vital Wheat Gluten
Instructions
- Calculate the flour needed in your bread recipe to grams.
- Look at the bag of AP flour and see what the protein % is.
- Use THIS formula to calculate how much vital wheat gluten you need:
- (Average Bread Flour Protein – AP Flour protein) * 1% (recipe flour amount in grams) = Amount of Vital Wheat Gluten to add
Keywords: bread flour, vital wheat gluten, how to make bread flour, turning US AP flour into bread flour
Tough, huh? *wink*
Hi Lori! I have 2 questions I am hoping that you can help me with, please. I intend to use up almost 4 pounds of (soon to be expiring) white whole wheat flour along with just over a pound of all purpose by mixing them together and adding appropriate Vital Gluten. once I settle on a bread recipe to make, I believe that I can do the math of how much to add. I am wondering if I use all white whole wheat or almost all WWW and adjust the protein percent, will I be able to substitute it for bread flour? I am suspecting that I will need to add additional liquid and appreciate any advice you may have on adjusting the liquid. Thank you for your help. Colleen
Hi Colleen!
First my question to you – why not freeze your flour? It can last up to 2 years in the freezer (in an airtight container).
White Whole Wheat flour averages about 12% protein content. You shouldn’t have to add any vital wheat gluten to it. You’ll definitely need to add more liquid if using WWW flour (about 2 tsp per every cup of flour used).
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Great news!!!! Thank-you! I will add more liquid to mixture based on your recommendation.
And, yes! If I only had available freezer space! Maybe after pandemic is over. Colleen
You’re most welcome 🙂 Happy Baking!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
So glad I found your site.
Totally agree about using grams vs. volume measurements. This is particularly important for non US bakers that use US recipes and vice versa. US tablespoons and teaspoons are different than Imperial tablespoons & teaspoons, as are cups, oz., etc. Metric is the way to go in this online world without borders.
Note: Canadian bread flour protein % depends on the brand. It is typically higher than Canadian all purpose brands.
Thank you so much Gilles! I really appreciate the kind words!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Hello, please excuse my mental block with the math in your formula – so happy I found you! I have access to Robin Hood Flour (12%) and Five Roses flour (13%). I am in Canada. Is there a simple formula to use per cup basis. I found the percentages online and it does not work if I have to subtract from 12. I am trying to make some decent bread flour as we are all in quarantine. Having a hard time finding the gluten component but would love to have the formula if possible
You should always measure ingredients in bread and doughs in grams and weights, not cups
Typically 1 cup of AP flour is 120 grams. So calculate how many grams of bread flour your recipe calls for. Then follow the formula.
Baking is science and very specific especially with bread and dough.
But if your AP flour in Canada is 12-13% protein percentage then you should be ok to use that as a bread flour.
This formula is for where AP flour in the US is only about 9% and our bread flour is 11-14%.
If your AP flour is already at that high of a protein. I don’t see why you’d need to add more vital wheat gluten.
What is Canada’s typical protein percentage for bread flour???
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Most of our all purpose flour in Canada is 13%, so no need fro bread flour. My mom told me this years ago, not the scientific way, but that our flour is Durham a harder, stronger flour.
Thanks for reminding me. I updated the post to state that it’s for American all purpose flour.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Thank you Lori! BTW, I’m just like you, love making bread but don’t eat it much.
Stay safe my lovely friend! love your recipes!
★★★★★
This is great, thank you. I have a question though, do you add the vital wheat to the AP flour and the total amount goes in the recipe, or once you have combined the AP and vital wheat, you re-measure the correct “bread flour” amount? It seems you are adding additional dry ingredients if you don’t remeasure the new mixture. Thanks!
You’re most welcome. No, you don’t re-measure. I would only do it if you were making say a 25 pound batch. But since it’s so minuscule (we’re talking 1-2Tbl) difference, you don’t have to. I don’t.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Good day! I Finally found a 25 pound bag of Pioneer all purpose flour its says 3g protein. For my bread recipe I use 9 1/2 cups of flour. Can you be so kind to tell me how muchWheat Gluten that I need to add please?
Hi Patricia!
3g is the nutritional amount; not the protein percentage of the flour. They are completely different. I googled the brand and it looks like the company doesn’t list their protein % on the bag. I’m guessing it’s about 9%. To be sure, call or email the company.
The formula is listed in the post and the card.
But to calculate it IF the protein % was 9%,
You would take [12 (avg bread flour %)-9]* 1%of the grams of flour you need for your recipe.
You have to convert 9.5 cups to grams. You must weigh this.
Typically 1 cup of AP flour is 125 grams. So yours should be roughly 1,187 grams of flour.
So IF your flour is 9% protein, your formula would be:
(12-9)*11.87=35.61 grams of vital wheat gluten.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Thank you Lori! BTW, I’m just like you, love making bread but don’t eat it much.
Stay safe my lovely friend! love your recipes!
★★★★★
I cannot find bread flour anywhere in my are due to the current shortage. I do have vital wheat gluten in my freezer so I can take your suggestion and make “bread flour”.
Thanks.
I am a home breadmaker in Ireland, struggling to find flour, particularly strong flour in the midst of the current Covid-19 crisis. I make sourdough and it doesn’t work well for me with plain flour. After reading this I got some vital wheat gluten online, made my strong flour with the formula suggested and got brilliant results. Thank you.
Keep well and safe everyone.
Thank you so much Stella! So happy this turned out beautifully for you!
Stay stay, stay healthy, keep baking 🙂
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Thank you! Thank you! Other websites stated like for like but I felt there was more to it.
You’re most welcome! I’m blessed that a reader explained the formula. It was something I was struggling to put into words.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Thank you! This is a game changer!
You’re most welcome!
Best Kitchen Wishes!