
Since the proteins in bread flour absorb more water, bread flour is also a great choice for recipes that call for a lot of liquid. If you make a bread dough with all-purpose flour, the gluten network won’t be as strong because of the lower protein content this means the dough won’t be able to stretch as much to accommodate those bubbles, resulting in smaller bubbles and bread with a tighter crumb.

Gluten is both stretchy and strong - what bakers call “extensible” and “elastic.” This combination allows bread dough to capture and contain the carbon dioxide bubbles produced by yeast as their numbers grow, the dough gets bigger. The more gluten there is in the dough, the more it can stretch to accommodate the gas bubbles. The gas bubbles become trapped in the gluten and starch web, leavening the dough and making it big and fluffy. In bread, this means the starches in the grain are consumed by the yeast and bacteria and broken down into sugars, acids, and, crucially, gases. To get the airy, open texture of a loaf of bread, you’ll need to leaven the dough to get those bubbles - either with commercial yeast or sourdough culture.įermentation is the breakdown of organic substances into smaller parts by microbial processes. Once the dough is formed, you have a solid ball of gluten and starch with no bubbles in it. When you add water to wheat flour, a strong, stretchy substance called gluten begins to form. Wheat flour contains two proteins called glutenin and gliadin. Let’s back up to what happens when you make bread. Why bread flour can make a difference in your bread (Though not always! Read about why whole wheat flour is one exception in this guide to gluten.) More gluten means stronger, stretchier dough, which is critical for a tall, airy loaf of bread.īread flour’s protein content (12.7%) is printed directly on the front of every King Arthur bag.

The protein in flour is what forms gluten in your dough, so higher protein means more gluten. Those may seem like small differences, but they have a big effect on how the flour behaves. For context, pastry and cake flours have less, about 8% to 10%, respectively. Bread flour has more protein (King Arthur’s is 12.7%) than all-purpose (11.7%). The primary difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour is the protein content. What’s the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour?
#Bread crumb substitute all purpose flour full#
But there’s a full bag of all-purpose flour right there - will it make a difference if you use all-purpose in a recipe that calls for bread flour? Only to realize your bag has just a sad scoop at the bottom. You’ve got the water, yeast, and salt your recipe calls for.

Dare I say I might like this dish better with the Rice Chex?!įor my All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend, which I use in almost all baking, click here. My favorite recipe in which to use the crumbs this way is Roasted Asparagus with Panko.

I have used crushed Rice Chex in place of the bread crumbs in foods like crab cakes and meatloaf (oats work well in these recipes, too), but where I really think they shine is as an exterior breading. Although this may pose a problem with a full box of cereal, if you are getting towards the bottom of the box, this bag makes a sturdy vehicle in which to crush your crumbs. Another great option to the zipper-top bag is the actual bag the cereal comes in. I typically use my mini-processor to make quick work of the grinding, although a rolling pin and a zipper-top bag works well, too. Three cups of Rice Chex will crush into approximately one cup of crumbs. The one I like the best, would you believe, is Rice Chex! Oats, corn flakes, gluten-free bread, cornmeal and ground nuts–or a combination of these–have all gone through the unofficial Fountain Avenue Test kitchen. I have also experimented with quite a number of substitutes for bread crumbs or panko. After several years of cooking gluten-free foods–not exclusively, but often–I have tested various flour combinations as a substitute for wheat flour in baking.
