Strong flour

Khannie

What is strong flour? I mean, what makes it strong and what effect does that have on your bread?

I've been experimenting with making bread recently and I'm using plain flour unless the recipe specifically calls for strong flour or bread flour (I'm assuming strong flour = bread flour). I've gotten as far as making my own sourdough starter and baking a bread from it a few times. Last night I used strong flour instead of plain flour and it made a big difference to the texture of the bread, but I can't quite nail it down in a description but the dough was much more stretchy / gluten-ey.

Alun

Khannie wrote: »

What is strong flour? I mean, what makes it strong and what effect does that have on your bread?

I've been experimenting with making bread recently and I'm using plain flour unless the recipe specifically calls for strong flour or bread flour (I'm assuming strong flour = bread flour). I've gotten as far as making my own sourdough starter and baking a bread from it a few times. Last night I used strong flour instead of plain flour and it made a big difference to the texture of the bread, but I can't quite nail it down in a description but the dough was much more stretchy / gluten-ey.

Got it in one ... it has a higher gluten content.

Prenderb

While we're on the subject - has anybody seen the "00" type of flour around. I'd like to give it a shot, but can't see it anywhere!

Xiney

Hard wheat has more gluten.

Yeast requires a high protein (gluten) content in order to work properly. This is why in Ireland, bread is made with soda. It is too cold here to produce hard wheat.

Magic Monkey

In Dublin? They sell it in Fallon & Byrne, and La Corte, the Italian coffee shop inside the Epicurean Food Hall. It's around €2.50/kg.

Khannie

Xiney wrote: »

Hard wheat has more gluten.

Yeast requires a high protein (gluten) content in order to work properly. This is why in Ireland, bread is made with soda. It is too cold here to produce hard wheat.

Ok, sound. So for my sourdough I should definitely be using strong flour and not plain flour, is that right?

So would you only use plain flour for soda bread then? (if baking bread that is)

Xiney

Definitely strong/hard/bread flour.

Don't know if hard flour would affect soda bread - not an expert on soda bread since it's kind of an Irish thing and I'm not Irish. I've made it in the past with the regular plain flour, which I suppose is the most obvious choice.

brianthebard

Khannie wrote: »

Ok, sound. So for my sourdough I should definitely be using strong flour and not plain flour, is that right?

So would you only use plain flour for soda bread then? (if baking bread that is)

Usually plain and strong mean the same thing, although I think I read somewhere on boards that if you compare protein content in the different brands you should be able to find the one with the most gluten (anyone want to confirm this?)

I don't see why you should absolutely need a strong flour for a sourdough, since this sort of bread is usually (always?) made with a starter. I'd like to hear others opinions on this though, I enjoy bread baking too and like to learn about it.

Alun

Plain flour is just a name to distinguish it from Self Raising flour, i.e. it doesn't contain any raising agents. It doesn't say anything about it's gluten content.

Strong or Bread flour is just high in gluten which gives the bread more 'structure' .. it shouldn't make any difference whether you're using a normal yeast or a sourdough starter.

Tree

strong flour has a higher gluten content and is made from wheats commonly found in north america. softer flours like plain flour have a milder protein.

wholemeal flour is used in soda bread recipes in combo with strong or plain flour. the unrefined brown flour has more gluten in it, and is probably made from the hard wheats of north america/europe (we like them better for the bread)

type 00 flour is a softer flour, found more in southern europe, gives bread with less structural strenght than irish bread (you can build a tall loaf here, but not when you use softer flours). you can get pasta flour in superquinn (it'll be type 00) (i have used plain flour to make pasta, its a manky grey colour but still tastes good)



on a slightly off topic, where might you get 5kg bags of strong flour?

The Sweeper

To give you an indication, you want a flour that's 11-12% protein for bread making - if you look at the nutritional breakdown panel on the side of the flour it gives you a breakdown per 100g. Flour that's good for bread will normally be 11-12g protein per 100g. Plain white flour is around 8-9g protein per 100g.

Prenderb

Magic Monkey wrote: »

In Dublin? They sell it in Fallon & Byrne, and La Corte, the Italian coffee shop inside the Epicurean Food Hall. It's around €2.50/kg.

Actually found it in the Dunne & Crescenzi place in Kildare Village at €2 per kg today, so I'll be trying that out on Friday. Friday is always pizza day. Mmm. Turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce pizza anyone?:pac:

brianthebard

Does anyone have any idea what would happen if you add protein to the bread mix? I'm thinking specifically of plain whey powder here, but I guess there are recipes where you add milk or eggs which have protein, does that affect how the bread bakes?

Khannie

brianthebard wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea what would happen if you add protein to the bread mix?

I've found that it works as a bit of a raising agent but doesn't affect flavour (at least in the small quantities I've used). It's one of the ingredients in the odlums brown bread mix. Depending on its PH value, I'd say you could sub it in in reasonable quantity for milk / sour milk in soda breads.