View Single Post
  #4 (permalink)   Report Post  
Posted to rec.food.cooking
TammyM[_3_] TammyM[_3_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 241
Default And speaking of King Arthur Flour Co.

brooklyn1 wrote:
> "TammyM" wrote:
>>> What is the functional difference between high gluten flour and bread
>>> flour? Are they interchangeable?
>>>

>
> Bread flour is high gluten flour. Now it depends on how high is high
> and of what function. Which flour to use is determined by what you
> desire to bake. For most everything folks bake at home ordinary AP
> flour works fine and so do the various brands. Flour is not an exact
> product (they're actually blends to obtain a particular gluten value),
> every wheat harvest is different... it's very easy to convince oneself
> psychologically that one brand of flour is better than another... it
> never ceases to amaze me how people can be made to believe that a
> basic staple foodstuff is better because it costs more, is in a
> fancier package, it's more difficult to locate... this is all called
> "marketing".


But if you look at the nutrition label of various brands of bread flour,
protein content varies. Rose Levy Beranbaum (author of The Bread Bible)
only recommends King Arthur, Gold Medal and Pillsbury flours, and
advises always to check nutrition label on any brand of flour one buys
for bread making purposes. She asserts that 4g of protein per 1/4 cup
of flour is the benchmark. I know I'm forgetting part of her advice on
this, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll look it up.

Thank you for your response, Sheldon. I'm still trying to perfect my
bread making skills, and my family and friends hope I never achieve
perfection because they love my failures :-)

I have the artisan bread book that Barb has mentioned on request at my
local library. Most of my bread making over the past couple of months
has been using the machine - my chronic tendonitis makes kneading
difficult. I'll be using the Kitchen Aid to knead my "by hand" efforts

TammyM