The Fresh Loaf

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Bread Flour vs AP in Hokkaido Milk bread

hreik's picture
hreik

Bread Flour vs AP in Hokkaido Milk bread

Gurus, I've done 2 Hokkaido milk bread recipes in the last week.  Both very similar and an iteration on TxFarmer's recipe.  She used 1/2 AP and 1/2 Bread Flour, as did I.  Both turned out well.  Floyd, our host used AP in his yeasted version.

On the internet, I keep reading most recipes talk about using only Bread Flour b/c it will rise more.  I'm stumped as to why this should be so.
Any thoughts?

 

example: https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/shokupan-japanese-fluffy-white-bread/#wprm-recipe-container-7360
 Here's a screen shot from that link:

clazar123's picture
clazar123

The explanation and picture is exaggerated and bordering on untruth. The problem is that the answer requires more than a 1 sentence explanation and it doesn't fit in the space or word count allotted for the article. Let me share what I have come to know about bread flour/gluten/vital wheat gluten as ingredients. All thanks to TFL

I have to start with an explanation of what bread is to start showing how gluten content plays its role. I like to use analogies the make it easier to explain and arriving at this took place for me when I was trying to figure out the same question you asked (among a thousand others).

The simplest analogy is that bread is a collection of balloons caught in a rubberband netting. The more rubberband netting, the heavier the bread but the more balloons can be held. A heavy rubberband netting can expand more without the balloons escaping the netting. However, the texture of this netting is thicker,chewier and heavier.

Now translate this to bread. Obviously, the rubberband netting is the gluten content. Bread flour has a higher gluten content than AP flour, cake flour or rye flour so it can more efficiently trap gas bubbles-but at a price. It makes a bread chewier as there is more rubberband netting. Bread flour/vital wheat gluten are great tools to have but not necessary for great bread. I prefer my Hokkaido Milk Bread made with a good AP flour. The crumb is tender and more melt-in-your mouth but there is a trick to subbing a lower gluten flour for a higher gluten flour and it shows us probably why bread flour and gluten became popular. It takes MORE TIME to develop the dough so you have a lofty, feathery crumb.

This brings us to what the bubbles are made of in a loaf of bread and the real reason we knead dough. Bubbles have walls and they are NOT made of gluten. They are made of the gelatinous starch that is in the grain and activated by the water. So we knead bread to activate the gelatinous starch that forms the bubble wall and is held in place by the gluten as it expands. Another analogy-the gluten becomes the bubble wand and the gelatinous starch is the soap bubble. When we knead to windowpane we are demonstrating that the gelatinous starch is hydrated/activated enough to expand without breaking. Any wheat flour can form a windowpane-even whole wheat. If the branny bits are "cutting the gluten" then the gelatinous starch is not developed enough and the branny bits have not been allowed time to soak up water and soften.

SO when you are designing the structure of a loaf of bread (type of crumb,chewiness,crust), consider all these options. All your ingredients need to be proportioned to achieve the structure you want. I believe ALL breads need to be kneaded to as strong a windowpane as the flour will allow. Great,shreddable bread can be made by soft flour as well as strong flour if this rule is adhered to.

Now I will really confuse you. High gluten flour CAN be used to make a tender, shreddable crumb but the process is precise and tricky. The tough gluten is processed in such a way as to "tenderize" or degrade the rubberiness without destroying the strength. Think Panettone. That is a WHOLE different discussion and I am still in that learning curve. I mention it to give you some possibilities to think of. Also, rye is a TOTALLY different flour with TOTALLY different handling requirements. The bubble and netting helps but doesn't apply across the board.

So have delicious fun and remember to develop the gelatinous starch. The gluten will form on its own just by becoming wet.

 

 

hreik's picture
hreik

for which I can hardly thank you enough.  Just simply incredible.  Will read and reread.

As to your gelatinous starch advice..... txfarmer, and others talk about not just the windowpane test but that the holes made when your finger pokes through must be smooth and not jagged.  Which I take it to mean, the gelatinous starch is developed enough at that point to continue on with the bulk rise.

Thank you, Thank you. Again, and again.

hester

p.s. Pic is most recent bake and is one day old. Made it for Japanese friends

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Bookmark this!

WatertownNewbie's picture
WatertownNewbie

Thanks for both the question and the answer.  Just shows why this site is so valuable.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Your bread pic looks lovely! It is thanks to The Fresh Loaf and persistence after lots of failures and some inexplicable delicious  successes that I have arrived at this info. I questioned successes as well as failures along the road and I still am in awe of all the knowledge  that is so kindly shared here. Keep baking, keep asking questions here. Share ALL the failures as well as the successes. That is how I learned.

Bread is simple. And complicated. "Good" bread is defined by the baker and is very different from baker to baker. (And those folks eating it, of course). My best bread is a loaf that comes out how I "designed" it in my head.

Wheat is the easiest grain to use to make bread but by no means the only one that can make delicious bread. At one time, wheat was rare and pretty much the whole world was wheat free. Get to know other grains and starches and how to make delicious bread from them, too.  Remember-Good Bread is defined by the baker and the people eating it.

Happy Baking!