Bread flour came about after the bread machine became popular because
All Purpose flour didn't always perform well in the machines. I
glanced at my bag of King Arthur bread flour and it says that it is
ground from a higher protein wheat. My DIL called me not too long ago
because the bread not coming out of the bread machine wasn't doing as
well. She hadn't made bread in a while so I told her to use bread
flour. Haven't heard of a problem since.

AP flour and regular wheat flours have been used for centuries for
making bread. If you are not using a bread machine you can watch your
dough and see if it has risen enough or not. That depends on where you
put your dough to rise and the temperature in your house. My oven has
a proof setting which is definitely warmer than my kitchen. I rarely
use it. You can also put the dough in the oven with a pan of warm
water to hurry things along.

I let my dough rise on the kitchen counter, in the mixer bowl with a
cover on it. If I were to mix by hand I would leave it in the bowl
and cover with plastic wrap until it was ready to shape. I don't see
the point in having 2 bowls to wash or fill up the dishwasher.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)