Ceil Wallace wrote:

>I saw on a baking web site where it was stated that bakeries don't use
>all-purpose flour. For cookies, bread flour is used. Is this true? I
>would think the cookies would be tough or chewy but then I read somewhere
>where the fat content in the cookie recipe balances this out. Can anyone
>set me straight?
>

I am generally leery of generalizations. "White boys can't jump," etc.
I suspect it depends on the bakery and the recipe.

Many artisan bakeries don't use bread flour except for specialty breads,
such as bagels. They prefer a lower gluten flour, such as all-purpose,
for most work. It gives better flavor and handles better, though it may
not rise quite as far.

When we were doing cookies in my bakery, we used a mix of bread flour
and cake flour to approximate all-purpose flour. We used bread flour
because we're in the sticks and couldn't get the flours we really
wanted, but we could get a good bread flour. Sometimes, you use what
you can get.

Mike