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

Both are 'high gluten' which means the same this time as a high protein
flour.

>> 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

Depends on method there as far as 'AP' goes.

> 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.

Not to worry, alt.bread.recipes can help there.

> 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 :-)

Hehe you will be perfect in the 'other' group'

> 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

We even have an artisan expert there. Oh, and we use many different tools
and dont worry about it. I use a bread machine due to medical issues and
some of the folks use a KA as well for same reason. Last note, top posting
there is common and allowed because several are blind and thats how the
screen reader software works (not all, just some of them).