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Newbie observations on AP flour versus bread flour

neoncoyote's picture
neoncoyote

Newbie observations on AP flour versus bread flour

Today I made my trusty KA extra-tangy recipe, with two changes, one intentional and one not: I used bread flour for the first time, and I forgot to stretch and fold during the second rise. I started stretching and folding to obtain a more holey crumb with the AP flour, and this had been working well.

Though today's crumb structure could be attributed to a slightly more mature starter, this would be only by one feeding, so I'm inclined to attribute it to the higher-gluten (bread) flour. Not bad for forgetting to stretch and fold! I wonder how the crumb may have changed had I stretched and folded...? 

The other change I noticed was that, after I removed the steam from the oven after the initial 12 minutes of baking at 525 degrees, today's bread flour loaves browned much more rapidly at 475 degrees than my AP loaves have. I'm going to decrease the heat a bit more next time.

Based on today's results, I plan on using bread flour in this particular recipe from now on.