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Alex Rast
 
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Default Bread flour for shortbread?

at Mon, 31 Oct 2005 02:07:15 GMT in <ptuam1t672ludg2jhrkoriillk4e16d4ft@
4ax.com>, (baker1) wrote :

>Recipes call for All Purpose, but I'm wondering if using bread flour
>is better. I use bread flour for my banana quick breads and it turns
>out better than using AP.
>

Shortbread and banana bread are totally different animals. Shortbread isn't
a "bread", not in the sense of a quick bread or a yeasted bread, anyway.
It's a cookie.

My experience has been that actually, pastry flour works best - i.e.
something with very low protein. High-protein flours (like bread flour)
tend to make them too firm. In Scotland they're usually made with somewhat
lower-protein flours.

If you don't have pastry flour readily available, I'd use AP instead of
bread flour. However, again, AP is one of those terms that covers an
enormous spectrum of protein contents, and varies both regionally and from
brand to brand. Low-protein Southern USA AP flours would probably be best.


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Alex Rast

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