Bread flour from AP flour

I'm starting to get into this baking thing. Made some biscuits that
amazed even me, but I want to make some real bread.

I've amassed some good baking supplies. Whole wheat flour, rye flour,
unbleached AP flour, etc, but no "bread flour".

I checked out Baker's Apprentice from library and want to go down the
sourdough road, making the seed and barm as per recipes, but I have no
"bread" flour. I do have some Hodgson's Vital Wheat Gluten I picked
up to do the ABM thing, but decided against that route, also. Can I
make GM unbleached flour into "bread flour" by adding the wheat
gluten? If so, how much? Hodgson recommends 4 tsp for everything,
but I worry this might jes be their way of getting me to use up
their product as quick as possible in order I might buy more. I ask
cuz I already have 10lbs of AP and would like to use it before
spending more hard-to-come-by jingles for real bread flour.

One last question: Is GMs "Better for Bread" actually real bread
flour? Seems like a screwy name. Kinda like "Almost As Good As Bread
Flour" or even "Better Than a Poke In the Eye For Bread" flour. It's
at least a dollar per 5lb sack cheaper than KA bread flour, but...??

nb

notbob <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote in
news:[Only registered users can see links. ]:


I would imagine you can do it, but it would be better to get Bread Flour,
it's not that expensive, at least not around here. (Pacific NW US)


KA is probably the best, but I generally use the Better For Bread, as it's
easier to come by around here. The B4B is endorsed by Rose Leavy Birnbaum
(sp), author of The Bread Bible among other baking related books.

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:57:40 GMT, notbob <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote:


The standard answer is to add one teaspoon of 70-80% VWG per cup of
all purpose flour to convert it to the equivalent of bread flour. This
assumes you are using a northern U.S. all purpose flour and not a
flour really designed for use making biscuits. That flour is also
called all purpose but is NOT the same thing. Read the amount of
protein per 30 grams to see what you have. 3 grams is about 10%, 4
grams is about 12%... remembering that they round to the nearest gram.
If it shows 4 grams you likely do not need VWG.

RsH

"notbob" wrote


I was reading that. Good on ya!


The AP with nothing added right? Not with added baking soda etc?


Pretty much should work in theory. What i havent seen yet is a post from
any but breadmachine users, who use the gluten additive.
Although I can't see why it wouldnt play friendly in hand kneads, theory and
practice are not always the same.


Grin, they recommend too much. You are right. What i would do is *try* a
little Gluten after making a loaf straight up with the AP flour and seeing
if it seems to need help. If it does, carefully sift about 5 TS gluten
powder per cup of the AP and test that in a small batch just to see how it
rises. Up as needed but i bet you max at no more than 1.5 TS per 2 cups AP
(3/4 TS gluten per cup AP white). More after that won't make any
difference. Thats a reasonable man's guess, not a case of experience with
AP flour.


Grin, it works fine for me! We use KA when we find it, B4B when we don't
see KA, and other 'bread flours of the high protien sort' such as show up
around here.

"cshenk" <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote in
news:_c6Bm.44259$[Only registered users can see links. ]:


One other thing with KA, their AP is decent for bread, being a higher
protien content than most APs. Not as good as Bread Flour, but gets the
job done with basic breads.